THE TALL TARGET
US, 1951, 78 minutes, and white.
Dick Powell, Adolphe Menjou, Paula Raymond, Marshall Thompson, Ruby Dee, Richard Rober, Leif Erickson, Will Geer, Florence Bates.
Directed by Anthony Mann.
The Tall Target is an imagined story about Abraham Lincoln, his giving speeches before his inauguration, expectations and travel through Baltimore and that there would be an assassination attempt.
Dick Powell portrays the policeman who had assisted Lincoln in his campaign and admired him, has discovered the plans for the assassination attempt, with about 20 different assassins, unbeknownst to each other, attempting to kill the President-elect. He explains the situation with documentation to police authorities in New York who laugh him out of the room. Only a major from Poughkeepsie seems to believe (Adolphe Menjou).
Powell has difficulties getting on the train to Baltimore and Washington, with the railway guard who is a letter of the law official. A policeman is murdered on the train, somebody takes Powell’s coat and ticket, having to get off, buy a new ticket, and try to investigate what is happening. The major is quite hospitable, even shooting the imposter through smoke and under the train, but eventually unmasked as the contact for the assassination.
Also on the train is a family from the South, Paula Raymond is the sister of Marshall Thompson, graduate from West Point, who emerges as one of the assassins. A very young Ruby Dee portrays the maid able to give information to the policeman and stand her ground, even though she was brought up in the South along with the white woman.
This is a train journey film, characters getting on and off, a local policeman trying to detain Powell who gets back on the train, and confronts the Southern family. The major is smooth and talks his way out of difficult situations.
There are two elderly ladies, one played by Florence Bates, who is anti the secessionists and gives her opinions on Lincoln very strongly. The other is a woman who demands complete privacy. When the train is delayed for an hour and a half to receive a package, it emerges at the end of the film that the package is a decoy and that it is Lincoln himself who has been spirited onto the train to avoid any assassination attempt.
Conventional filmmaking in many ways, but the director is Anthony Mann at the beginning of his career with Westerns in the 1950s and spectacles in the 1960s.
1. An entertaining speculation about a train trip, Abraham Lincoln and speeches, the President- elect before his inauguration, assassination plans and attempts?
2. MGM production values, black and white photography, musical score, the cast?
3. The film as a train journey? The background, John Kennedy and his role in the police, his documents about an assassination attempt, his admiration for Lincoln, working with him on his electioneering? Wanting to prevent the assassination? The authorities laughing at him? Giving up his badge?
4. Going to the train, the man early and keeping the seat, Kennedy searching for him, the imposter take his coat and ticket, having to get off the train and get another one, the argument at the ticket box, the encounter with the Southern family? Getting back on the train, finding the dead body? The later struggle with the imposter, the fight under the train and the imposter being shot?
5. Mrs Alsop, her vocal opinions about Abraham Lincoln and her wanting to report problems to him? The mysterious elderly lady, her privacy in the car?
6. The conductor, the letter of the law, the crisis he faced, tickets, the imposter? The delays, waiting for the package, having to go slowly because of possible uprisings, the anger of the driver and wanting to get away? The local police, taking Kennedy?
7. The major, present in New York, with his marching band, for the inauguration? His sympathy towards Kennedy, taking him into the cabin, the issue of the gun, shooting the imposter? Kennedy trying to sleep – and his tampering with the bullets, the major and his unmasking, his plan? Kennedy taking him to the police, his wangling his way out of being detained? The arrest?
8. The Southern family, suspicions of the West Point graduate, the revelation that he was in on the plan? His sister, her concern? Rachel, the slave, brought up with the sister, giving information to Kennedy, standing by her principles?
9. The delay, waiting for the package? The irony of its being old newspapers? Lincoln smuggled onto the train? The Pinkerton man, Lincoln himself?
10. The suspense on the train, the context of Lincoln in 1861 – and the range of passengers on the train and their denunciations of Lincoln, the secessionists, the Major and his business losses, the range of hostility and the credibility of an assassination attempt? And audiences knowing about
1865?
