The Walking Target (1960) User Reviews

Despite a mostly no-name cast, a pretty good crime film.

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 16 July 2021]

"The Walking Target" is a cheaply made crime film starring a cast of mostly unknown actors of the day. Despite this, it turns out to be very watchable and good for what it is.

Nick (Ron Foster) has been in prison for sometime for his part in a robbery that netted nearly a quarter of a million dollars! What makes this REALLY interesting is that now that his sentence is up, he could always return and get the loot, as no one living knows where it is. However, on his trail throughout the film are cops as well as Nick's 'friends', who would just as soon kill him. Where does all this go? Watch the film..

The acting is good, the script is good. What isn't good are a couple fight scenes, where in both cases, the gang leader just stands there as his men tangle with Nick. And, when Nick beats them up, the boss just stands there! The same goes with Nick's lady friend late in the film....just standing there as Nick fights to the death....doing and saying nothing!! A very bad cliche but an otherwise well made film.

Competent Crime Drama

[boblipton · 6/10 · 18 July 2021]

Hard case Ron Foster serves his time. Five years ago,he and two accomplices stole $260,000; they died, he went to prison. They never found the money. Now he's getting out, and everyone wants to play him for the money: ex-girlfriend Merry Anders and her new guy, a 'businessman' who figures he won't have to pay taxes on it, Detective Harp McGuire, who wants to get the money and put Foster back in prison. All Foster wants is the money, and ex-girlfriend Joan Evans, who married his buddy who wound up dead in the robbery.

It's a good set-up, and the performances are good, if a trifle hackneyed; also I thought the character changes that make this a story and not just an anecdote pile up very quickly at the end. Perpetual B director Edward Cahn does his usual competent but uninspired job, and it moves at a pretty good pace.

ok caper.... no real surprises.

[ksf-2 · 7/10 · 1 April 2018]

Ron Foster is "Nick", fresh out of jail for robbery, and the loot has never been found. That's pretty much the opening line, said by the prison warden, as he releases Nick back to the world. and hot on his trail is Detective Brodney (Harp McGuire). and the mob. and the people he thinks are his friends. And Joan Evans is "Gail"... who may or may not be an innocent bystander. Evans gets top billing in the cast list, so she must be pretty important to the plot. Written by Stephen Kandel. He wrote almost exclusively for television, and this. and a couple films earlier in his career. Directed by Edward Cahn, for United Artists, towards the end of his career... only worked a couple more years after this. The "fist fights" are just terrible. so fake. The story itself is pretty good, the acting is pretty good. Picture and sound quality are great. entertaining enough.

where's the money?

[blanche-2 · 6/10 · 17 January 2022]

Ron Foster, Joan Evans, and Merry Anders star in "The Walking Target" a B film from 1960.

Foster is Nick Harbin who, after five years in prison for robbery, is released. However, the money was never recovered. Most people assume that Harbin knows where it is and will eventually go for it. The police plan on watching his every step.

To me this was a faux pas. This was an interstate crime of robbing payroll, meaning that the federal statute of limitations was five years. If they really wanted the money, they should have let him serve three or four years.

But I digress. Nick is extremely jumpy with his girlfriend Susan (Anders) and a friend of hers, a businessman. What he doesn't realize - but figures it out soon enough - is that Susan didn't bother waiting for him; she's in cahoots with her new beau to get the money.

During the robbery, a close friend of Nick's (Norm Alden) was killed running from the cops. Nick is determined to find his widow, Gail (Joan Evans) and give her half of the money. He locates her finally in her home town of Gold City, Arizona. He's followed.

Pretty decent crime drama.

Utterly Routine

[dougdoepke · 6 June 2015]

The programmer's neither good nor bad, just a familiar storyline given undistinguished treatment. Nick and two buddies rob an armored car, but the buddies are killed in the robbery. Now Nick's out of prison, intent on retrieving the loot he's hidden. Trouble is both a mobster and the cops are watching. Meanwhile, he's got a sexy blonde girlfriend (Anders) who's double-crossing him with his so-called friend Dave (Christopher). Sound familiar. Yeah, old film fans have probably seen its variation a hundred times.

