THE TALL TARGET (1951)

With no theme music, the credits roll over a film noir-type shot of a darkened train station in New York in 1861, before the outbreak of the Civil War. We learn the trains are running slow due to unrest over the upcoming inauguration of Abraham Lincoln. Police detective John Kennedy (Dick Powell) has discovered a plot, planned by a secret society, to assassinate Lincoln in Baltimore (in Maryland, a slave state) on his way to Washington, but his bosses don't believe him, so he resigns from the force and takes it upon himself to protect Lincoln. Kennedy is supposed to get a ticket on Lincoln's train from an Inspector Riley, but he runs across Riley's dead body on the train, and a person claiming to be Kennedy has Kennedy's ticket and seat. After a bit of a ruckus, Army Colonel Jeffers (Adolphe Menjou) vouches for Kennedy. As the train chugs through the night, Kennedy has run-ins with a number of people, any of whom might be involved in the planned assassination: a brother and sister with Confederate sympathies, their Black maid, an abolitionist writer, and a mysterious woman who will be meeting her husband at a later stop. Even Jeffers, Kennedy's protector, may not be who he seems to be. As I have a soft spot for movies set on trains, I enjoyed this film which is set entirely on a train or in train stations. Though many critics call this film noir, it strikes me as just a historical crime drama, albeit set at night with a strong atmosphere (sometimes claustrophobic) of tension, even though we know that the assassination plot won't succeed. Powell is OK, though he and Menjou (who plays a character who may have a hidden agenda) have some nice scenes together. Standouts in the cast include Marshall Thompson as the slave owner, Ruby Dee as the slave, and Will Geer as the train conductor. A climactic fight scene between Powell and a bad guy is memorable. Jeff Richards, a favorite 50s hunk of mine (ISLAND OF LOST WOMEN) has a small role as a police officer. Pictured are Powell and Thompson. [TCM]