Grand Central Murder

Van Heflin in an early starring role is a private detective with a gorgeous assistant who happens to be his spouse. A gold-digging actress who ran through men as fast as the hapless detective inspector gulps one bottle of "pop" after the other is found dead in a private railway car in Grand Central Station (usually known as Grand Central Terminal).

Many movies have been set in or feature New York's beautiful rail station. In this wartime film, a studio set substituted for the very busy and vital rail center. The sets aren't too convincing - this film was done on a small budget but so what?

Murder is usually serious but the antics of the inspector and his lackluster squad as they try to figure out whodunit make this film, with some sprightly dialogue and good character roles, very humorous. This is a real 1930s-40s view of police as folks who can't find a murderer on a bet (which is also part of this story) without the aid of an outsider, here the indefatigable and comedic "Custer," Van Heflin.

A short film running less than an hour and a half, "Grand Central Murder" is a good party movie. Van Heflin shows the acting ability that led to his appearances in far more serious films.

**SPOILERS** Sharp and witty whodunit set in New York's Grand Central Station. The conniving and cold-hearted Broadway star Mida King,Patrica Dane, being found dead in her fiancée David V. Henderson's, Mark Daniels,private railroad car has the policeman on the case Inspector Gunther, Sam Levene, wanting to find and arrest who murdered her. With all the people in the movie who had it in for Mida it seemed to him that almost everyone who knew her was a prime suspect in her murder.

This all started when Mida's old boyfriend Turk, Stephen McNally, escaped from the two cops taking him back to NYC, on the New York North Railway. Turk was to be retried for a crime he was convicted of. Turk on the loose later calls Mida, between scenes in her play at the Harmony Theater, telling her that she's hasn't long to live. This causes Mida to cut short her performance and run and hide in David's private rail car parked in Grand Central Station the "Thanaopsis".

Private Eye Rocky Custer, Van Heflin,and his secretary wife Sue, Virgina Gray, has been on Turk's case and now that he's blown all the leg-work he did for him, that can get him a new trial and find Turk innocent, Rocky takes a personal interest in Turk's run in with the law and now Mida's murder. Captured in a police dragnet Turk is now the main suspect in Mida King's murder since he was the one who called and threatened her just before her body was found in David's railroad car.

Just when you, and Inspector Gunther, feel that all the evidence point's to an indictment and conviction of Turk as Mida's killer in pop's PI Rocky Custer and starts to spin a web of intrigue and deception, on the part of Mida's real killer. Rockys evidence point's to her past as a gold digger and social climber which draws in everyone she ever had any relationships with in achieving her aims, sexual and financial.

Milda had used persons as far flung as her nutty old step-father known professionally as "The Magnificent Ramon", Roman Bohnen, to her ex-husband Paul Rinehart, George Lynn, who she took for a ride and then dropped him when he ended up broke. Among those suspected in Milda's murder there's even the heart-broken blue-blooded and beautiful Constance Furness ,Cecilia Parker, and her equally upset father industrialist Mr. Roger Furness ,Samual S. Hinds, who's childhood friend and long time lover David V. Henderson Milda stole from her. Not to mention the producer of the play that Mida was in, that had her drop the broke and out of work Turk to get involved with him, Broadway and Hollywood entrepreneur Frankie Ciro, Tom Conway.

We later learn that both Rocky and Sue was on the scene just after Mida was found dead and figured out just who was responsible for her death. It came as no surprise that it was one of the many persons that she crossed during her climb to the top of the Broadway scene. That set up the film's "Grand Central Murder" thrilling and fast paced ending.

A bit too complicated for a 73 minute B-movie "Grand Central Murder" has so many plots and sub-plots, that we see in a series of flashback, involving who was with Mida King in the last fifteen or so minutes of her life and who could have murdered her that by the time the killer is exposed you almost lost interest in who and what he, or she, is anymore.

It's the fine acting from Van Haflin on down and witty script that keeps you watching and staying with the film's slow moving story that takes a while to take hold but the final few minutes more then make up for it.

