Pullman 12

This is a beautifully crafted murder-cum-jewel heist-cum-romance with some great stunt work on a train. We see the characters assemble in Los Angeles station ready to board the train to San Francisco. As we meet them we get shown the various ways they could come into conflict. There's the jeweler with an eye for the ladies, a lady with an eye for the jewels and various others of differing degrees of respectability. Not shown, though it is clear he will pop up some time is the mad murderer on the run.

The love interest comes from Jimmy, a reporter who gets on the train at the last minute and Alice.

The first killing shakes everything up, turning people out of their dormitory style beds as the police try to catch the killer.

It's very hard to make a bad film set on a train unless it's the Orient Express, but the action in those one is great.

Pure joy from start to finish.

You probably shouldn't enjoy this because it's not a good film, in fact the script and some of the acting is terrible but it's got just enough early thirties energy and determination to be fun that it's 100% pure entertainment. A real trashy treat.

Unless written by a Ben Hecht or a Robert Riskin etc. There was a line dividing early thirties B-movies between those which were written and acted so badly that they're unwatchable to those which tried too hard not to be dull but in doing so ended up being so stupid, silly and annoying that they're equally unwatchable. This picture made by Columbia's B team but with pretty decent production standards straddles the line perfectly.

If you love early thirties pictures, particularly Warner's gritty features but can't be doing with those mushy theatrical productions, you'll probably like this. It's no classic but it's no MILLION DOLLAR LEGS either. Great fun.

I've seen him in quite a few pictures but can't say I've ever really 'noticed' Ben Lyon before - he's tended to be a bit nondescript but in this he shines. His character, a less cheesy version of Dick Powell, is just right for this and he virtually single handedly brings this to life.

By Whose Hand? (1932)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Enjoyable mystery from Columbia, which was once thought lost until being discovered back in 1998 (so I've read). A playboy detective (Ben Lyon) with the lust for women cracks the story of a serial killer who has escaped from prison. While following a lead he ends up on a train where a wide range of suspicious character lure including a murderer. The actual mystery of this film is pretty good but there are way too many attempts at comedy. Some of it works like the drunk who keeps following the detective around but some falls flat on its face. Lyon is decent in the lead but he's never really able to pull off all the charming, lead male stuff. Tom Dugan steal the show as the drunk and Dwight Frye has a small role as a mother loving bad guy. When I say mother loving I really mean it as there's an extremely bizarre scene at the start of the film where he's holding his mother as you'd expect to see someone hold their lover. Then he plants a big, hard kiss on her lips! Directed by Benjamin Stoloff who would direct Bela Lugosi the following year in Night of Terror.

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.

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!