The Power of a Woman
Insurance detective Joe Peters (Charles McGraw) is as honest as the day is long which is why when he discovers that the woman sitting next to him on the plane has scammed the seat by telling the bookings desk that she is Mrs. Peters he is less than happy. But spending time with the woman, who turns out to be called Diane (Joan Dixon), changes Joe's opinion and he becomes attracted to her. The trouble is that she has rich blood and Joe is not in the league she tends to go for. It leads to Joe to try and change his fortunes using what he has learned as an insurance detective. Meanwhile Diane has begun to realise that having a wealthy man is not what she really wants as she falls for Joe, but is it too late.
It's a story as old as time; man falls for an attractive woman, unfortunately she is out of his league as she wants a wealthy man and so he tries to get rich quick to win her affections. In the real world the man would end up a broken wreck of a man who has huge debts, lost everything, including his friends, and left watching as she moved on to her next man in the hope he will be her knight in shining armour with a vault full of glittering gold. Sound cynical, well maybe I am but admittedly the power love to make a sensible man to do something stupid is ripe for possibilities.
Unfortunately "Roadblock" is not that movie as whilst a solid distraction with the attractive Joan Dixon being a major part of that distraction it isn't anything special. Yes it has some some enjoyable scenes and at times some ingenuity, such as the opening scene where Joe and his partner catch a thief. But just a few days after watching "Roadblock" you will be left trying to remember aspects of it as it is frankly quite ordinary. And that in a way disappoints because the storyline has so much potential but the whole thing ends up workman like, one of those movies which were made to turn a reasonable profit on minimum effort.
What this all boils down to is that "Roadblock" is one of those movies which you might end up watching when it appears on TV during the day. But it's not the sort of movie you go out of your way to watch.
