This later entry from the Pine-Thomas unit, that made a lot of competent B pictures in the 1940's, adopts the pseudo-documentary style that came into fashion in the late 40's and 50's. Here William Eythe (The Oxbow Incident, Colonel Effingham's Raid etc.) plays a young railroad detective with a rural California assignment, who leads an investigation into a daring daylight train robbery. Mysterious thieves bomb a train and steal several sacks of mail, one containing a large payroll shipment. The thieves get away almost undetected except that one man's mask drops causing his partner to shoot four potential witnesses. The Alpha Video print is very washy and somewhat grainy, just barely watchable. George Reeves (TV's Superman of the 1950's) gets top billing on the box, but actually his performance does not stand out. Eythe, who never really made it, gives a solid performance, and is supported by a number of very good character actors who make the best of some occasionally clunky dialog. Paul Valentine who played one of Kirk Douglas's henchmen in the classic noir Out of the Past gives the most interesting performance as a charming and self-righteous bad guy with a habit of eliminating witnesses. The film becomes a blend of police procedural and Western, but it is competently done and the robbery sequences morethan that. The story holds your attention, even if it is nothing special. The score by the French composer Lucien Caillet is good but intrusive. The direction is efficient. The narrator intones with the right authority. This tribute to railroad detectives is worth the look.
Review of Special Agent
