☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
The
Tall Target (1951) – A. Mann
Very taut and suspenseful thriller from
director Anthony Mann and starring one of my favorites, Dick Powell, as a
police detective intent on foiling an assassination plot against president-elect
Abraham Lincoln. The entire film takes
place on a train en route from New York to Washington and then to further
points south. The talk among passengers
(headed south) is virulently anti-Lincoln.
Powell is on the wrong side of politics in supporting “the tall target”
and his superiors won’t back his investigation.
So, he goes it alone, tangling with both the plotters and the police who
get in his way. Ruby Dee has a good role
has a slave who helps Powell (and the film does not shy away from condemning
slavery). Apparently, the film is historically accurate (more or less), as
Lincoln really did have to “sneak” into Washington for his inauguration. Who knew?
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