Crime kingpin Big Dutch (Lyle Talbot) rides on a train to Washington
because he has been subpoenaed to testify before a Congressional committee,
and since reporter David Chase (Edmund Lowe) figures that not everybody
will like what Big Dutch has to say and someone might want to murder him,
he takes the same train. Chase soon has his prime suspect, too, gangster
Rocco Valenti (John Sebastian), who's also on the train - but then he
finds out Valenti has been subpoenaed as well. Still, Big Dutch is
murdered, and what's weird about this murder is that Chase was standing
right outside his train compartment which and saw noone enter or leave
when the crime was committed - and thus, Big Dutch's bodyguard Danny (John
Harmon) is quick to suspect Chase himself of the killing and takes him
captive, and Valenti as well. But somehow, Chase manages to get rid of
Danny, go through Big Dutch's luggage and find midget Jimmy (Angelo
Rossitto) in one of the bags - and Jimmy, who had killed Big Dutch, is
Danny's brother, who wanted his own boss Big Dutch dead because he would
have snitched even on him before the Congressional committee. In the end
of course, Chase is able to have all the baddies arrested with the help of
the conductor (Pat Gleason). True, the plausability of this
episode is at best questionable, and the story as a whole is a bit
childish and not properly thought through, and yet a good cast - first and
foremost Edmund Lowe - and a light-footed approach still bring this one to
life. Not a great moment in television history perhaps, but quite alright
and better than many early 1950's crime shows.
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