MGM assembled a dandy little cast for a B picture that would be an A list product at a studio like Universal, Republic, or RKO. Grand Central Murder is replete with snappy dialog, mostly coming from Van Heflin as he plays a private detective hired by Stephen McNally to get him out of a frame for murder. McNally doesn't help his case any by making a threatening phone call to Patricia Dane whose evidence has him in custody.
In fact Dane has a whole host of suspects, enough for a Thin Man feature who'd like to knock her off. She'll do whatever it takes to climb into the easy life. She's traded up until she finally has landed seven million dollar Mark Daniels who dumped Cecilia Parker for her.
The film is told in flashback by any number of suspects and witnesses so that we get a picture of what Dane was like. As Heflin says whoever knocked her off is in line for a Nobel Prize.
The Thin Man connection with this film is aided by the presence of Sam Levene as investigating police detective. As Lieutenant Abrams in some of the Thin Man series Levene is not stupid, just not as smart as Nick Charles. Here he's a blithering idiot who Van Heflin is constantly shooting down with some pointed barbs.
It's a puzzler all right. Dane is found dead in the shower of a private railroad car in Grand Central Station without a mark on her. But the cops smell murder and they investigate it as such.
You do feel kind of sorry for the perpetrator in the end. In fact he kills twice in this film, the second victim being Roman Bohnen who was Dane's stepfather and a fake psychic and a blackmailer. Another loss that wasn't mourned by many.
Grand Central Murder is a great B film which might have been meant as a Thin Man feature. Heflin makes with the cracks just as good as William Powell ever did and is just as sharp.
In fact Dane has a whole host of suspects, enough for a Thin Man feature who'd like to knock her off. She'll do whatever it takes to climb into the easy life. She's traded up until she finally has landed seven million dollar Mark Daniels who dumped Cecilia Parker for her.
The film is told in flashback by any number of suspects and witnesses so that we get a picture of what Dane was like. As Heflin says whoever knocked her off is in line for a Nobel Prize.
The Thin Man connection with this film is aided by the presence of Sam Levene as investigating police detective. As Lieutenant Abrams in some of the Thin Man series Levene is not stupid, just not as smart as Nick Charles. Here he's a blithering idiot who Van Heflin is constantly shooting down with some pointed barbs.
It's a puzzler all right. Dane is found dead in the shower of a private railroad car in Grand Central Station without a mark on her. But the cops smell murder and they investigate it as such.
You do feel kind of sorry for the perpetrator in the end. In fact he kills twice in this film, the second victim being Roman Bohnen who was Dane's stepfather and a fake psychic and a blackmailer. Another loss that wasn't mourned by many.
Grand Central Murder is a great B film which might have been meant as a Thin Man feature. Heflin makes with the cracks just as good as William Powell ever did and is just as sharp.