FrogGlace In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Yash Wade Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Maddyclassicfilms Roadblock is directed by Harold Daniels. The film stars Charles McGraw, Joan Dixon, Louis Jean Heydt and Lowell Gilmore.Honest insurance investigator Joe Peters(Charles McGraw)falls for a no good dame called Diane(Joan Dixon). Diane likes the good things in life from fine clothes to fine food, she wants a rich man and sadly Joe is far from rich. As he falls deeper in love with her he goes to criminal boss Kendall Webb(Lowell Gilmore)to help him with a robbery so he can get some money. Peters partner Harry(Louis Jean Heydt)becomes suspicious. Soon this honest man becomes a wanted man as his desire leads him down a bad road, there's no u-turn possible for him now.McGraw is an actor who's perfect for Noir films, tough and hard with an edge. I think it's a real shame that he didn't become a bigger star.Joan Dixon is an actress who I'm not familiar with and she's really impressive here as the icy gold-digging dame.Her characters change of heart later in the film is a let down, the film would have been better if Joe had turned to crime only for Diane to leave him for someone richer and not care about the trouble he's got himself into.This film has it's moments, the twist opening where you're not sure who Joe is and the scenes between him and Diane are highlights.It's a good film but overall this isn't a Noir that stands out very much, it's a shame because this one had the potential to be a really good one.

blanche-2 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.

ackstasis 'Roadblock (1951)' has plenty of the classic noir ingredients, but it also recalls all those films from which it borrowed them. An honest insurance detective is corrupted into defrauding his own employer – that's straight from 'Double Indemnity (1944).' A swift city-wide dragnet embraces the fleeing anti-hero, stifling his final chance of escape – that's 'High Sierra (1941).' Even leading man Charles McGraw, typically confined to supporting roles, might credibly be described as a "poor man's Kirk Douglas." With his chiselled features and a gravelly voice, I occasionally found myself picturing Douglas in the role (I also saw Gene Tierney in Joan Dixon's place, but that's just me and my wishful imagination). All things considered, the two main performers do quite well in a B-movie that offers few surprises. Content to follow the already-established film noir mould – to drive the riverbed without breaching its banks, so to speak – director Harold Daniels has produced an entertaining, workman-like thriller. But why rewatch it, especially when you can instead enjoy its superior predecessors?The film, intended as the lower half of a double-bill, jumps straight into action. A fugitive bank robber (Peter Brocco) becomes witness to a homicide, the killer taking him hostage and threatening to dispose of him. After offering his stolen loot in exchange for his life, the film pulls its first – and probably only – unexpected twist. The "killer" is, in fact, L.A. insurance detective Joe Peters (Charles McGraw), who engineered the mock murder of his partner (Louis Jean Heydt) to discover the whereabouts of the missing bank money. Peters is fiercely honest, having resigned himself to an unglamorous life on a modest detective's income, but this episode foreshadows his character's transformation into a liar, murderer and fugitive. Why do good men turn bad? In 'Roadblock' – as in all noir – the blame is irrevocably placed on a woman. Unashamed gold-digger Diane (Joan Dixon) taunts Peters with her icy beauty, disdainfully implying that he could never afford somebody like her on such a meagre salary. If you're going to turn to crime, I guess sex is as good a reason as any.'Roadblock' was directed by Harold Daniels, who doesn't appear to have much else of credit to his name, but the cinematography was by Nicholas Musuraca, whose exquisite noirish work is also on display in 'Stranger on the Third Floor (1940),' 'Cat People (1942)' and 'Out of the Past (1947).' What I love most about film noir is how the photography so often suggests more than would otherwise be understood. For example, despite beginning the film as a questionable, if seductive, chiseller, Joan Dixon's character later takes a turn towards the uninteresting, rejecting her former prestigious life-style in favour of love and marriage (making Peters' fatal transformation ironically unnecessary). Having now settled into her new role as a slighted romantic lover, and apparently deserving of our sympathy, Diane witnesses her husband gunned down by police, and resignedly departs the scene. It's not spoken, but Musuraca's camera doesn't forget who's to blame for this tragedy: he frames her strutting purposely - almost dismissively - away from the devastation her hand has caused, like a gunman turning his back on a massacre.

David (Handlinghandel) "Detour" is far more famous. And it's probably better. But this strange little movie moves as inexorably to a terrible end as "Detour" does.Charles McGraw was an excellent actor. He is fine here as "Honest Joe" Peters. He encounters Diane, a woman he never ought to have encountered, on a plane ride. He is a straight-arrow insurance investigator. She is looking for a rich man. She knows he isn't rich and she is not really painted as a villain.Joan Dixon plays Diane in a deadpan manner. She is pretty and has a soft, rather high voice. Maybe she was someone's idea of an Elizabeth Taylor lookalike. There are similarities.Everything is understated. Yet it's a tough movie. And it's powerful, and sad.