Customer Reviews

Railroaded [VHS]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The short (73 minutes) of this film is not a problem at all; Anthony Mann's direction is so strong that there's no wasted moment. While some films noir suffer from being overly stiff (cf. The Big Combo), this one's fluidity is definitely in evidence. John Ireland is the standout here, but the two female leads--Sheila Ryan and Jane Randolph--are almost as good. A real plus, plotwise, is the 'good girl' falling (at least temporarily) for the bad guy.

Similarly, the 'bad girl' ultimately turns good. These reversals, coupled with the bad guy's peculiar behavior (the infamous perfuming of his bullets) and an unusual shoot-out in a long-after-closing bar full of upside-down barstools make for an interesting film.

Hugh Beaumont's good guy cop is a well-matched foil to John Ireland's Duke Martin, whose occasionally drunk girlfriend meets with Beaumont, near the end, to rat out what she thinks is her two-timing boyfriend.

Definitely one of the better films noir on DVD.

John Ireland is sensational in this movie, as always. He is one of the best actors ever, and it is sad he is not remembered that way. RAILROADED and RAW DEAL are both wonderful showcases for his talent. I reccommend any movie with John Ireland in it.

[I]f you're not a huge fan of both Anthony Mann and the Film Noir genre,
you won't be interested at all in RAILROADED. BUT YOU WILL BE WRONG !
You will miss John Ireland in the role of a sexual perverted bad guy
who likes to perfume his bullets before killing ; in RAW DEAL, another
Anthony Mann's movie shot one year later that you can find in the DVD
standard courtesy of the Roan Group, you will also find one of these
degenerated killers, this time impersonated by a vicious Raymond
Burr.

You will also miss the long bare hands fight between Jane
Randolph and Sheila Ryan, very unusual in Hollywoodian productions of
that period. And there are numerous other anthology scenes that you
will miss.

So make your choice but don't forget that there is only a
scene access as bonus feature if you want to consider Anthony Mann's
RAILROADED as

A DVD for your library.

The great Anthony Mann usually had a better than-budget cast for his film noirs, usually including Dennis O'keefe and Raymond Burr. In Railroaded however one has to put up with Sheila Ryan and Hugh Beaumont, but at least the excellent John Ireland is there to lend some credibilty to the acting. What I'm trying to say is that apart from Mann's amazing direction there aren't that many other reasons for seeing this film.

If however you are a connoiseur of the dirtectors art you will get alot out of this movie. As Manny Farber correctly identified this is one of the best examples of the "Germanic Rigour" that Mann brings to his films regardless of the non-existent budget. There are several amazing compositions and camera angles that Mann pulls off in this tour-de-force, and all create an amazing rythym like a well oiled machine. This isn't one for the casual viewer, but it is worth watching to see one of the greatest of all American directors working his magic. One for the purists out there.

"Railroaded" is a low-budget film noir from director Anthony Mann that proves -as so many films of the classic noir era did- that you can pack more themes, character writing, and entertainment into a 72-minute B-movie than most modern extravaganzas that run over 2 hours and cost $100 million. "Railroaded" takes a direct approach. It's clear who the good guys and bad guys are, but the villains are something to see.

A beauty shop that houses an illegal gambling operation for a man named Jackland Ainsworth (Roy Gordon) is robbed by two men, leaving a police officer dead and one of the culprits critically wounded. The owner of the shop, Clara Calhoun (Jane Randolph), and her thuggish paramour Duke Martin (John Ireland), who committed the robbery, conspire to frame Steve Ryan (Ed Kerry), an innocent whose laundry truck was used in the getaway. Steve is arrested by police detective Mickey Ferguson (Hugh Beaumont), and the authorities are content to pin the job on him. But Steve's sister Rosie (Sheila Ryan) is convinced of his innocence and determined to prove it.

Determined, forthright Rosie and mild mannered detective Ferguson make a pleasant, adversarial, pair of sleuths. But "Railroaded"'s strength is its villains. John Ireland and Jane Randolph steal the show as amoral antagonists. Duke is a cold-blooded killer who perfumes his bullets. He's not smart, but he's meticulous and obsessive. The shootings are somehow startling, although not graphic. Clara is smarmy, alcoholic, and desperate. "Railroaded" is a nice little Freudian film noir. A knock-down drag-out brawl between good girl Rosie and bad girl Clara is a fun bonus.

The DVD (Kino Video 2000 release): This print of the film has some white specks, but no serious flaws. There are no bonus features apart from an awkward scene selection menu. Hit "menu" on your remote twice to get to it.

