Time Table (1956)
5/10
Turntable
13 August 2014
Warning: Spoilers
***SPOILERS***One the many film noir "Perfect Crime" movies of the 1950's that turned out to be anything but perfect has hotshot insurance investigator Charlie Norman, Mark Stevens, trying to act like a tough guy but coming across more like the wimpy Filex Unger of the TV show "The Odd Couple". In fact it's Felix's partner it that show Jack Klugman, as Oscar Madison, who's in the movie playing a private ambulance driver, using his car, who's given the 3rd degree by Norman while being interrogated by the police. The movie has to do with a $500,000.00 train robbery that Norman dreamed up involving disbarred, for drinking on the job, surgeon Paul Brucker, Wesley Addy, posing as a doctor trying to help one of the passengers, who's part of the robbery detail, suffering from appendicitis.

Right from the start all of Norman's plans go downhill with one of his fellow train robbers getting shot accidentally thus upsetting the time table he set to make a quick getaway south of the border to Mexico. Things get even worse when Brucker going against Norman's orders makes a dash for the Mexican border with his wife and fellow train robber Linda ,the former wife of "The Lemon Drop Kid" himself Jack Lemon, played by Felicia Farr only to get gunned down by the Mexican border guards. As for Norman he secretly had the hots for Linda for some time and decided to take her along with him to Mexico and later Argentina with the stolen money and leave his long suffering wife Ruth played by Marianne Stewart, in being married to the two timing heel,behind. It was in fact Ruth who got the last laugh by mailing the stolen money she was to deliver to him back to it's rightful owner the train company.

***SPOILERS*** Better then expected film noir crime drama directed by it's star Mark Stevens who kept the action tight, in not stretching it out, and mood depressing as hell in making losers of almost everyone in the film. It's in the final moments of the movie that Norman got everything he had coming to him as well as lost what turned to be the love of his life Linda who foolishly went along with the jerk in his attempt to escape justice. As for Norman himself he gets his piece of justice from the barrel from the .38 of his good friend train inspector Joe Armstrong, King Calder. It was Armstrong who had figured out his plan, with the help of Norman's soon to be estranged & widowed wife Ruth, of escape and stopped it before he could put it into operation!
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