Western Pacific Agent

An intriguing detective story, thanks largely to two actors, Mickey Knox and Morris Carnovsky, whose careers were threatened by their politics during the witch hunts of the late 1940s. Knox steals the film as a sociopath who heists a payroll, then discovers there's no way to pass the marked money. Carnovsky isn't far behind as his father, a small town grocer who can't bring himself to turn in his psycho son. Kent Taylor as a railroad detective and Sheila Ryan as the sister of a murder victim are nominally the stars. But it's the first-rate character acting, coupled with effective location camera-work (like a shoot-out on a rising drawbridge,)that make this a grade B thriller worth watching.

Evil bindlestiff Mickey Knox kills the station agent who is sitting on tens of thousand of dollars and takes the cash. In comes railroad agent Kent Taylor, who myopic witness Sid Melton, to track him down. The trouble is that some one can identify the murder; it's Morris Carnovsky, who's Knox's father.

It's a well directed movie by Sam Newfield, who was actually a pretty good director when given more than the $100 that PRC had been willing to spend on a movie. There are some nice setting shots of railroad bridges, a good portion is handsomely photographed in interiors of Western Pacific's observation cars. Where this movie falls apart is in the dialogue, which I blame on hack screenwriter Fred Myton, who never met a cliche he didn't steal. But allow the basic competence of the performers, who include Sheila Ryan and Dick Elliott to charm you, and it's watchable.

Lippert Productions made some very low-budget film noir style films. They are generally enjoyable (there are exceptions) but one inexplicable thing detracts from many of them. Burlesque (and grade-z) comic Sid Melton is in most of the films--for absolutely no apparent reason. His had comedy works horribly with this sort of gritty film and you wonder if he was Lippert's son or something! Now I liked Melton on "Green Acres"--here his hokey humor was fine, as the show was a comedy! Here, he only serves to frustrate viewers like me who love noir. Why would they want a kooky eye witness?!?! Apart from Sid, the rest of the movie ain't bad for a B. It tells the story of a nice sociopath who returns to his home town--only to go on a killing and maiming spree. It's a nice portrait of a man without a conscience and they did a pretty good job of telling the story, but it also seems more like a TV episode in quality--especially since every time a stunt was needed, they cut away from the picture!!! Cheap! But otherwise, not bad--and I agree with the reviewer who called this 'film noir lite'--kind of like noir, but a cheap stripped down version.

There are many excellent crime programmers buried within the output of Lippert Pictures, and here is another one. Yes, it's full of clichés (perhaps I should call them "archetypes"), but it is delivered with such sincerity and style that I was caught up in the story and cared about the interesting collection of characters. Like many Lipperts of this era, the cast is superb. Mickey Knox (who has had a long and interesting career both in Europe and in the USA) is a fantastic cold-blooded killer; Kent Taylor brings his usual touch of class to the title role; Sid Melton, a Lippert regular, is added for comic relief as a near-sighted mail-order detective school graduate (!!!), Robert Lowery (in his supporting actor period, after many excellent starring roles in the 40s) as a local railroad employee who is an early victim, and a very moving performance by Morris Carnovsky (acclaimed actor and also blacklist victim) as Knox's father, who knows what his son has become yet still loves him and believes he can change. There is a genuinely shocking moment near the end of the film between Knox and Carnovsky. The "wraparound" story seen briefly at the beginning and end of the film is outrageous and would be laughed out of any Screen writing 101 class, but these filmmakers were not interested in winning Oscars; they were delivering an entertaining and exciting piece of product for the tired working people who put down their money at the third-string neighborhood and small-town theaters that booked Lippert Pictures. If you like unpretentious action films (there are no noir elements here, although Knox's portrayal of the psycho killer will appeal to many noir fans), this one really delivers the goods. I watched it twice upon getting a copy recently and marveled at how efficiently it was constructed and how professional the end product was. There's also an interesting subplot involving the hobos who ride the trains and have camps near the train tracks--their society is depicted in a sympathetic and interesting manner. It's just one way that this film, which on one level is simply a genre crime-film product, is actually a very special piece of work that is far better made than it needed to be in order to fill its niche.

Western Pacific Agent with Kent Taylor in that title role is the story of a railroad cop investigating the on the job murders of two employees. This particular Lippert Production rises a notch or two above the usual Lippert film with a pair of guys with blacklist troubles.

Morris Carnovsky and Mickey Knox who were having trouble getting work at the larger studios play father and son. Knox commits a payroll robbery and kills two employees of the Western Pacific to do it. The nature of the crime suggests some familiarity with the town and the railroad operation. The Western Pacific's top cop Kent Taylor gets the case.

This film really belongs to Knox who gives a great performance as a stone cold killer. Before the climax Knox kills a fence who was holding him up in a deal.

Carnovsky suspects right away that it could be his son, but he dare not say anything and hopes his suspicions are wrong. He's a very good friend of Sheila Ryan whose brother Robert Lowery was one of the first pair of victims. Carnovsky will bring a tear or two to your eye as a father who desperately hopes his son is not a killer.

Lippert films went quite a bit beyond their normal quality in bringing Western Pacific Agent to the movie-going public in 1950.