The novelty of this Richard Fleischer-directed crime thriller rests on the fact that nearly the entire film takes place on board a train. Fleischer, who was adept at slicking up pulpy B material and giving it style to spare, treats the cramped shooting spaces as an advantage rather than a liability -- he uses extreme closeups, packed compositions and clever reflections (in train windows, mirrors, etc.) to enhance the story's claustrophobic appeal. No where is this more apparent than in a wild fist fight that takes place in a tiny mens' room.
The story surrounds a hard-boiled detective's (Charles McGraw, who looks like he was born to play leading men in B noirs) efforts to escort a dead mobster's wife to L.A. so that she can testify in front of a grand jury. The bad guys want to bump her off before she gets there, but they don't know what she looks like. McGraw delivers the tough-guy patter with confidence, and Marie Windsor (who reminded me a bit of the contemporary actress Illeana Douglas) swaggers her way through the role of a gangster's moll with flair. When McGraw tells her at one point that her amorality makes him sick, she replies, "Use somebody else's sink."
A plot twist toward the film's end caught me completely off guard.
Grade: B+
The story surrounds a hard-boiled detective's (Charles McGraw, who looks like he was born to play leading men in B noirs) efforts to escort a dead mobster's wife to L.A. so that she can testify in front of a grand jury. The bad guys want to bump her off before she gets there, but they don't know what she looks like. McGraw delivers the tough-guy patter with confidence, and Marie Windsor (who reminded me a bit of the contemporary actress Illeana Douglas) swaggers her way through the role of a gangster's moll with flair. When McGraw tells her at one point that her amorality makes him sick, she replies, "Use somebody else's sink."
A plot twist toward the film's end caught me completely off guard.
Grade: B+