I didn't think anybody could have taken such an inherently suspenseful and exciting situation as a time bomb on a public conveyance and made a dull, stupid movie out of it until I saw "Spy Train." While not quite Monogram at its absolute cheesiest (I watched this not long after catching a download of the Mystery Science Theatre 3000 version of the awful Bela Lugosi vehicle "The Corpse Vanishes" and that one's even worse than this, though this is bad enough the MST3K crew could have done a great number on it), "Spy Train" has all the hallmarks of a bad "B" movie: a plot that makes utterly no sense (didn't the four writers ever talk to each other?), slovenly direction by Harold Young (who has a place in my particular cinematic circle of hell for making the 1934 Leslie Howard "Scarlet Pimpernel" far less fun than it had a right to be), cheap sets, almost incoherent editing and wildly inappropriate music. (Some films of the period staged scenes of suspense, violence or crime to swing music to create an ironic effect; this one did so only because that was what was in Monogram's rent-a-score that week.) I'm giving this a 2 instead of a 1 (you guys don't have a zero, which is what "Smokin' Aces" really deserved) because Richard Travis and Catherine Craig are at least personable and pleasant as the leads; they clearly deserved (and Travis eventually got) better parts than these. This film is trying SO hard to rip off Hitchcock (mostly "The Lady Vanishes" with the bomb gimmick from "Sabotage") and falling so far short of the Master it's rather pathetic, actually.
Review of Spy Train
