Station West

If Raymond Chandler wrote a Western, it might be something like Station West, but it would be much better. This 1948 film, directed by Sidney Lanfield, stars Dick Powell, who is essentially reprising his role as Philip Marlowe in Murder, My Sweet except in a Stetson and boots.

Powell is an undercover military intelligence officer sent to a mining town to find out who killed two soldiers transporting a shipment of gold. It seems that every time a stagecoach loaded with gold is sent out, it gets robbed. Powell suspects that the local boss of the town, who happens to a woman (Jane Greer) is behind it, but of course the two fall in love. There are a variety of henchman, and a slippery lawyer played by Raymond Burr.

Like a Chandler detective novel, the patter from our hero is quick and sharp, and he is somewhat world weary and not afraid of guns. The plot is also needlessly complicated--the film is only 79 minutes long, and some stuff seems to be cut out. There is some business with a deposition that confused me.

Station West also has some implausible incidents, such as when Powell, who is retrieving some gold he stashed, is surprised by Agnes Moorehead, who plays the owner of a gold mine. How, on a dusty trail, a woman in a floor-length dress who does not appear to have a horse just pops out of nowhere and gets the advantage on a military officer is tough to fathom.

Station West is not a great film, but it is a satisfactory time waster, and I would watch anything with Jane Greer, who was one of the silver screen's great beauties.