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IMDbPro

Roadblock

  • 1951
  • Approved
  • 1h 13m
IMDb RATING
6.6/10
1.7K
YOUR RATING
Joan Dixon and Charles McGraw in Roadblock (1951)
Film NoirCrimeDrama

Honest LA insurance detective Joe Peters becomes corrupt after falling in love with sensual gold-digger model Diane.Honest LA insurance detective Joe Peters becomes corrupt after falling in love with sensual gold-digger model Diane.Honest LA insurance detective Joe Peters becomes corrupt after falling in love with sensual gold-digger model Diane.

  • Director
    • Harold Daniels
  • Writers
    • Steve Fisher
    • George Bricker
    • Richard H. Landau
  • Stars
    • Charles McGraw
    • Joan Dixon
    • Lowell Gilmore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    6.6/10
    1.7K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Harold Daniels
    • Writers
      • Steve Fisher
      • George Bricker
      • Richard H. Landau
    • Stars
      • Charles McGraw
      • Joan Dixon
      • Lowell Gilmore
    • 43User reviews
    • 30Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Photos25

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    Top cast41

    Edit
    Charles McGraw
    Charles McGraw
    • Joe Peters
    Joan Dixon
    Joan Dixon
    • Diane Morley
    Lowell Gilmore
    Lowell Gilmore
    • Kendall Webb
    Louis Jean Heydt
    Louis Jean Heydt
    • Harry Miller
    Milburn Stone
    Milburn Stone
    • Ray Egan
    Walter Bacon
    • Caleb
    • (uncredited)
    Paul Bradley
    Paul Bradley
    • Bar Patron
    • (uncredited)
    Peter Brocco
    Peter Brocco
    • Bank Heist Man
    • (uncredited)
    Barry Brooks
    • Policeman at Brissard's
    • (uncredited)
    John Butler
    John Butler
    • Hotel Clerk
    • (uncredited)
    Ben Cameron
    • Hood
    • (uncredited)
    Jack Chefe
    • Waiter
    • (uncredited)
    Joseph Crehan
    Joseph Crehan
    • Thompson
    • (uncredited)
    Jean Dean
    • Airline Hostess
    • (uncredited)
    Franklyn Farnum
    Franklyn Farnum
    • Elevator Passenger
    • (uncredited)
    Tom Ferrandini
    • Bus Passenger
    • (uncredited)
    George Ford
    George Ford
    • Plane Passenger
    • (uncredited)
    Joseph Forte
    • Brissard
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Harold Daniels
    • Writers
      • Steve Fisher
      • George Bricker
      • Richard H. Landau
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews43

    6.61.6K
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    Featured reviews

    charlesstewart1

    Nice to see McGraw in LOVE!

    I love this movie. I almost fell out of my chair the first time I saw it, 15 years ago on AMC. I could not believe McGraw was actually given a role like this. So often we see him as the heavy with a gun, not a woman, and we certainly never see him in love. He displays the right amount of angst and regret in this movie. The movie,though not great,is an example of what McGraw could do when given the right material and good direction. Too bad he was not given more roles like this. I have always felt that if McGraw had been with another studio, i.e.Warner Bros. which specialized in turning tough guys into leading men e.g. Cagney, Bogart,Raft, he would have had a better chance at becoming a leading man like the aforementioned actors,if not a more recognizable presence in movies. He certainly COULD have had more LEAD roles in "A" movies. Anyway, the movie is predictable in that you know Peters is not going to get away with the money. What is surprising or interesting is that the movie doesn't explain how Joe and Diane end up together. In one scene she is telling him he does not make enough money and a FEW scenes later she is smashing glasses in disgust and then professing her love for Joe. The ending is typical of movies of this sort. But it is an interesting movie in that we get to see "MAC" demonstrate feelings, probably for the first time in his career-no doubt due to his being typecast. Joan Dixon is okay as the female lead but I don't think she was the best choice. I guess she was given the role because Howard Hughes was "interested" in her career and was trying to mold her into another Jane Russell. Milburn Stone, Louis Jean Haydt (excellent character actor), and Lowell Gilmore (wonderful in "The Picture of Dorian Gray") are on the mark in their respective roles. Peter Brocco, the criminal at the beginning of the movie, is used to good effect here. (He and McGraw worked together in the "Narrow Margin" and "Spartucus". In fact,you can see the two talking in the latter during a gladiator film sequence; McGraw's "Marcellus" is stooped down talking to Brocco's character when he rises to watch the gladiators train). Mercedyz
    8bmacv

    Gruff Charles McGraw stars in swift, satisfying noir

    Drop a laurel wreath on Charles McGraw's huge, sculptural head – you can almost see it in the Greco-Roman wing of a museum, perched atop a pedestal. He was one of the noir cycle's most serviceable pieces of furniture, along with Raymond Burr and Elisha Cook, Jr. Most often he lurked in the murky background, but sometimes, most memorably in The Narrow Margin, he stayed front and center. He also shuttled uncomplainingly between the underworld and the keepers of law and order. Starring in Roadblock, he tries to straddle both worlds.

    This no-frills noir opens with a tease: McGraw stages a murder, then abducts a witness whom he manipulates into buying his way out of certain death with the loot from a bank job. But the movie is setting up McGraw as a straight-arrow insurance investigator who'll stop at nothing to achieve his goal.

