User Reviews

***SPOILERS*** Having been reported lost or destroyed for some 65 years he movie "In Whose Hand?" had resurfaced in the late 1990's and is now's being shown on Turner Movie Classics which is great news to all of us who've heard about the films demise and just about gave up on ever being able to view it. Better then average murder mystery set on a train going to San Francisco where we see the victim jeweler Chambers get it as soon as the opening credits role down the screen. Chambers smoking a joint and reading the newspaper is surprised by the unseen assailant and just before he gets it, with a knife in his chest, opens his mouth so wide, with a super zoom shot of it, that you can not only count every tooth in it but every cavity and filling as well.

We then go back some four hours before Chambers' murder to see what lead up to it and that has to do with escaped murderer Killer Delmar who's out looking to whack that stoolie Chick Louis who ratted on him. Sneaking on the train with the help of his old lady Mrs. Delmar the killer plans to do in Chick but you wonder why then was Chambers, who had nothing to do with Delmars arrest and imprisonment, murdered instead? that's the real mystery in the movie.

Being followed by this annoying drunk Tom, who probably thinks that he's his favorite bartender, newspaper reporter Jimmy gets himself on the train not to get the big scoop but because he's got the hots for pretty Alice who mistaking gave the guy a kiss, thinking that he was someone else, before she got on the express. Nothing really happens until Mrs. Delmar goes into the baggage compartment to check after her pooch and then planting a knife, that she histed from trains kitchen silverware, that Killer Delmar would be able to use on Chick who's also on the train being taken into protective custody by detective Halligan.

Knocking out the conductor Delmar goes on top of the train, so he won't be spotted, and jumps from car to car to get to Chick, after killing both train conductors in the front cab, and pay him back for what he did, squeal, to him. Back on the train Chick get's away from Halligan by grabbing his revolver, and key to the handcuffs on him, while he's asleep and tries to makes his getaway only to run into, off camera, the vengeful Delmar who runs him through with the stake knife. Chambers getting high on a pot or marijuana cigarette, supplied to him by con artist Eileen, is also run through by a knife wielding killer but obviously not Killer Delmar.

It turns out that Chambers was very critical of someone on the train, a fellow jeweler, who was cheating his customers with fake stones and gold and silver rings and necklaces who ended up behind bars and who's cell-mate was, what a coincident, Killer Delmar! Delmar not wanting to be accused of killing someone that he didn't, he gladly took credit to squealer Chick's murder, makes a break from his captors by grabbing Det. Halligan's gun, again!, but Jimmy turns the lights off and get's to train engine, where Killer Delmar had earlier killed the conductor and his helper, to stop the runaway train. Pandemonium breaks out in the darkened train car with Delmar his moll,or old lady, and everyone else in the cast having it out a wild free for all.

It turns out, when the lights are turned on, that Delmar is recaptured the person who murdered Chambers shot and killed, by Killer Delmar, with Jimmy not only getting the big scoop but getting married to the girl of his dreams that he just met some four hours earlier, talking about love at first sight, Alice. As for the lovable and bumbling drunk Tom? he slept through all the action.

Actually, I'd give this one a 10 when judged against other B mystery/crime thrillers of the 1930's, but it loses an entire star due to the presence of an obnoxious unnamed drunk (Tom Dugan) who begins following ace reporter Jimmy Hawley (Ben Lyon) after he runs into him outside of a phone booth at the train depot. The drunk continues to follow him around the train yards, and on the train, as Hawley is on the trail of not only a story on the escaped "Killer Delmar" but an attractive young lady (Barbara Weeks as Alice Murray) as well. I've seen the annoying drunk "joke" taken too far in several films made 1929-1933, and maybe Prohibition era audiences thought it funny - public drunkenness when drink is technically illegal - but today the joke is tiresome after about ten seconds, and this one struggles to go on for half the film.

