Railroaded! (1947)

Matinee Noir:
Anthony Mann Breakthrough Film
Railroaded! (1947)
Studio: Producers Releasing Corp • 74 min B&W • AR 1.33:1 • US: 25 Sep 1947
Re-release: Kino Video (Sep 2006)
Series: Film Noir: The Dark Side of Hollywood (5-DVD)
Starring: John Ireland, Sheila Ryan, Hugh Beaumont, Jane Randolph
Dir: Anthony Mann

Anthony Mann is often cited as one of the key budget film noir directors whose work helped define the style. Nonetheless, Railroaded! surprises by its deftness, tautness and credible story telling. From top to bottom, here’s a first rate example of what can be done with a B budget. Mann was about to graduate to Universal and MGM and had already done some work at RKO. He made Desperate, Railroaded!, T-Men, Raw Deal and He Walked By Night in eighteen months, all of them memorable in the noir cannon.

Clara Calhoun (Jane Randolph) runs a ladies hair salon which houses a bookie operation in the back. Tough guy boyfriend Duke Martin (John Ireland) conspires with her to rob her of the week’s take but when the robbery goes wrong, a cop is killed. Enter investigating officer Sgt Mickey Ferguson (Hugh Beaumont) who quickly focusses on the daytime driver of the getaway vehicle, Steve Ryan (Ed Kelley). An embroidered handkerchief of Steve’s was left at the scene of the crime when Duke’s side-kick gets shot; it had been used to hide his face during the robbery. Ferguson knows the Ryan family and falls quickly for Steve’s sister, Rosie (Sheila Ryan). For a time, Steve looks like he’s being railroaded but soon Mickey is hot on the trail of the real criminals.

Ok, so the story isn’t classic noir — an anti-hero trapped in circumstances that lead to his demise; it’s more police drama since the story revolves around the gangster and inspector; and Steve spends most his time in jail. But the pacing and production values are decent and, unlike some films of its type and time, the writing and acting are professional and, occasionally, memorable.

Vancouver-born John Ireland is thoroughly convincing, a kinder gentler Humphrey Bogart. He clearly has his sadistic side, and is no stranger to crime or murder but he is more diamond than rough — it’s easy to see why the ladies fall for his charm. He’d already had a decent role in John Ford’s My Darling Clementine a few months earlier and he’d return to work for Mann in Raw Deal a few months later — already on his way to stardom. He has a couple of very strong scenes; while romancing Rosie at the nightclub he manages to be simultaneously eloquent and sinister.

Hugh Beaumont (aka Beaver’s dad on TV) also doesn’t miss a beat although his good guy portrayal lacks a little cynicism that you’d expect from someone in his job. He falls for Sheila Ryan rather quickly, but, hey, this is only a 74 minute picture! Ryan does a good sister/amateur detective bit here, apparently shifting her allegiances back and forth between suitors Ferguson and Martin. Her bad girl counterpart, Jane Randolph, as sometime bookie beautician Clara, puts in the weakest performance as Martin’s main squeeze, falling to pieces regularly in an alcoholic inspired haze. It’s no coincidence her movie career ended shortly after it began. One uncredited bit includes the nosy neighbour pumping Rosie for details about her accused brother: although she never actually faces the camera, this chattering gossip is none other than Ellen Corby aka Grandma Walton!

Kino’s print runs from good to excellent; no complaints at all, really. Railroaded! is not quite art film noir, but it’s a solid outing and delivers everything it promises. Recommended viewing for noir aficionados and lovers of American film of the period; as a bonus it’s packaged economically by Kino Video as one of five films in “Film Noir: The Dark Side of Hollywood”.