starring William Holden, Nancy Olson, Barry Fitzgerald
directed by Rudolph Maté
81 minutes
Civilian Joyce Willecombe (Nancy Olson) helps two Chicago police officers, Lieutenant Bill Calhoun (William Holden) and Inspector Donnelly (Barry Fitzgerald), track down and recover Lorna Murchison. The kidnappers hoped to ransom her for $100,000.
The movie ends with a gun battle between Calhoun and one of the kidnappers in the tunnels beneath Union Station.
I saw this movie as part of the 2024 edition of the Noir City DC film festival. It was the front half of a double feature. The back half was Cairo Station (1958). The thread that connects the two can be found in the titles of the films.
Most of this movie (probably more than two-thirds) takes place at Union Station in Chicago. I wasn't sure in which city the story took place until the scene that took place at the stock yards.
There was one member of the cast, who didn't have any lines that I thought might be Jack Warden but it wasn't.
Lyle Bettger played the part of Joe Beacom, one of the kidnappers. He was great in that role. He really seemed unhinged. I have seen a couple other films that he was in, The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) and Gunfight at the OK Corral (1957), but it has been 40 or more years since I last saw either of those movies.
This is a decent but not terribly notable movie. It was nice to see that Joyce played a significant part in solving the case and helping to get Lorna returned safely.
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