Midnight Limited 1940
IMDb meta-data is 1 hour and 1 minute runtime, rated 5.0 by 128 cinematizens.
Genre: mystery
Verdict: Oh hum.
A series of robberies on the Midnight Limited train from New York City’s Grand Central Station have plod mystified. It is so dire that the Railroad is in danger of having to offer compensation to the victims. Rather than admit liability the company sends in the comatose John ‘Dusty’ King who reads his lines off cue cards without inflection.
Marjorie Reynolds is one of the victims, and she lights up the screen, casting Dusty into the shade. Gratuitous racial stereotypes recur. Dusty lays a trap. By means unfathomable it works. The end.
There are some nice touches. The method by which the villain gets on and off the train is neat though I have seen it done better in Terror by Night (1946). I. Stanford Jolley is, as always, a greasy villain.
He had 370+ credits on the IMDb, the last in 1974.
Reynolds never quite made the A list but she stole the show in Ministry of Fear (1944) directed by Fritz Lang. She also had the female lead in Holiday Inn (1942), her only other A film lead. Tant pis.