LADY ON A TRAIN (1945)

Nikki (Deanna Durbin) is on a train to New York City to visit her aunt; as she reads "The Case of the Headless Bride" by her favorite mystery author Wayne Morgan, she looks out her window and sees, in a nearby building, a man killing another man with a crowbar across the head. She tries to get people, including the police, to take her seriously, but no one does. She even contacts Wayne Morgan, the mystery writer (David Bruce), for help, but to no avail. Setting out on her own as an amateur detective, she realizes from a news story that the dead man was the wealthy businessman Josiah Waring, reported to have died at his home from a fall suffered while he was decorating a Christmas tree. She heads out to the Waring mansion where she is mistaken for nightclub singer Margo Martin who is named in Josiah's will as the chief inheritor of the Waring money and property. Soon she is neck-deep in the family intrigues, involved with, among others, two nephews: the ne'er-do-well Arnold (Dan Duryea) and the easy-going Jonathan (Ralph Bellamy). A pair of bloody slippers, the only evidence that Nikki finds, come and go as various shady characters are out to further their own ends. After the real Margo is murdered, Nikki continues her sleuthing, eventually roping in the reluctant writer, who may be more of a hindrance than a help.

This is a light-toned mystery with lots of noirish visual style, including a dark, ominous house that occasionally reminded me of Kane's Xanadu in CITIZEN KANE. It's also a little screwballish, in that Durbin plays Nikki much like Katherine Hepburn played Susan in BRINGING UP BABY, as an obnoxious steamroller of a person whose eccentricities we're supposed to find charming. Much as I like Hepburn, Susan is my least favorite role of hers--I find her shrill and demanding and pretty thoroughly unlikable. Durbin isn't quite as bad here, but I never found myself on her side, especially in the forced scenes involving the writer and his fiancée. Durbin, known more for musicals, gets a couple of songs, one of which is gently singing "Silent Night" over the phone on Christmas Eve for her ailing father. Otherwise, she's nothing special here. The supporting cast, including Duryea, Bellamy, Edward Everett Horton as a lackey of Nikki's dad and George Coulouris as a bad guy, is pretty strong, and I like that the revelation of the chief villain is a surprise, and is pulled off in a nicely creepy way. Tolerable if not a classic. [TCM]