By Whose Hand?

On a runaway train, there's an escaped killer on his way to prison, a jeweler killed and his pieces missing, a dumb cop to try to figure out what's going on: good thing Ben Lyon, the best reporter in town is on the train!

It's a high speed mystery from Columbia which takes advantage of some good players, like Kenneth Thomson, Ethel Kenyon, Dwight Frye, and Nat Pendleton. Pendleton is far from his comic persona, and quite good as the killer. The real star of the movie, though, is Teddy Tetzlaff Jr's lighting. Most of it is shot in cheap interiors, but a good proportion of it is shot outside in the dark, with only the light from the rigs to illuminate. And those focused shots against a vast, black background are dramatic and often weirdly beautiful. There's also a fine shot of the engine of the train, a maze of pipes in which the engineer and fireman are lost to the audience. There's an ok script, but that's not what makes this one interesting.

This film was shown on Turner Classic Movies in the early hours of the AM and I was very glad to have been able to view this nice Classic Film from 1932. The story is all centered on a train ride with a prisoner aboard the Steam Engine powered train and some very shady characters both men and women. A detective on the train loses his prisoner and everyone went crazy trying to locate him, they searched the Pullman car with its bunk bed arrangements with a drawn curtain over each bunk. Some of the passengers were lovers and some couples were newly-weds and they all had to get out of their beds. There is lots of comedy even though there is murder, funny cigarettes give out and a few jewel thieves. Ben Lyon, (Jimmy), Hell's Angels" played the role of a reporter along with Barbara Weeks (Alice),"One Man Justice" who gave a great supporting role. There seemed to be plenty of blonde women on this train, it was during the 30's and everyone wanted Jean Harlow in their pictures or someone who looked like her. Ben Lyon was the star of "Hell's Angels" produced and directed by Howard Hughes. If you can catch this film on TV, you will enjoy a Classic Great Film from the PAST.

If you like movies that take place on trains, you might get a kick out of this Columbia programmer, in which a wide cast of characters become the usual suspects when murder is committed on an L.A. to San Francisco sleeper. Ben Lyon and Barbara Weeks make attractive leads, and some of the supporting players (Ethel Kenyon, Dwight Frye) are interesting to look at. Less successful is Tom Dugan's "comic" bit as a drunk who for obscure reasons attaches himself to the newspaper reporter hero outside a phone booth in Union Station and makes a general pest of himself. Rather below the standard set by Warners for this genre of picture, but entertaining nonetheless, and about 90% of the picture takes place on the train itself, for which Columbia had provided quite nice sets.

A Little Spoiler - Every pre-code fan should catch this movie, "By Whose Hand?". It was a very entertaining and rare 65 minute classic movie that was shown on Turner Classic Movies. This movie is another example of pre-code greatness. Crime, Love, Betrayal, and Murder all takes place on a train ride. Slick and Smooth Ben Lyon plays Jimmy Hawley, a newspaper reporter who is always got his eye out for a story. He gets kissed accidentally by pretty Alice (Barbara Weeks) and because of that he follows her to California on a train where a big story evolves right before his eyes. The train ride has plenty of suspects with a shady past, a jewelry distributor (Kenneth Thomson), a gorgeous moll named Eileen (Ethel Kenyon), a criminal, a bitter man, and the wife of a criminal who's going to help her husband get even with the man who framed him who's on the train. The jewelry man is killed and the beautiful moll is suspected because of her being seen with him and because of her past, the bitter guy who the jewelry man fired is suspected of killing out of revenge. The convict and his wife are suspects too even Alice (Barbara Weeks). Ben Lyon plays detective and points out the guilty and innocent. I won't give all all the details in case some of you haven't seen it.

There is mention of dope cigarettes - weed - which was given to the man to fall asleep so he could be killed. There is also plenty of sexual innuendos that pre-code movies were known for. The newlywed couple was cute, especially, the blonde, little cutie. During the drama, the funny part is when the detective tells everyone to come out of their sleepers and he ask the newlywed couple what they were doing during the murder and the newlywed couple starts to blush and look guilty and giggles because they were having sex during the murder - they didn't say that but their face told it. That's what I like about pre-code, pre-code didn't have to be filthy and vulgar to be entertaining and sexy like movies today. Movies today should learn something from pre-code movies. This movie has everything and it's jam-packed for being just a 65 minute movie. That's what I love about pre-code, pre-code proved a movie doesn't have to be 2 hours long to be entertaining or to tell the story fully. There was a beginning, middle, and end, the pre-code movies get to the point without a lot of unnecessary parts which is good for an impatient person like me. Pre-code is entertaining all the way through. Please see this movie, I personally recommend it!

This often neglected programmer is filled with suspense and mayhem aboard a fast-moving train and well worth a watch, even though the acting is often overwrought, a holdover from the silent film days when histrionics were sometimes necessary to compensate for the lack of sound. Being an early sound production, the dialog too is often stilted. But the crisp photography, at times reminding the viewer of a Hitchcock picture, and apt direction more than make up for the movie's shortcomings. Sometimes as exciting as today's action hits, especially during the runaway train sequence at the end, "By Whose Hand?" proves a winner all the way.

Though Ben Lyon was a fine actor, he did much better as a second lead. He never had the charisma nor the looks to play top banana as he does in this film. The drunk played by Tom Dugan was probably a laugh riot to audiences in 1932 but by today's standards becomes a bit grating after a few minutes. Intended mainly for comic relief, the part should have been whittled down considerably. Otherwise, the casting is first rate with standout performances by the vivacious Barbara Weeks, the always delightful Dwight Frye, William V. Mong as a crotchety old man, and the versatile Nat Pendleton. The racial stereotyping that was rampant in Hollywood at the time is omnipresent, but if the viewer keeps an open mind this aspect is also tolerable.

The plot involves a hotshot reporter, Jimmy (Lyon), who takes a train ride to scoop a story on Chick Lewis (Frye), the man who plea-bargained with the police and is therefore the target of an escaped killer, Delmar(Pendleton), who stabs his victims. And there are two steak knives missing from the kitchen! Jimmy accidentally meets Alice (Weeks) and falls madly in love with her (who wouldn't!). All the while the locomotive speeds full throttle toward San Francisco.