Railroaded! (1947)

There is something demoniacally fascinating about John Ireland in this film, as if you almost would wish he could get away, but then his case is hopeless. All the other actors vanish in his presence, and the honest detective has no real character. The dames are opposites, they both put their faith in John Ireland and get the worse for it, but this noir certainly winds its way into constantly deeper intrigue of trouble, while John Ireland certainly makes the best of it. There are some flaws but not disturbing enough to be remembered. The story is good enough while you wonder at the policemen not discovering innocence when they see it.

Jane Randolph (Clara) stages a robbery at her own beauty parlour. Her boyfriend gangster John Ireland (Duke) is in on it but things go wrong when his partner Keefe Brasselle (Kowalski) is shot and kills a policeman in the process. Ireland, Brasselle and Randolph all set up Ed Kelly (Steve) to take the blame and go to the electric chair for this crime that he did not commit and his sister Sheila Ryan (Rosie) sets out to prove his innocence.This is a predictable film that contains some inexplicable actions that don't make sense. Why would Ireland get in touch with sister Sheila? No sense at all. I also briefly fell asleep for a part of this film and have to report that when I awoke the film panned out exactly as expected. There are no surprises with this one but John Ireland makes a good baddie.

Railroaded! (1947) *** (out of 4) Anthony Mann directed this thriller, which has a Detective (Hugh Beaumont) trying to clear an innocent man of murder charges. The Detective eventually falls for the suspect's sister (Sheila Ryan), which leads to a wannabe gangster (John Ireland) who we know is the real killer. This is a pretty suspenseful and highly entertaining little film that has a whole lot going for it. Mann does a terrific job at keeping the film moving very nicely and he has enough interesting characters for two films. This was my first time seeing Beaumont outside of his role of the father on Leave it to Beaver and I was shocked to see how well he played a tough guy. His Detective has all the charm, energy and toughness, which is expected in a film like this. Ireland is terrific as the thug and Ryan does a nice job, although she's not on the same level as the two men. There's also a wonderful fight between two women, which has to be seen to be believed.

After watching RAILROADED, I'm convinced JOHN IRELAND could have taken his place alongside men like ROBERT MITCHUM doing grim little film noirs during the '40s. He's excellent as a tight-lipped gangster with a scowling expression as he methodically kills anyone double-crossing him or standing in his way. He knocks around his blonde girlfriend (JANE RANDOLPH) with woman-hating contempt and fires bullets with casual lack of concern for fatalities. In short, he makes an ideal film noir anti-hero.HUGH BEAUMONT, known by most fans principally as Beaver's dad on TV, is only lukewarm as the detective who falls for SHIELAH RYAN and decides to help her track down the killer after Ireland frames her kid brother (ED KELLY) for the murder of a policeman. Their final fade-out kiss looks a little clumsy but--hey, the accent is on crime and action, not romance.Anthony Mann does the best he can with a low-budget crime melodrama and turns it into a taut, well-made, shadowy film noir with Ireland showing his stuff as a ruthless gangster.Summing up: Brisk and entertaining, it's well worth watching for fans of this genre.