Not a bad murder mystery with an interesting slant, gathering the usual suspects together in one place to flush out the guilty one takes place at the beginning of the film rather than at the end as would normally be the case. This enables the story to unfold in flashback fashion as told by each of the suspects. Van Heflin shines in one of his early roles. He seems a bit brash in places but otherwise is excellent. Patricia Dane in one of her few cinema appearances does well as the nasty gold digger who is murdered. Sam Levene made good money playing the dumb police inspector in several films of the period including two Thin Man's. So he knew his part by heart. And it's good to see veteran actor Millard Mitchell in one of his early roles.

When I first watched "Grand Central Murder," I reasoned it was taken from a play because that is how it runs. There are a few action scenes involving trains, especially at the end, but otherwise it could all have taken place on stage. This makes the movie very talkative and is a major weakness. I was surprised to see that the screenplay was adapted from a novel by Sue MacVeigh. So director S. Sylvan Simon must be to blame. The script is well-written with many witty lines. Not a bad way to spend 73 minutes.

... and this being a B MGM picture, Van Heflin as Rocky Custer is the civilian sleuth helping the rather befuddled detectives solve a murder, not William Powell.

The picture starts out with a man convicted of murder escaping his police escorts and calling his accuser (Patricia Dane as Mida King), a headliner in a Broadway show. He tells her she doesn't have long to live, and terrified, she leaves in the middle of the show to lock herself in her private railway car. Later she is found dead and, at first, presumed raped.

Unlike the Thin Man movies though, this film rounds up all of the suspects first, and then through them telling their stories in flashback do we find out that Mida was really a pretty awful person and that each person there does have a reason to have killed her. She has been walking on people since the day she hit puberty, and was about to hit her big score in a man with seven million dollars, already planning her Reno divorce before she is even married. The murderer may be guilty of homicide and deserve to go to the chair, but he is probably also eligible for the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian award for disposing of this completely amoral person. Also unlike the Thin Man films, Rocky Custer, our civilian sleuth, and his wife/assistant are also suspects and therefore herded with the others.

The group of suspects is herded from an interview room, to the theatre where Mida worked, and finally to the private car and murder scene itself, usually by Rocky artfully goading and manipulating head detective Gunther (Sam Levene). What is taking so much time here besides the fact that everybody had reason to be glad Mida is dead? The medical examiner is having a terrible time figuring out what exactly killed her.

Having the entire group together the whole time makes the film a bit claustrophobic, but the flashbacks help with that some. Van Heflin is just great here, and stands head and shoulders above the cast with his performance, not that the others are bad. He just takes what could have been a somewhat dull B picture and brings out the best in the other characters, making it almost an A production. Do pay attention to the dialogue - it is fast, furious, and most of it is consequential to the plot. It is easy to miss something.

Just one more comment - somebody in the comment section said that this was a remake of Murder in the Private Car. They share absolutely no similarity in plot other than the fact that railroads are involved. Recommended.

Van Heflin brings flair to "Grand Central Murder," a 1942 B movie from MGM about a golddigging musical comedy star (Patricia Dane) who winds up dead in the private car of a train.

The suspects include a escaped prisoner named Turk, (Stephen McNally, here billed as Horace McNally) and an on and off boyfriend played by Tom Conway, etc.

Heflin plays Rocky, a detective who was hired to get evidence so that Turk can get a new trial. At the time of the murder, Rocky and his wife Butch (a young Virginia Grey) were around the murder scene.

Rocky and the police lieutenant assigned to the case (Sam Levene) attempt to solve the murder while at loggerheads with one another. Each character tells his or her story in flashback.

This film moves fairly quickly but is ultimately let down by a preposterous denouement. The acting, however, when it isn't great is at least interesting. Heflin is superb - sharp, smart, and funny as Rocky.

Sam Levene gets a bad rap for his performance - yes, the director needed to tone him down. Levene was an accomplished Broadway actor and was giving basically a stage performance.

Patricia Dane, once married to orchestra leader Tommy Dorsey, is pretty and talks like Jean Harlow, particularly when Harlow would try to sound upper class.

Dane didn't get much chance at developing her potential once she told off an MGM executive. In this role, she comes off as cheap and annoying, which is right for the part.

Fairly enjoyable especially for Heflin.