For a budget production, the effort's competently done. Foster in the lead does his best, but doesn't convey much presence. The cast is distinguished by noir villain Berry Kroeger as the mobster, and Joan Evans as good girl Gail. In fact, Evans had a very promising studio career in the early 50's that unfortunately didn't endure. Looks like this was her last feature-length appearance. I wish there were something outstanding, good or bad, to comment on, but there isn't, unless it's movie vet Fawcett (Packy) who's about as ravaged-looking an old duffer I've seen. All in all, the 70-minutes remains a watchable, but highly unremarkable crime drama that's probably forgotten 5-minutes later.

"Happiness won't buy money"

[Goingbegging · 6/10 · 31 July 2021]

A 5-year jail sentence for a payroll robbery seems to have left Nick (Ronald Foster) looking as unreformed as when he went in. That's how the prison governor sees it. Ditto a detective watching closely, and the local press too. That's why Nick feels he's walking around with a target on his back, as the only survivor, the only one who knows where the loot is stashed.

Merry Anders plays the blonde cutesy-pops who has supposedly been waiting faithfully for Nick all along, but then it seems that 'faithful' isn't quite the word, and Nick switches his attention to the widow of one of the gang, for whose death he feels a bit of survivor guilt. (A flashback shows Nick persuading him that it'll be a pushover, and organising the concealment of the money in the chassis of the getaway car.)

Rather improbably, Nick is able to trace the car to a junkyard in the desert, its precious contents still undiscovered. But there we must leave the plot, so as not to spoil the fun - though you might reflect on why the wisecrack "Happiness won't buy money" should be uttered near the end.

gem

[sean-sieger · 7/10 · 13 December 2021]

Well-made, well-written film noir. The Walking Target is a nice reminder that the wellspring of film noir is a great journey.

You will be rewarded for appreciating the simplicity of the many early scenes. The movie is lean. The protagonist makes a beeline for his target.

Great example of a cliched, entertaining crime film

[johnbmoore-17 · 6/10 · 9 January 2022]

This one has most of the crime film cliches - good girl, bad girl, double crosses, cocky cop, illogical choices - but for all of its averageness, it is actually an entertaining film. Pretty good pacing and a quick watch, and some really odd, fun little moments. High art it isn't, but if you enjoy old crime movies with a bit of melodrama, it is worth your time. I enjoyed it.

Acceptable crime fare

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 4 September 2021]

A typical low budget crime thriller from the USA. It begins with one of those classic crime plots in which a con comes out of prison and it turns out he's the only one who knows the location of some stolen loot. Before long the cops and other gangsters are on his tail including some loved ones and trusted allies. No big stars in this one, but the assembled actors do a professional job and there's a lot of high drama eked out of the premise.

Nothing memorable!

[RodrigAndrisan · 3/10 · 26 September 2021]

It's a good little movie! But also the kind of movie you guess all the action from the very beginning. Some actors are better, others less good.

The difficult way for a convict to become honest

[clanciai · 8/10 · 10 December 2021]

There are moments of a real noir here, but the happy ending spoils it. The acting and the action are good, and the story is good as well, with great suspense and no possibility for anyone to have a guess at how it all will end. The best part of the film is actually the music, which keeps following the action very closely from behind without getting too dominant. The photo is also convincingly in noir style, black and white in shades and dark atmosphere, and of course there are the usual fisticuffs and settlements crowning the troublesome affair. As usual, it would have been easier for the hoodlums to let the hero get away with the girl without causing any trouble, but then again that's what hoodlums are for.

"I'll See Ya 'Round, Probably On A Slab!"...

[azathothpwiggins · 3 August 2021]

Nick Harbin (Ron Foster) gets out of prison after a five year stretch. When he tries to reconnect with his old comrades, he finds that things have changed quite a bit while he was gone. No one seems interested in him, other than to get to the big money he stole.

A flashback sequence shows us that Nick actually has a conscience, and wants to make amends for the tragic event that haunts him. Now, hounded by both the cops and the press, with his old cronies converging on him, Nick has one last chance at redemption.

THE WALKING TARGET is another entertaining, hard-boiled crime thriller. Foster is quite believable in his role. Merry Anders co-stars as Nick's cheating girlfriend, and Joan Evans is the woman of Nick's dreams, the one who got away...