Poslednji Kolosek aka The Last Railway (1956) Yugoslavian Railyard Noir

Directed by Zivorad 'Zika' Mitrovic. 

Written by Slavko Janevski and Zivorad 'Zika' Mitrovic. Music by Bojan Adamic, Cinematography by Dragoljub Karadzinovic.

Starring Jovan Milicevic as Vladimir Patrik, Marijan Lovric as Islednik Marko, Olivera Markovic as Olga, Salko Repak as Stari Patrik, Severin Bijelic as Toma, Dragomir Bojanic-Gidra as Jordan Popovski, Irena Kolesar as Jelena Mijatovic, Slobodan 'Cica' Perovic as Emil Stefanovic, Zarko Mitrovic as Simon Pasic and Vladimir Medar as switcher engineer Djordje.

Story

We see a Yugoslav Railways night freight train pull to a stop in a cloud of steam at a rail yard switch house on the Belgrade - Zagreb - Ljubljana line. Two yard brakemen watch as the fireman steps down off the locomotive. The fireman checks the drivers. 

One of the brakemen, Emil, complains about Vladimir their foreman not being there yet. The other, Jordan, tells him they are early and the switch engine usually runs late anyway, and Vladimir is smart to be sitting in the warm bar listing to Olga sing. 

Night Freight

Brakemen Emil lt. and Jordan rt.

A few minutes later the switcher engineer Djordje, blows his whistle and begins to pull into the yard early for once, ready to switch out freight cars from the just arrived freight train. So Jordan heads over the the bar to give Vladimir a heads up.

Switcher arriving in yard

Jordan getting Vladimir at the bar

Olga singing

Vladimir and Olga

Olga is just finishing her song. Vladimir is sort of "dating" Olga but is stringing her along, his main squeeze is in prison. She cashed one of his bad checks, didn't rat him out and did a year in the barbed wire hotel. She's getting out on New Years Eve.

When Vladimir sees Jordan he tells him that their shift doesn't start till 10PM. So Vladimir makes small talk to Olga till they got to go while Emil sits at the bar.

Right before 10:00, Jordan and Vladimir head into the yard to start their shift. Jordan tells him that they got to break out 10 coal cars from the freight just arrived and that the car they've been waiting for is sitting on a siding nearby.

So screw the freight they are getting theirs. Vladimir finds the car they want and the switcher hauls it away to the track parallel to another predetermined siding where they keep the box car that they use to transfer their contraband. The switcher is unhooked, and it streams off.

You see the entire switcher crew are handling smuggled goods, all sorts of banned items including pornography. Vladimir uses a special screwdriver like tool to remove the customs seal from the door.

Customs seal

Removal tool

They remove certain designated boxes and load them from that boxcar into their boxcar. Done, the customs seal is replaced and Vladimir hops into their boxcar and closes the doors. 

Outside the switcher hooks on the Vladimir's boxcar and the switcher halls it off to another designated spot the number 10 siding in the yard where a truck is waiting. The switcher engineer gives a toot on the whistle to tell Vladimir that the boxcar is lined up with the back of the truck. Vladimir opens the doors and they pass the contraband boxes down into the truck bed.

Vladimir lives at home with his retired engineer father Stari.  Stari intuitively figures out that something crooked is going on with Vladimir because he has too much money. 

The railroad has noticed the uptick in thefts and two Railroad Detectives, Marco and Toma are assigned to investigate the thefts. They find out from the local yard bulls that truck tracks were spotted at the number 10 siding that weren't there the other day. 

The Railroad Dicks

Emile is getting cold feet while the railroad detectives close in. The gang members decide it's time for Emile to have an accident. Of course it all goes Noirsville. 

Noirsville

This is a good foreign noir. If you are a train enthusiast it is also another interesting railroad set Noir. It can take it's place alongside Le Bête Humaine, Human Desire, The Narrow Margin, The Tall Target, Man On The Tracks, and Terror On A Train. 7/10