Colibel
Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.
UnowPriceless
hyped garbage
Cooktopi
The acting in this movie is really good.
blanche-2
"Murder in the Private Car" is from 1934, right at the beginning of the production code.A pretty switchboard operator, Ruth (Mary Carlisle) is told by detectives that she is the long-lost daughter of a wealthy man. Her coworker (Una Merkel) accompanies her in a private train car ordered for her to take her to her father. But somebody -- a disembodied voice, in fact - wants her dead -- and tells her she has only hours to live.A man on the train, Godfrey Scott (Charles Ruggles) is on the train. He is a "deflector," one who stops crimes before they start. Ruth's long- time boyfriend is also on the train. Soon people start being murdered, and it's obvious Ruth is in great danger.This is an odd movie in that the story - for me, anyway, wasn't very clear. There is a circus train wreck thrown in, giving Ruggles the opportunity to interact with several animals.The highlight of the film is a train chase, and the process shots were very well done - normally you can tell the background is a movie screen, but here it wasn't always apparent, and the chase was very exciting.I was confused because it looks in the beginning of the film as if the detectives faked the evidence in order to say that Ruth was the long- lost daughter, but I don't think it was followed up. I guess whether she was or not, she thought she was and the father believed it. The other thing that threw me was the disembodied voice which I thought I recognized - I won't say who I thought it was, but I spent some time thinking the murderer was someone who wasn't. In fact I'm not sure if the murderer was revealed. I was probably distracted. It reminded me of an old episode of Inspector Morse that was so confusing, I called my friend and asked whodunit. He returned my call and said, "I not only don't know whodunit, I don't know who was killed."Georgia (Merkel) and Godfrey have a cute relationship that grows during the film. Definitely worth seeing - Walter Brennan is one of the men at the train switch, obviously a very early role. Sterling Holloway, so familiar to Baby Boomers from TV and the voice of Winnie the Pooh, is also in the film. MGM supposedly remade this film about ten years later - but to be honest, the description of "Grand Central Murder" doesn't sound the same, except for the train sequence. This movie is also reminiscent of a film with Lana Turner minus the train - so who knows.I thought this B movie ended before certain things were cleared up. According to IMDb, Mary Carlisle is still alive at 101. Wow.
gridoon2018
"Murder In The Private Car" tries to combine three different genres: mystery, comedy, and action. It succeeds only at one - action. The last 10 minutes are a pretty spectacular ride on a runaway train car. On the other hand, the mystery never really builds any interest, and the comedy never really brings any laughs. Charlie Ruggles tries hard, but his lines are simply not funny. Una Merkel is a sheer joy to watch, but she is also sabotaged by the script. Even an escaped gorilla drops in, all for naught. And the less said about the humiliating role of the black comic relief guy, the better. On the whole, a weak film whose only part really worth seeing are the last 10 minutes. ** out of 4.
Neil Doyle
The years haven't been kind to this sort of material, a fragile murder mystery dependent on flat one-liners from leading man CHARLES RUGGLES and a script that ends with a Keystone Cops sort of train chase that only manages to liven up the proceedings for the final fifteen minutes.The runaway car sequence is full of process shots that only add to the tangled mess of a plot involving a bit of murder and mayhem. UNA MERKEL gives her standard flighty interpretation of a dull role, as does MARY CARLISLE. The broadest comedy relief comes from the train porter, played by a black man billed as "Snowflake." Today's viewers would find his interpretation of a comically frightened coward as offensive as can be.Getting to that train chase ending is almost unbearable. Charles Ruggles has a thankless role and is unable to deliver a single believable line. His detective character is not only annoying but obnoxious--not the actor's fault but the poor script gives him no opportunity to be anything but foolish and boorish in behavior.Only those who love to wallow in '30s-style comedies, whether good, bad or indifferent, will be able to tolerate this one.My advice is to let it pass. Mercifully, it's a short feature film.
TomInSanFrancisco
I watched this one mostly to see Charlie Ruggles and Una Merkel, two of my favorites.The plot has many a twist and turn -- it's not bad as a straight mystery aboard a train.But why throw in a circus train wreck and an escaped gorilla? I can mention this without it being a "spoiler" because the circus train wreck and the gorilla have nothing to do with the intricate mystery plot.The bad person trying to kill the good people has many tricks up his sleeve, but the circus train wreck was purely coincidental. It allows for a single scene with a menacing gorilla, but then it's back to the murder mystery!
