Tonight’s episode of One Step Beyond features Jocelyn Brando (sister of Marlon) as a purported psychic who warns a skeptical man that he will soon be traveling by train, that he will meet a woman with an usual, snake-design ring, and that she will end up chasing him with a knife.
The man laughs her off. Why, he never travels by train! Sure, he has a trip coming up but he’s already paid for his plane tickets. This just proves what the man has always suspected, that psychic’s are all phony! But then he gets a message that his flight has been cancelled and he’s going to have to travel to his destination by …. TRAIN!
CAN YOU PROVE IT DIDN’T HAPPEN!?
This episode originally aired on February 3rd, 1959.
In this B-western programmer, Dave Collins (Ross Elliott) has just been released from prison. Because he knows how to operate a telegraph, outlaw Turk Thorne (John Dehner) tries to force Dave to get a job at a local telegraph office so that Turk can use his skills to rob a train.
Despite wanting to go straight, Dave also doesn’t want to get full of hot lead. He rides into town and gets a job at the ranch owned by Gail Martin (Joan Dixon). He is befriended by Gail’s two ranchhands, serious cowboy Tim Holt (played, believe it or not, by Tim Holt) and his comedy relief sidekick, Chito Rafferty (Richard Martin). Tim and Chito want revenge on Turk for killing one of their friends during a previous train robbery. Working with Dave, they set a trap for Turk and his gang. Meanwhile, Dave falls in love with Gail.
Hot Lead was one of the last of the 46 B-westerns that Tim Holt made for RKO Pictures. Holt started out playing the type of prototypical happy, go-lucky cowboys who were popular in the 1930s. At that time, he was unique as one of the few western stars to not play a continuing character who was named after him. While the studios promoted other western stars as essentially playing themselves, Tim Holt was promoted as being a serious actor. Holt’s films were popular with audiences but his career was put on hold while he served in World War II. Post-war, Holt played characters who were far more world-weary than his earlier cowboys and he also started to play characters who were specifically named “Tim Holt.”
Even though most of Holt’s later films were uneven in quality, Hot Lead is one of the better examples of the genre. Whether happy or serious, Tim Holt was always a convincing cowboy and he brings his natural gravitas to the role, playing his character as being the type of serious and no-nonsense cowboy that anyone would want in their corner. John Dehner was always a good villain and Ross Elliott is equally good as the man struggling not to go back to his old ways. The action scenes and the gunfights are well-directed and the story even carries an important message about giving people second chances. Not bad for a B-western!
Like many film noirs, this 1950 film opens with a murder.
On a dark night in San Francisco, a man attempts to blackmail an unseen person called “Danny Boy” and gets shot for his trouble. The gunshot is heard by a frustrated painter, named Frank Johnson (Ross Elliott), who is out walking his dog. Frank sees the dead body being pushed out of a car and then catches a shadowy glimpse of the killer. When the killer open fires on him, Frank runs for it.
Like a good citizen, Frank goes to the police but, when he learns that the victim was due to testify against a local gangster, Frank panics and vanishes. When Inspector Ferris (Robert Keith) goes to see Frank’s wife, Eleanor (Ann Sheridan), he’s shocked to discover that Eleanor isn’t shocked by Frank’s disappearance and that she doesn’t seem to care one way or the other. As Eleanor explains it, Frank is a notorious coward and, years ago, their once strong marriage became a loveless charade. Frank’s vanished and Eleanor doesn’t care.
Or does she?
While it quickly becomes obvious that Eleanor is telling the truth about not knowing where Frank is, she’s not being totally honest about no longer caring about him. For instance, when she learns that Frank has been hiding a heart condition from her, Eleanor goes to the doctor to pick up his medicine, just in case he should happen to come by the house. Of course, it’s not always easy to get out of the house, especially now that the police are watching Eleanor.
Eleanor wants to track down Frank without involving the police and it seems like there’s only one person who is interested in helping he do that.. Played by Dennis O’Keefe, this person is a tough reporter and he says that he wants to do an exclusive story on Frank. He offers to help Eleanor track him down and he even says that he’ll pay $1,000 for the chance to interview Frank. The reporter and Eleanor are soon searching San Francisco, retracing Frank’s day-to-day life and discovering that Frank loved Eleanor more than she ever realized….
What’s that? Oh, did I forget to mention the reporter’s name?
His name is Danny.
That’s right. Eleanor is trying to find Frank so that she can save his life and working with her is the one man who wants to kill him!
Needless to say, this leads to a great deal of suspense. On the one hand, you’re happy that Eleanor is rediscovering how much she loves Frank. On the other hand, you spend almost the entire movie worried that Eleanor is going to lead Danny right to him. Shot on location in San Francisco and featuring all of the dark shadows and tough dialogue that one could possibly hope to get in a film noir, Woman On The Run is an underrated suspense gem. Full of atmosphere and steadily building suspense, Woman on the Run features a great and acerbic performance from Ann Sheridan and a genuinely exciting climax that’s set at a local amusement park. Seriously, roller coasters are super scary!
Woman on the Run was directed by Norman Foster. If you’ve recently watched The Other Side of the Wind on Netflix, you might recognize the name. A longtime friend of Orson Welles, Foster played the role of Billy Boyle in Welles’s final film.
Through the Shattered Lens 