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gang, and sees a third kidnapper, Vince Marley. Beacom drives away (though Joyce memorizes the license plate number), but the police arrest Marley. When he refuses to talk, Donnelly tells Bill to kill him and make his death look accidental. When the policemen pretend to prepare to throw Marley in front of an arriving train, he breaks and tells them where Lorna is being held. However, Beacom and his girlfriend Marge
Wrighter have already taken Lorna somewhere else by the time they break in.
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sticking out of it. Bill tries to apprehend Beacom, but is shot in the shoulder. Beacom flees to the municipal tunnel underneath the station, where he left Lorna, with Bill in hot pursuit. Bill manages to shoot and kill Beacom and rescue Lorna. Afterward, Joyce (who has developed an attraction to Bill, and vice versa) notices Bill's wound.
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does not want the police to get involved as they might endanger his daughter's life. Bill and his boss, Inspector
Donnelly, persuade him to accept their help. The railway station where Calhoun works has been chosen as the location to pay off the ransom. Bill and Donnelly race against time to save Lorna and bring the kidnappers to justice.
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outlook is belied by the fact that the police play as rough as the bad guys, blurring the lines of good and evil. Audiences are used to seeing Barry
Fitzgerald as a kindly Irish priest in most roles; during the scene on the empty platform, though, Fitzgerald's Inspector Donnelly tells the cops in his
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Beacom, dressed as an employee, forces a parcel clerk at gunpoint to accept the suitcase with the ransom money and switch it with another one that looks just like it. The clerk tells the messenger who brought the ransom to take the second suitcase somewhere else. However, Joyce notices part of a coat
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When the kidnappers make contact with
Murchison at the station, Joyce recognizes them. The police trail one of them, Gus Hadder, but he spots them and runs, only to die in an accident. The police prevent his death from being reported in the newspapers. Later, Joyce spots Joe Beacom, the leader of the
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When a patrolman spots Beacom's car, a gunfight breaks out. The policeman is killed, and
Wrighter is fatally wounded in the crossfire. In the hospital, she tells Bill and Donnelly that Beacom intends to kill Lorna after he gets the ransom. She also reveals that Beacom used to work at the station.
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The two men deposit a suitcase in a storage locker. When Bill retrieves it, Joyce recognizes the clothing as belonging to Lorna
Murchison, the blind daughter of wealthy Henry Murchison, Joyce's employer. When Mr. Murchison is brought in, he admits Lorna has been kidnapped and held for ransom, but
435:. Also, it looks like it was filmed on Chicago's South Side El from 1892 to Indiana station, where the train is uncoupled to go on the Stockyards Branch, which ran until 1957. Normally, the branch ran as a shuttle. It terminated at Exchange station, which was the terminal after 1956.
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gave actor
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but it shares the same mean spirit. Maté capitalizes on the story's setting by using innocent passengers and the station's dramatic spaces to heighten the feverish atmosphere."
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was the actual filming location), and changing the kidnap victim from a little boy to a blind, teen-aged girl, the script was quite faithful to its source material.
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is a fairly routine action film for 1950, with its high level of suspense, strong-arm police procedural tactics, and caper-film trappings. However, a definite
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script for the film version was nominated for an Edgar in the screenplay category. Aside from changing the setting from
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most charming Father O'Flaherty voice, 'Make it look accidental.' That's one of the more chilling moments of
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Critic Jerry
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Fifties Hollywood. Director Maté also helmed the classic
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film review, 1999. Last accessed: January 16, 2008.
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346:Richard Karlan as Detective George Stein
538:"Union Station bustles with film plots"
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562:IMDb, Filming Locations section, ibid.
1030:English-language crime thriller films
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1025:English-language crime drama films
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387:-winning novel by Thomas Walsh.
370:as Detective Moreno (uncredited)
352:Charles Dayton as Howard Kettner
33:French theatrical release poster
349:Bigelow Sayre as Detective Ross
1005:Films directed by Rudolph Maté
985:Films based on American novels
975:American black-and-white films
507:. January 3, 1951. p. 58.
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970:American crime thriller films
1015:1950s English-language films
844:The Black Shield of Falworth
660:AFI Catalog of Feature Films
423:Filming locations include:
331:as Detective Eddie Shattuck
161:September 8, 1950
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1010:1950s crime thriller films
965:American crime drama films
772:The Prince Who Was a Thief
325:Fred Graff as Vince Marley
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404:Los Angeles Union Station
322:Don Dunning as Gus Hadder
253:Los Angeles Union Station
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1000:Paramount Pictures films
812:The Mississippi Gambler
400:Chicago's Union Station
364:as Hackett (uncredited)
960:1950 crime drama films
381:Nightmare in Manhattan
379:The film was based on
283:as Lt. William Calhoun
63:Nightmare in Manhattan
501:"Top Grosses of 1950"
396:Grand Central Station
319:as Henry L. Murchison
295:as Inspector Donnelly
249:Chicago Union Station
1020:1950s American films
995:Films set in Chicago
990:Rail transport films
932:Seven Seas to Calais
892:Three Violent People
796:Sally and Saint Anne
603:The Austin Chronicle
429:Downtown Los Angeles
868:Miracle in the Rain
780:When Worlds Collide
748:No Sad Songs for Me
289:as Joyce Willecombe
908:For the First Time
836:Siege at Red River
710:Films directed by
648:TCM Movie Database
313:as Lorna Murchison
251:(though filmed at
148:Paramount Pictures
138:Paramount Pictures
113:Ellsworth Hoagland
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876:The Rawhide Years
543:Los Angeles Times
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53:Sydney Boehm
43:Rudolph Maté
455:Dirty Harry
368:George Lynn
335:Parley Baer
287:Nancy Olson
233:Nancy Olson
218:crime drama
205:$ 1,425,000
89:Nancy Olson
73:Produced by
39:Directed by
955:1950 films
949:Categories
488:References
484:in 1950."
433:California
375:Background
329:James Seay
216:is a 1950
202:Box office
181:80 minutes
165:1950-09-08
130:Production
66:1950 novel
980:Film noir
828:Forbidden
586:Channel 4
549:April 12,
439:Reception
356:Jean Ruth
221:film noir
109:Edited by
637:AllMovie
194:Language
119:Music by
81:Starring
59:Based on
764:Branded
675:YouTube
657:at the
646:at the
573:Variety
505:Variety
446:Variety
197:English
186:Country
163: (
132:company
935:(1962)
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481:D.O.A.
804:Paula
472:noir,
385:Edgar
383:, an
626:IMDb
551:2014
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467:noir
275:Cast
243:Plot
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