RAILROADED! is a good Anthony Mann low-budget noir. John Ireland is wonderfully villainous in the role of Duke Martin. Duke is the hired henchman of a local casino, but he has ambitious plans of his own.

The plot involves Duke and a fellow named Kowalski, who rob a hairdressing studio that is also a front for bookmaking activities. Duke's girlfriend Clara (Jane Randolph) is in on the heist, but things go wrong, as her co-worker Marie's (Peggy Converse) scream is noticed by a policeman, who ends up dead at the scene.

A total innocent, Steve Ryan (Ed Kelly) is framed for the murder. Police Sgt. Mickey Ferguson (Hugh Beaumont) arrests Steve, and he seems to have an air-tight case. But Steve's sister Rosie (Sheila Ryan) believes he is innocent, and gets involved with Duke Martin, in an effort to learn the truth.

RAILROADED!, in my opinion, is not as good as RAW DEAL OR T-MEN. I think the biggest reason for this is Sheila Ryan. In the scenes she is in, especially the latter ones, she is very wooden. This reminds you that it is a film, and it dulls the impact; instead of the finale being particularly intense, you marvel at the orchestration of Anthony Mann's adroit direction.

Still, a good noir film, and one to view repeatedly, if only for John Ireland's bravura performance.

The KINO print is fine, and is available for less than half the price, in the 2006 DVD set "Film Noir - The Dark Side of Hollywood" collection, along with Sudden Fear, The Long Night, Hangmen Also Die, and Behind Locked Doors.

Clara and Marie are running a bookie operation for the girls in the back room of Clara's beauty salon. The owner of the Bombay Club is financing the venture. Clara's boyfriend Duke manages the club and collects the take from a string of bookie joints. With Clara in tow he decides to fake a heist. Marie, not in on the plan, screams when a shotgun in shoved in her face and alerts a nearby police patrolman. The policeman is shot dead and Duke's partner is fatally wounded, surviving only long enough to implicate innocent Steve Ryan and lead the police away from Duke.
RAILROADED! is a taut little crime caper, made on the cheap at that cheapest of Poverty Row studios, PRC. It's probably been spared the lingering obscurity common to most b-movies because of our current fascination with all things noirs and because it's one of the early works of director Anthony Mann, who would soon graduate to the big leagues and collaborate with Jimmy Stewart on some of the best Westerns made in the 1950s.
John Ireland plays Duke with coiled menace, a killer devoid of humanity, someone who massages his pistol past polishing with a perfumed handkerchief. Make of that what you will, but it provides the police with a sweet-scented clue when they remove the fatal bullet from the blasted patrolman. Hugh Beaumont, Beaver's dad, plays the good police detective who slowly realizes that the perfect suspect, the sandy-haired young Steve, may be as guiltless as he professes. Beaumont played some very strange and twisted characters in his pre-Leave It to Beaver, b-movie career, but he's a reassuringly straight arrow good guy here. The pivot the Good Guy and the Bad Guy fight over is Steve's pretty sister Rosa (Sheila Ryan), who's convinced of her brother's innocence and is willing to dance with the devil Duke to clear his name. My favorite character is Ferguson's (Beaumont) sidekick Chubb (Clancy Cooper), a gum-chewing square-jawed cop who glowers at Steve during his interrogation.
If you're a fan of Mann's Westerns, RAILROADED! should probably satisfy. It's interesting to see what Mann does with a limited budget in an urban setting. One of my favorite shots occur early on, when the gun toting thugs seemingly rise out of a dark and dirty alley into the foreground of the scene. You'll miss the tormented central character and the Technicolor western landscapes, but Mann throws in a trademark Good Girl/Bad Girl fistfight with a gun drawn Duke watching from the shadows. RAILROADED! is a strong early work from a master director, and good fun to boot.

Out of all the film noir movies, "Railroaded" is on my top ten list as the best. I can watch this movie over and over.

For people who grew up watching "Leave It To Beaver" on TV, this film offers Hugh Beaumont as a main character. Beaumont is famous for playing Beaver's dad "Ward." In this movie, he's a tough cop, and fun to watch. I also enjoyed ogling a pretty brunette, "Rosie," played by Sheila Ryan.

The climax to this story was good, and it was surprisingly realistic. There was some decent film-noir photography in spots, too. That's no surprise considering Anthony Mann was the director.

The film is okay, but with the high price (VHS, at the time, and now DVD) it tends to give you really high expectations. I found I liked this more on the second viewing when I knew what to expect and my expectations were a bit lower.

In the beginning, the story dwells too long on the innocent man-being arrested theme but after that part is over, it picks up. John Ireland is good as the villain "Duke."