Railroaded!

Anthony Mann directed Railroaded! for Producers Releasing Corporation, known as the cheapest of the cheap independent studios, but this film demonstrates how a talented director can make a big film out of a minuscule budget. John Ireland plays no-good troublemaker Duke Martin, who executes a fake burglary of his girlfriend Clara’s (Jane Randolph) beauty salon, which fronts an illegal bookmaking operation, and kills a cop in the process; later, thanks to circumstantial evidence and Clara’s false testimony, police arrest young laundry truck driver Steve Ryan (Ed Kelly) whose sister Rosie (Sheila Ryan) is certain of Steve’s innocence and pursues her own investigation. Hugh Beaumont plays Police sergeant Mickey Ferguson, but it’s Randolph who steals the show as Duke’s co-conspirator, the girlfriend whose protean shifts from cockiness to shame to petulance to love are very amusing to watch (the extended girl fight scene in which Clara is beaten up by Rosie is equal parts hilarious and pathetic). “Don’t you trust me?” Clara asks Steve, who responds, “I like you, if that’s what you mean.” Bookending the film with beautifully rendered violence, both the opening and closing sequences culminate in shootouts that blend shadows and sound effects for maximum thrills.