Railroaded!

After watching RAILROADED, I'm convinced JOHN IRELAND could have taken his place alongside men like ROBERT MITCHUM doing grim little film noirs during the '40s. He's excellent as a tight-lipped gangster with a scowling expression as he methodically kills anyone double-crossing him or standing in his way. He knocks around his blonde girlfriend (JANE RANDOLPH) with woman-hating contempt and fires bullets with casual lack of concern for fatalities. In short, he makes an ideal film noir anti-hero.

HUGH BEAUMONT, known by most fans principally as Beaver's dad on TV, is only lukewarm as the detective who falls for SHIELAH RYAN and decides to help her track down the killer after Ireland frames her kid brother (ED KELLY) for the murder of a policeman. Their final fade-out kiss looks a little clumsy but--hey, the accent is on crime and action, not romance.

Anthony Mann does the best he can with a low-budget crime melodrama and turns it into a taut, well-made, shadowy film noir with Ireland showing his stuff as a ruthless gangster.

Summing up: Brisk and entertaining, it's well worth watching for fans of this genre.

Railroaded! (1947)

*** (out of 4)

Anthony Mann directed this thriller, which has a Detective (Hugh Beaumont) trying to clear an innocent man of murder charges. The Detective eventually falls for the suspect's sister (Sheila Ryan), which leads to a wannabe gangster (John Ireland) who we know is the real killer. This is a pretty suspenseful and highly entertaining little film that has a whole lot going for it. Mann does a terrific job at keeping the film moving very nicely and he has enough interesting characters for two films. This was my first time seeing Beaumont outside of his role of the father on Leave it to Beaver and I was shocked to see how well he played a tough guy. His Detective has all the charm, energy and toughness, which is expected in a film like this. Ireland is terrific as the thug and Ryan does a nice job, although she's not on the same level as the two men. There's also a wonderful fight between two women, which has to be seen to be believed.

A faked robbery goes awry and a cop is killed, causing the perpetrators to frame an innocent kid to take the rap. What they don't foresee is the kid's stubborn sister.

John Ireland makes one nasty bad guy, and when he lovingly polishes that gunbarrel with perfumed bullets, we get the idea. Yes indeed, he's more than just a bad guy. The movie's a crime drama done in noirish style by the expert Anthony Mann. There's little of the hallmark ambiguity of classic noir in the characters. Nonetheless, there's the innocent kid Steve (Kelly) who looks to be the victim of a malevolent noirish fate. Of course, there has to be a cheap dame in the crime mix, and Jane Randolph flops around effectively as Duke's (Ireland) brassy blonde punching bag.

Note how the movie starts out in slam-bang fashion, and how effectively Mann uses close- ups, especially of the suddenly terrified Marie (Converse), to turn screen violence into a sense of real violence. This, I think, was a Mann specialty and one reason he's treasured by fans of noir. Then too, that shootout in the shadowy nightclub amounts to a clever touch of visual imagination. No, the story itself is not exactly novel, while Beaumont makes the kind of cop you'd expect from Beaver Cleaver's dad. Still, the movie's done with style and conviction, with an outstanding turn from Ireland, and rightfully belongs in the canon of 40's noir.

Anthony Mann directed some of the very best noirs of the 1940s and early 1950s.

This one is brutal, hard-hitting, and unrelenting till its Hollywood ended. (The ending may have been tacked on. I don't know. But it works organically with the whole, unlike many others.)

The problem for me with some of his movies, this one included, is that they are so dark they're almost impossible to see at times. Yes, it's atmospheric. But it's also frustrating.

The literal noir in some -- not all -- of his movies reminds me of the staging of Wagner at the Metropolitan Opera. Yes, it's brooding and intense. But it's also really hard to see.

John Ireland's portrayal of a cold obsessed killer is the best thing in this movie. His performance is edgy, sexy and menacing. A brutal thug who loves his gun. Unfortunately he is hampered by a weak script, where his actions often make little sense. (For instance, why would he contact the sister of the suspect he framed?). Jane Randolph is also strong as the moll, although her character seems to change midway through the movie.

One of the first noir films directed by Anthony Mann, the movie is well shot, fast paced, tightly edited and tough. One wishes the focus could have stayed on Ireland, or, alternatively, the strong scenes of Ed Kelly being framed and pushed around by the cops. Mann will better develop these themes in his later films (noirs and westerns). Still a pretty enjoyable movie and a must for film noir fans.