    Until he crosses paths with Joan Dixon, that is. A crafty gold-digger, she finds him sweet but `honest;' she's saving her sexual artillery for more affluent game, which she finds in a smooth racketeer (Lowell Gilmore). But McGraw can't get her out of his blood and, knowing that furs and jewels are the path to her mercenary heart, strikes up a deal with the mobster. He offers him a million-and-a-quarter, insured by his company, which he knows will be traveling by train; if Gilmore pulls the job off, McGraw will settle for $400 grand.

    The irony – and the script's least convincing turn – is that Dixon falls for McGraw anyway and renounces her grasping ways. (Not only does this ring false, it also makes her far less arresting a character.) Despite second thoughts, McGraw gets his share of the take. Then, naturally, he's assigned to the team of investigators trying to crack the case....

    Harold Daniels, who had a brief and largely undistinguished career as both actor and director, keeps the action swift and simple – it races down an hour-plus of highway until it reaches its titular roadblock. The movie goes down as easily and satisfyingly as a hot dog and a beer.
    7Rocketer

    A nifty little film noir

    This is a slight little B movie that's entertaining nevertheless. Insurance investigator Joe Peters (Charles McGraw) meets hot number Diane (Joan Dixon) and decides he's going to have to do something desperate to keep her in the lifestyle she wants to become accustomed to.

    Milburn Stone (Gunsmoke's Doc) has a small role as a detective.
    8MCL1150

    I Love Film-Noir!

    In my book, all true film-noir films are good in one way or another. There's just something about a post war film-noir thriller and "Roadblock" as as good as any of them. I guess this qualifies as a B-picture, but I refuse to see it that way. What I liked about it was how the femme fatal crosses over from being a gold digging ice princess to actually choosing love over money. She is played by non other than Joan Dixon who went on to appear in only about four other films. Too bad, I thought she was really lovely. Then there's the great Charles McGraw. He's just made for the film-noir genre and just about my favorite noir actor. Here he literally plays good cop/bad cop. I actually caught myself feeling disappointed that he was a good guy who went wrong. For me, it had a great feel. The cinematography was done by Nicholas Musuraca who had one Oscar nod to his credit. A top camera guy is always as big in a noir as any of the on-screen actors. At under 75 minutes it certainly doesn't wear out it's welcome. If you love film noir, then add this one to your list!

    BTW, I had recorded "Roadblaock"on DVD and just watched it yet again. Over two years later, my original review still stands. I watch it every time it's on TCM and I love it more and more. Along with Jack Carson, Charles McGraw is one of my very favorite "second tier" actors and "Roadblock" will always be a film that I'l urge others to seek out.

    Oh, one last thing, "We Don't Have Your Size!"
    7blanche-2

    Pretty good B noir

    Charles McGraw and Joan Dixon face a "Roadblock" in this 1951 film also starring Milburn Stone of "Gunsmoke" fame and Lowell Gilmore. McGraw is Joe Peters, an insurance detective who meets a beautiful, sexy woman, Diane, while traveling home by airplane after a case. The whole airplane thing was interesting in itself - spouses could fly half-price, I guess (as the Dixon character claims she and Joe are married so she can do so - she didn't have to show ID either). And though it still happens, it's less common to board from outdoors today.

    Joe falls hard for Diane, but she isn't interested - he's not in her league. She wants someone who will spend big money on her. One night, Joe sees her in a club where he's on an investigation, and she's with the biggest mobster in town, Kendall Webb (Gilmore). Eventually, Joe's and Diane's passion get the better of them. Webb warns Joe that Diane's enamored state of being in love with a poor man is just temporary - once the bloom is off, she'll go for the money again. Joe decides to go into partnership with Webb and steal $1.4 million that's scheduled to be on a train.

    McGraw, who had a big career in television until a few years before his death in 1980, is a solid noir actor - tough and good-looking. The character of Diane, however, is the one to watch. Dixon, helped by the script, gives her many layers and leaves you wondering (though you do know the answer) - was she a big chiseler or did she really care?

    "Roadblock" is good and interesting if implausible - Joe gets himself in deeper and deeper. It's hard to believe he would turn that dramatically that quickly. It's a minor point in a way because it's still an atmospheric noir.

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      One of the first films to be shot in the Los Angeles River.
    • Goofs
      In a scene where Miller and Egan are in a chase car the background footage includes vehicles from earlier decades, obviously older stock footage.
    • Quotes

      Diane: Someday you're going to want something nice and expensive that you can't afford on a detective's salary.

      Joe Peters: Like what?

      Diane: Like me.

    • Crazy credits
      The opening credits seem to be an early attempt at creative credits where the credits try to fit the blacktop of the road we're "traveling" on.
    • Connections
      Edited from La Grande Évasion (1941)
    • Soundtracks
      So Swell of You
      by Leona Davidson

      Performed by Martha Mears

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • September 17, 1951 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Walk a Crooked Mile
    • Filming locations
      • W. Riverside Drive and Fernleaf Street, Los Angeles, California, USA(Where Joe almost hits another car going through a stop sign and turning left onto W. Riverside Dr.)
    • Production company
      • RKO Radio Pictures
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    • Budget
      • $200,000 (estimated)
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 13 minutes
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.37 : 1

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    Joan Dixon and Charles McGraw in Roadblock (1951)
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