The Mystery Train

Hedda Hopper, respected and feared Hollywood gossip columnist, began her Hollywood career acting in bit parts. In this pre-Code quickie, she has a rare leading role as a society lady whose estate is dwindling fast and in order to save her "assets," she hatches a plan to inherit money. The train she's on derails and she befriends and uses a young lady who is running from the law. She vouches for her and makes her masquerade as her niece to marry into a wealthy family. Therefore, as the Aunt, she will then come into some very valuable jewelry she has been coveting. This exciting and fast-paced programmer has some predictable complications as the young man/victim and the "niece" fall in love, and she doesn't like lying to him. But Hedda threatens to expose her if she doesn't comply with this temporary deception. Logic flies out the window here. What does Hedda expect to happen – to get away with her shenanigans? But this little film is long on entertainment and has a very exciting finale on a runaway train. Every once in a while, I find a film I love to talk about and recommend to real film lovers; this is my latest one! "Mystery Train" is a long- lost film classic that should be discovered today!

Hedda Hopper's movie career was basically a lifetime of bit-parts (147 credits on IMDb, most of them forgettable), and no-one ever claimed she was a great actress, except in her other career as a gossip-columnist, where she could be highly convincing as a helpless little frilly female, to whom men would confide their secrets - only to find them plastered all over next morning's paper. (Spencer Tracy was so furious, he kicked her in the pants.) So this is one of the few opportunities to see her in a starring role, though at just 62 minutes, it's obviously a B-film and the low budget does show through.

When you hear that it's a story of mistaken identity, involving the theft of a priceless diamond, you can't help thinking of Wodehouse, who had a surprisingly strong influence on Hollywood, and that is the kind of light snack we're talking about. (Why it needed four writers is anybody's guess.)

The date of 1931 signals the first shock of the Depression, so the unremarkable footage of the rich at play would have provided much-needed escapism for hard-up viewers in a thousand small-town cinemas. There is topicality in Hopper's character losing everything in a stock-market gamble. And film-buffs will note the signs that we are just pre-Code, with a distinctly suggestive passage where a young man teaches the girl golf by reaching around her from behind.

This was a pretty foggy print, and the sound is a bit dim too. The climactic fight-scene is so fake and feeble, you can almost hear John Wayne sneering "Fight-scene? Heck, I thought it was a love-scene." But at least Hopper is looking her best - a distinguished beauty, however widely disliked.

Like "Defenders of the Law", this is another interesting "B" scripted by Hampton Del Ruth (this time in collaboration with skillful director Phil Whitman). As the title implies, this one is an absolute must for railroad buffs – and unlike some other "B" movies which promise much but deliver little, this one doesn't disappoint, with some terrific train footage at both the beginning and the climax (which will have most fans on the edge of their seats). Queenly villainess Hedda Hopper is top billed over the lovely Marceline Day, Nick Stuart makes a more-than-adequate hero, Bryant Washburn of course is a collaborating heavy, while Al Cooke and the super-attractive Carol Tevis play a comic groom and bride.

"The Mystery Train" is an alluring title for a movie. And it has the premise for a good plot. Unfortunately, it goes the way of so many other poverty row productions of the early Hollywood years. The screenplay is poorly done, and the script is very weak. The technical aspects are poor, the cinematography is low rate and the directing and acting are examples of why so many lesser studios and would-be stars didn't last long.

The only person of any stature in the film is Hedda Hopper. She never attained stardom as an actress, but kept plugging away with small roles into old age. She had 146 film credits in her lifetime. Of course, she was most known as a Hollywood gossip columnist. That was from the mid- 1930s to the mid-1950s. And she kept doing small parts in movies here and there while peddling her popular and lucrative gossip business.

Hopper had a rival – Louella Parsons, who came on the gossip scene much sooner. But, Parsons didn't have an acting career. The interest in this film is mostly to see Hopper in one of her roles. She wasn't in any major hits or high quality movies. So, movie buffs might have to look hard to find films in which she has a role.

I was curious about some of the actors, so I looked them up on IMDb. Some of them had long stints in silent films, but didn't go much beyond that. Al Cooke had 152 film credits but his last appearance was in a 1933 short. Bryant Washburn had 377 credits, mostly bit parts through the 1940s. Marceline Day, the heroine in this film, had 64 credits but had a short-lived career of just 25 years. Nick Stuart, a Romanian born actor, had 52 credits – all small roles and bit parts through the 1950s.

Hedda Hopper has been speculating in the market and lost everything. Bryant Washburn says his trust for millionaire Nick Stuart is about to be dissolved. They decide a niece for Mrs. Hopper will repair the holes in each of their finances by marrying young Mr. Stuart. Fortunately(!) the train they are on has a wreck, and Marceline Day escapes custody. Mrs. Hopper immediately adopts her and the plan moves forward.

It's a good set-up, although fans of old movies will find few novelties in its execution. The senior pair are good in their acting; the youngsters a bit stiff. Although Hampton Del Ruth inserted several funny bits in the movie, like Al Cooke and Carol Tevis as quarreling newlyweds, director Phil Whitman doesn't seem to integrate them into the story. Even the title seems to have been chosen to suggest thrills that never appear; the only mystery having to do with trains here is why they keep crashing when the principal actors are on them.