This film is structured unusually as well. The first scene of the movie shows the first murder onboard the train - in the end there are five. The victim is seen reading a newspaper in his berth and we are given several hints as to why this particular victim may have been killed, but you do not see the killer. Then the film goes backwards in time to the events leading up to the killing. After Jimmy gets on board the train and begins pitching woo to Alice all the while trying to avoid the drunk that seems to think they're pals, we also meet the rest of the passengers of note - a lady con artist and thief, a womanizing jeweler, a widow taking her husband's coffin back to be buried, a newlywed couple, an old curmudgeon who initially doesn't seem to have a place in the plot, and a cop taking a con (Dwight Frye) to the big house. All of this is done amidst Jimmy's hunch that Killer Delmar is on this train.

After dinner the passengers retire to their berths. The kitchen workers also report two steak knives are missing. You'll see one stolen and by whom, but not the second knife. The convict escapes from the cop and tries to make his getaway. The careless cop then thinks somehow his incompetence gives him the right to rouse the whole train and be rude about it at that and, once the first victim's body is found, to bully the rest of the passengers regarding the killing. Lucky for the clueless cop that Jimmy is on board because he pretty much figures out the whole thing.

This film has everything - passengers smoking custom made marijuana cigarettes, a runaway train coming to a dangerous curve, the lids of coffins opening slowly and mysteriously like something out of Dracula, and - Jimmy was right - Killer Delmar IS on the train, lumbering about and even dressed like Frankenstein's monster, even mute like him until the last 10 minutes or so, then he has plenty to say. There's even the flirting Jimmy and Alice sleeping in berths one above the other sharing a rather sexy though innocent good night scene.

Ben Lyon did a great job here as a credible romantic lead, ace reporter, solver of mysteries, and saves the day as well. Also deserving honorable mention is Polly Walters as the cigar stand attendant who first catches Jimmy's eye until the sound of police sirens attracts his attention. Polly often played rather dense sounding telephone operators in the 30's and added real atmosphere wherever she showed up.

The credits end with a murder and the oft used line (in 1932), this time by an engine driver of "nothing ever happens on this line"!! The victim is a Mr. Chambers and in keeping with Kenneth Thomson's usual movie persona, while he is a jeweller and married he still has an eye for the ladies - and how!!

I agree with most of the reviews - just a superb fast paced whodunit set on the Los Angeles to Frisco train. Time winds back to 8 pm with Chambers kissing his wife goodbye but already eyeing off an enticing beauty boarding the train. She is no "wide eyed innocent" - she has been given instructions to get, by all means at her disposal, a diamond and sapphire bracelet that Chambers is eager to show her.

The proper star is Ben Lyon as likable reporter Jimmy, pursuing cutie Alice (Barbara Weeks was a Wampas Baby Star but it didn't help her much in her quest for film glory) when he is not chasing down escaped killer Delmarr (Nat Pendleton). Delmarr is figured to go after the train because Chick, a felon whose evidence led to the capture of Delmarr, is on it. Again, as Chick, Dwight Frye adds another characterization to his unique gallery. As well, there is Mr. Martin (William V. Mong) a grumpy passenger who has more to do with the plot than is first revealed, Helene Millard who even though in her late 20s seemed destined to play matrons and designing women throughout her short career. She plays a widow in this - but does she have a secret?? Also in the cast was Tom Dugan, a popular support actor at this time, playing a particularly annoying drunk who seems to attach himself to Jimmy, no doubt to give him a buddy!! As well there is delightful Polly Walters as - not a telephone girl this time but a cigar store girl who sees in Jimmy all the possibilities of a steak, mushroom and onion dinner!!!

As with a few other pre-code films - those "funny cigarettes" come into play. They play a vital role in establishing just which of the train travellers (who denied having any knowledge of Chambers) were really quite chummy. It doesn't take the police long to follow the trail left by Chamber's distinctive cigarette to Eileen!! This proved to be Ethel Kenyon's last role in a mysterious film career. She had come to the movies after appearing in "Strike Up the Band" on Broadway but her films were few. With director Ben Stoloff drawing creditable performances from all players as well as bringing out the suspense from every angle, it's the fastest 63 minutes you'll ever spend!!

Highly Recommended.