This is one of the most entertaining films in which nothing makes sense that you'll ever see. The entire premise of a young woman finding out she's the long-lost daughter and heiress of a railroad magnate is muddled with a pair of kidnappings, her and her boyfriend in separate incidents, but then, what looked like a ruse to make it seem her new identity was all a hoax, the story got back on track again when her father showed up! Talk about confusing! And if that wasn't enough zaniness, the passenger train Ruth Raymond Carson (Mary Carlisle) and her friend Georgia Latham (Una Merkel) were on was detained by a circus wreck! Elephants stroll in the middle of the track, and it wouldn't have been right if there wasn't a gorilla on board to escape and cause havoc! That gorilla by the way, was Ray Corrigan in a gorilla suit; the guy got tons of work in B pictures of the era by doing the big monkey routine.
All the while, Charles Ruggles is on hand as a private deflector (not detective!), hoping to prove his usefulness in 'deflecting' a crime before it happens! His use of perplexing bon mots, metaphors and non sequiturs pepper the story with humorous dialog that comes so fast and furious you almost need to pause the film to catch up. The murder of the movie's title occurs when Miss Carson's attendant Murray (Porter Hall) winds up dead, and it's only a matter of time before all the passengers are placed in jeopardy. The big reveal comes when the unseen brother of Ruth's father, Luke Carson (Berton Churchill), is heard proclaiming his revenge for being screwed out of a business deal by his brother years earlier.
The story rumbles to a frenetic, high speed, runaway train sequence that for its day must have been a very expensive production. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if it was influential as the idea behind the spectacular train sequence in a movie I saw earlier today with this year's "Mission Impossible - Dead Reckoning, Part One"! The only thing missing here was Charlie Ruggles parachuting into the train car!
All the while, Charles Ruggles is on hand as a private deflector (not detective!), hoping to prove his usefulness in 'deflecting' a crime before it happens! His use of perplexing bon mots, metaphors and non sequiturs pepper the story with humorous dialog that comes so fast and furious you almost need to pause the film to catch up. The murder of the movie's title occurs when Miss Carson's attendant Murray (Porter Hall) winds up dead, and it's only a matter of time before all the passengers are placed in jeopardy. The big reveal comes when the unseen brother of Ruth's father, Luke Carson (Berton Churchill), is heard proclaiming his revenge for being screwed out of a business deal by his brother years earlier.
The story rumbles to a frenetic, high speed, runaway train sequence that for its day must have been a very expensive production. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if it was influential as the idea behind the spectacular train sequence in a movie I saw earlier today with this year's "Mission Impossible - Dead Reckoning, Part One"! The only thing missing here was Charlie Ruggles parachuting into the train car!