A Korean War vet returns to his job as a railroad engineer and becomes involved in a sordid affair with a co-worker's wife and murder. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive, in partnership with Sony Pictures Entertainment, in 1997.
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CinemaSerf
7
By CinemaSerf
"Jeff" (Glenn Ford) returns from the Korean War to the United States where he picks up where he left off at the railroad. His boss "Buckley" (Broderick Crawford) is the jealous sort and suspects that his wife "Vicki" (Gloria Grahame) is playing away with her former, and wealthy, boss. When she returns home one night, he confronts her and forces her to write a letter that will lure the man to an unused stateroom on a train - and, well... Thing is, "Jeff" is also on the train - and he manages to complicate their exit strategy. She sees a chance, now, to be rid of her brutish husband and sets about seducing her new friend and trying to manipulate him into finding a new use for an heavy spanner. Graham is on good form here as the duplicitous woman, and Crawford is also quite effective as the frequently whiskey-sodden husband. It's Ford that's a bit of a revelation for me, though. I always found him rather a bland actor. Like Alan Ladd, he never quite managed to ignite a role for me - yet here, he goes some way to delivering a convincing performance as the man gradually ensnared in the trap of a shrewd "Vicki". This also does not end as I was expecting - it's got a sense of validation that I rather enjoyed. It's quite well paced with a script notable more for it's brevity than for anything especially potent and the three actors work well to deliver a solid and watchable drama.
