Railroaded Review

Overall 2.00 of 5 (by 1 user)

GeorgeChabot
Conyers, GA

I love my gun! Railroaded

Movie guru, Film noir guru, admirer of great storytelling, Lover of quirky, unique films

Pros

Directed by Anthony Mann

Cons

Read the review

OCT

2008

Railroaded —

Railroaded (1947)

Anthony Mann directed several films during the late 40s making his name as a film director. Before he made the trio of films that made his name, he apparently directed Railroaded, getting full screen credit as director.

This is a release from Kino Video, a publisher of old films that have fallen into the public domain. Railroaded is part of their film noir collection that can be purchased separately or as part of a five disk set.

Railroaded is generally a slang term that means run into jail or run out of town by a conspiracy and that is the basic idea here. A pair of thugs rob an illegal gambling operation fronted by a beauty shop run by Jane Randolph. A policeman shoots one of the thugs and is killed when a shop employee screams and he peeks in to see the fracas. The thugs take their stolen delivery van and one drops the other, who has been shot, off at a doctor's house.

The strength of Railroaded is the casting of a pair of recognizable faces in the main roles - Hugh Beaumont, who nearly everybody remembers as Beaver Cleaver's dad as the detective, and John Ireland, the veteran of hundreds of westerns, including several of John Wayne's. They were apparently being groomed as leading men, but as it turned out, neither had the schtick to bear the focus of attention for a full movie.

The main thug (John Ireland) has planted evidence including the van and a navy scarf to implicate the van driver in the robbery and Hugh Beaumont duly follows the clues and arrests the young man.

The movie is tied together by the framed guy's sister (Sheila Ryan)who goes to bat for him and works to get him out of jail.

The best acting job is by John Ireland who makes his thug a despicable sadistic character only lavishing love on his .38 revolver, which he uses quite a bit. Hugh Beaumont was kept on a short leash or at least did not get to put a lot of his warm Ward Cleaver style personality into the character.

As an entry in the film noir genre, Railroaded is only marginal. It has the dark cinematography and crime elements, but the roles of the characters are very differentiated - good and evil do not exist in the same individual, and film noir is typically about the ambiguity. Similarly fate is not stalking anybody, either, and that is a key element in the better class of film noir. There is a decent cat fight between Sheila Ryan and Jane Randolph with John Ireland watching unseen from the shadows, grinning and keeping score with his gun barrel. I told you he liked it. ;>

The DVD is from Kino and its full screen black and white in good condition with a 74 minute running time.

Last edited on Oct 26, 2008

Railroaded is not recommended by GeorgeChabot

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Comments about GeorgeChabot’s Review

In response to JovialCougar's comment from Nov 1, 2008 at 11:03AM:

You are exactly right. The movie has a way of sucking you in when you see fate playing an active part almost making you sympathize with the characters. Good insight, thanks!

I really like that element of 'fate' in the better Flm Noir classics. I recently watched 'Double Indemnity' for probably the third time. The main characters were doomed after the ''accident'' no matter what they did, which makes you feel sympathetic (almost). If that element is missing, I can see why the movie is far less interesting.

In response to Fardreamer's comment from Oct 27, 2008 at 3:17PM:

Well, I would say yes, unless you are a noir completist. It was directed by Anthony Mann who had several seminal films noir, but if you don't need to see his entire oeuvre, then I would miss it. ;>

So....avoid this one, then? Nice review, George.

In response to GeorgeChabot's comment from Oct 26, 2008 at 7:44PM:

Well, you are allowed to make one mistake in those lifetime. Better be careful from now on though. :) I still wanna see it and I don't know if I am a noir o phile or not. I'm sure not regular. haha.

In response to PattyTherre's comment from Oct 26, 2008 at 7:18PM:

You caught me goofing up. I meant to recommend it to noir o philes only because they want to see them all. Regular folks, no. Thanks, Patty! ;>

Thumbs up but 2 stars? Sounds like a pretty good movie - film noir or not. (Thanks for explaining what that is. I really never knew.)

In response to GeorgeChabot's comment from Oct 26, 2008 at 5:29PM:

Your welcome. I've been enjoying your reviews.

In response to LadyMagic's comment from Oct 26, 2008 at 4:28PM:

Thank you much. I appreciate all your visits and comments. :>

Really good points in a really good review. Thanks.

In response to rulistenin's comment from Oct 26, 2008 at 1:10PM:

Thanks! I wrote a pretty good essay on the elements that make up film noir and posted it on another site. I can send you a url if you send me an email george_chabot@aol.com. Mention that it's you because I don't know your name other than your screen name. ;>

I love classic films... and based on your review, I can understand why I'm not familiar with this film.

You noted, "roles of the characters are very differentiated - good and evil do not exist in the same individual, and film noir is typically about the ambiguity." I find that to be a fascinating insight.

Thanks for reviewing this film.

In response to LaurieM's comment from Oct 26, 2008 at 12:18PM:

It is pretty forgettable although the cinematograpy is pretty good. The acting is only so-so and the story is good to begin with but loses its way pretty fast.