Murder in the Private Car

This is a fast-paced and highly enjoyable comedy-thriller from the MGM B-movie mill. The plot concerns a pretty switchboard operator who discovers that she is the long-lost daughter of a wealthy industrialist. On a cross-country train trip to visit him, a mysterious villain threatens her and her entourage with murder through messages and the occasional disembodied voice.

The first two-thirds of the movie are played mainly for laughs, with sharp, witty dialog and goofy situations. This leads to a frantic no-holds-barred climax as a runaway railway car hurtles down a mountain line, narrowly missing speeding trains coming its way.

Charlie Ruggles creates another wonderfully eccentric character, a "deflector" -- something like a detective, but instead of solving crimes he uses his savvy to prevent them from occurring. He mangles many an old aphorism, and has some terrific exchanges with the equally incisive Una Merkel. He even gets to interact with some circus animals in amusing fashion. Pre-code buffs will enjoy some of the subtly racy asides (listen for Ruggles' full name, for instance), but modern viewers may be dismayed by the racially insensitive material to which "Snowflake" is subjected as the frightened porter (he has a larger role than usual, and certainly plays the demeaning stereotype with aplomb).

Definitely worth an hour of any buff's time, and a "keeper" for railway aficionados.

One thing you can say for sure, it certainly is not a rip-off of "The Thin Man" or any other big budget murder mystery of its time.

The scene opens on two switchboard operators busy at work at an investment firm - Ruth Raymond and Georgia Latham (Mary Carlisle and Una Merkel). One day an investigator informs Ruth that she is the long lost daughter of a wealthy man. She is to be whisked away via a private car to New York to meet her father. She asks her friend and coworker, Georgia, to come along too, and thus the adventure begins.

Onboard the train the bodies start piling up, there is a mysterious invisible voice telling Ruth she has only hours to live, and there are doubts raised as to whether or not she is the long lost daughter of the wealthy man in the first place. Along for the ride is the long-time boyfriend of Ruth, as well as a goofy fellow, Godfrey Scott (Charles Ruggles), who has taken a shine to Georgia before all of this mystery began and appointed himself investigator of the case. There are escaped primates in assorted sizes and also a plot device that reminds me of the "Wild Wild West" TV show.

Ruggles' act can get tiresome depending on how big a dose is injected into a particular movie, but there is so much going on here that I really didn't think him more of a hindrance than a help, plus the building relationship between himself and Merkel's character is adorable. I'd recommend it if you're in the mood for a rather offbeat film that is certainly very atypical output for MGM of the period.

Wonderful train sequence at end

"This train has got the disappearing railroad blues"

An amateur crime ‘deflector' finds his skills put to the test aboard a transcontinental train when there's MURDER IN THE PRIVATE CAR.

All of the much-loved elements of the Old Dark House spook films can be found in this regrettably obscure little thriller -- damsels in distress, mysterious legacies, strange disappearances, hairy clutching hands, sudden death, terrible menace (and, for a few delicious moments, a rampaging gorilla)-- except here it all takes place in the fancy carriage car of a swiftly moving train. The plot moves just as quickly, catapulting the viewer along, with the climax especially fast & furious.

The delightfully quixotic humor of comic actor Charles Ruggles is highlighted as his offbeat character relentlessly pursues the solution of the mystery. His bemused encounter with the denizens of a smashed circus train--camel, kangaroo and MGM's Leo the Lion--is especially funny. The teaming of Ruggles with pert & perky Una Merkel is inspired. Her sarcastic wisecracks, uttered in that wonderful Southern drawl, are the perfect counterpoint to Ruggles' wry utterances.

The rest of the cast offers good support: Mary Carlisle as a terribly endangered rich girl; Russell Hardie as her stalwart boyfriend; Berton Churchill as a slightly stuffy millionaire who's about to face enormous peril; Porter Hall as a protective lawyer; and Fred ‘Snowflake' Toones as a terrified train porter.

Movie mavens will recognize Sterling Holloway as a gossipy office boy and Walter Brennan as a train yard switchman, both uncredited.

In his career during the 30s Charlie Ruggles was a master of silly and non-sequitar comedy. No one could mix a metaphor quite like Ruggles as he proves in Murder In A Private Car.

The film concerns two switchboard operators and best friends Una Merkel and Mary Carlisle. Just one day private detective Porter Hall contacts Carlisle and tells her she is the missing heiress to a fortune and millionaire Berton Churchill's daughter. As a toddler Carlisle was kidnapped and placed in an orphanage by nefarious forces unknown.

Those same nefarious forces are determined to see she doesn't get to be reunited with dad. Let's say there's a lot of money at stake.

So begins an eventful trip with a few deaths, an escaped gorilla, and romance developing between another private detective Ruggles and Merkel. Ruggles is kind of shoehorned into the plot. He's not a detective, Ruggles calls himself a deflector one who prevents crime rather than solve it. That was in fact the premise of the TV series Checkmate back in the day.

Even with 'murder' in the title, Murder In The Private Car is still an amusing little item. Listen carefully to Ruggles, you may have to watch this film one or two times to catch all the bon mots he utters.

They and he are worth catching.