The Tall Target (1951) The Wild Wild Noir

A very impressive period Noir made by MGM.

The entire film is a train journey from Jersey City to Washington D,C. The various night shots of the Philadelphia Western and Baltimore RR's  4-4-0 Night Flyer taking on water, high balling, arriving and departing and are gonna warm many a rail fan's heats. In this noir we have lamp lit shadows and silhouettes against billowing steam.

The Tall Target is like an amalgam of The Narrow Margin and TV's The Wild Wild West.

Instead of Jim West and  Artemus Gordon protecting President Grant with wondrous steam punk inventions. The Tall Target has an ex (officially undercover) New York Police Sergeant, John Kennedy (played by Dick Powell). Kennedy is acting as a private detective in the employ of...... spoiler below




<Spoiler> President elect Lincoln. Though we do not find this out till the very end). <end Spoiler>

John Kennedy (Dick Powell)

Kennedy's also reminiscent of Charles McGraw's LAPD detective in the Narrow Margin dealing with the would be assassins on a train who want to do in a states witness.

Kennedy has to rustically make due more realistically with nothing but his wits and his fists. At one point he has lost both his coat, his ticket, his gun, and his credentials and he has to convince the PW&B train's head conductor Homer Crowley (Will Geer in a great performance) of his real identity.

Conductor Homer Crowley (Will Geer) left with Inspector Reilly

The Night Flyer is full of both Republicans and abolitionists on their way to the inauguration and slave holders, southern sympathizers, and secessionists escaping the North on their way South.

 Colonel Caleb Jeffers (Adolphe Menjou)

Also in the mix are Colonel Caleb Jeffers (Adolphe Menjou) with his hand raised company of Poughkeepsie N.Y. Zouaves for the inauguration parade. Mrs. Charlotte Alsop (Florence Bates) an anti-slavery novelist,  Ex West Point Cadet, Lance Beaufort (Marshall Thompson) and his wife Ginny (Paula Raymond). They are traveling with their slave Rachel (Ruby Dee).

Lance Beaufort (Marshall Thompson) wife Ginny (Paula Raymond).

Other filn noir regulars make brief appearances, of note Percy Helton is Beemish a club car passenger others are Will Wright, Regis Toomey, Tom Powers, and Peter Brocco.

February 22, 1861. Our tale begins in the Jersey City Terminal of the Philadelphia Western and Baltimore RR. The Night Flyer is backing into the terminal. In two hours it's scheduled to depart for Baltimore.

NYPD Sergeant Kennedy has snooped out an assassination conspiracy. He sends a report to the Secretary of war and a telegram to Lincoln. In a meeting with a lot of witnesses Kennedy's boss PD Superintendent Stroud calls his findings "hogwash." Kennedy "resigns" and goes undercover. He heads across the Hudson to the railroad terminal. There, he is supposed to meet his friend and fellow officer Inspector Reilly. His friend has his valise and has bought him his ticket.

When Reilly finally gets to the gate, he explains the situation to conductor Crowley who lets him board to hold Kennedy a seat.

Interspersed with the drama are some nice sequences depicting old time railroading. There is a great shot of the Night Flyer backing slowly into the terminal the engineer watching the far off swinging of the brakeman's lantern. When it stops its time to brake. Another sequence has the tender taking on water.

Terminal Train Shed - Jersey City

Watching the swinging  brakeman's lantern 

When Kennedy arrives on the train he finds his valise but no Reilly who has his ticket. Without his ticket conductor Crowley puts him off the train. He tries to buy another ticket but the train is sold out. When the train starts to pull out Kennedy hops on the last car. He begins to systematically search the train working from rear to front. He finds Reilly's broken glasses on the floor of the baggage car. He finally finds Reilly's body laying on the platform at the front of the baggage car just as it slips off into the void.

The very dead Inspector Reilly 

Back at his seat, he finds an impostor (Leif Erickson) occupying it and wearing his coat. Conductor Crowley is summoned to settle the dispute. The impostor has both Kennedy's credentials and gun which were in the coat. Kennedy tells the conductor that Colonel Jeffers in the rear car can vouch for him.

At the next station the impostor gets the drop on Kennedy and with a gun in his back forces him off the train.

He walks Kennedy up to the locomotive. He's going to kill him when the whistle blows. However, Kennedy while lighting his last cigar flicks the match in his face and lunges. They both go down alongside the locomotive rolling partially under it.

The impostor (Leif Ericsson) and Kennedy

The gun goes off and Colonel Jeffers and Crowley run up to the locomotive to investigate. Jeffers has his gun out. He's peering through the driving wheels at the two struggling men shrouded in steam. He fires at the two men and kills the stranger. Jeffers then offers the pistol to Kennedy, but Kennedy is not sure if who Jeffers killed was intentional or a mistake.

They hear the shot

Later, Kennedy and Jeffers are back at Jeffers private room. Jeffers offers Kennedy his bunk, saying he'll stay up a while and drink. Kennedy lays back to rest and covers his face with a newspaper and tries to catch some winks. It all goes Noirsville when Jeffers, thinking Kennedy's asleep, recovers the pistol he lent and shoots Kennedy in the head.

But Kennedy had pried the ball out of the paper cartridge so it was essentially a blank He grabs the gun from Jeffers replaces the cartridge with one that has a bullet and puts Jeffers under arrest.

Noirsville

Draft horses pulling train through Baltimore

Rachel (Ruby Dee)

The film has an interesting, compelling, and plausible plot. There is enough ambiguity woven throughout that the director keeps you guessing, you don't know who to trust. The whole ensemble does a great job and Noir veteran Powell shows that he can hit on all cylinders even in a period piece.

There are also small insightful vignettes overheard between the travelers and with Kennedy that illustrate the state of division in the country circa 1860.

Another historical bonus is the depiction of an old Baltimore statute that forbade steam locomotives from running through the city. The train crews had to haul engine and cars through the streets with draft teams.

The Tall Target was expertly and stylishly directed Anthony Mann who gave us Classic Noirs, Side Street, Border Incident, Reign of Terror, He Walked by Night, Raw Deal, T-Men, Railroaded!, and Desperate. Cinematography was by Paul Vogel who lensed Lady in the Lake, High Wall, Black Hand, Dial 1119, and The Sellout. The Set Decoration was by Ralph S. Hurst and 
Edwin B. Willis and the Art Direction was by Cedric Gibbons and Eddie Imazu.

The Tall Target fits in nicely with other period noirs Gaslight, The Lodger, House By The River, Pursued, Blood On The Moon, The Outcasts of Poker Flats, Reign Of Terror, and Hangover Square. There are probably others.

Screen caps from a TCM Streamer. 9/10