MIDNIGHT LIMITED

US, 1940, 65 minutes, Black-and-white.
John King, Marjorie Reynolds, George Cleveland, Edward Keane, Monte Collins.
Directed by Howard Brotherton.

An enjoyable supporting feature, crime and on trains, not murders but robberies.

The Midnight Limited goes from New York City to Montréal and, within minutes of the opening of the film, there is a diamond robbery, the alarm chain being pulled, an open door and the robber disappearing. However, he also confronts a young woman on the train and takes her documents which entitle her and her aunt to a property.

The police and the railway authorities investigate the case, especially with Val Lennon (John King), the young woman (Marjorie Reynolds) confronting the police, desperate about the documents, but wanting to participate in the search. They discover that she had seen the robber in the confrontation.

Despite best efforts, interviewing the passengers in that car on the train, the railway officials, the African- American porter (some jokes at his expense), they make no headway. They even interview the man in the locked luggage car.

And then, there is a second robbery, a prominent gambler loses his money in much the same way on the same train. In fact, the audience has seen the clerk at the hotel ringing the crime boss to indicate the travellers and what they are carrying. One of the police is shot during the robbery and so the investigators have a more personalised cause for pursuing the criminals.

Eventually, Lennon decides to set up a situation, disguising himself as a French- Canadian businessman – and he too is robbed. The alarm chain is pulled yet again.

There is a comic episode with an old alcoholic who was on the train each time – it is revealed that he answered and added to carry documents to Montréal for a fee.

However, Lennon has worked out what was happening, the fact that it was the guard who was doing the robberies and was able to go back to the luggage car while everybody was looking at the open door and hide in a container, with the collaboration of the man in charge of the carriage.

All solved, everything recovered, happy ending – but an enjoyable pacey crime investigation episode.