john payne star in kansas city confidential and a 1952 noir also star preston foster and colleen gray and jack elam and neville brand and lee van cleef . payne be joe rolfe and a ww ii vet who deliver flower for a living . he find himself accuse of a spectacular robbery of $ 1 . 2 million because the thief use a truck like his a their escape vehicle . with the help of a buddy and he find out that a criminal have split town suddenly for mexico and and he go there to locate the man and hopefully clear his own name . what he doesn not realize be that there be four thief and and all of them wear mask to shield their identity from one another . when the man he track be kill and joe assumes his identity and go to the place where the other thief be suppose to await further instruction from their bos . phil karlson direct this good noir and which have an excellent cast that include a favorite actress of mine and the lovely coleen gray a an ex cop daughter . she show up at the locale to surprise her dad ( preston foster ) and who be actually the mastermind of the heist . like any actor who work for 20th century fox and john payne have to be versatile and and he be . here he play a rough around the edge war hero who have to survive among thief by be tough than they be . the the man know a the sing tyrone power at fox pull it off . a handsome leading man and here payne step into john garfield territory with ease . elam and van cleef and brand be a mean and low down a you can get and and the film get quite violent at time . the print i saw be very grainy while this wasn not a studio b movie but one make on the cheap and though the film be distribute by ua . however and it stand up very well next to other noirs of that era .