*** Welcome to piglix ***

The Tall Target

The Tall Target
The Tall Target poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Anthony Mann
Produced by Richard Goldstone
Written by George Worthing Yates (story and screenplay)
Daniel Mainwaring (story, as Geoffrey Homes)
Art Cohn (screenplay)
Starring Dick Powell
Paula Raymond
Adolphe Menjou
Cinematography Paul Vogel
Edited by Newell P. Kimlin
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date
  • August 17, 1951 (1951-08-17)
Country United States
Language English
Budget $966,000
Box office $620,000

The Tall Target is a 1951 crime film starring Dick Powell as a police sergeant who tries to stop the assassination of Abraham Lincoln at a train stop as Lincoln travels to his inauguration. It is based on the alleged Baltimore Plot.

New York Police Sergeant John Kennedy once guarded Abraham Lincoln for 48 hours while he was campaigning for President of the United States, and came away deeply impressed by the man. Kennedy has infiltrated a cabal and discovered that an assassination attempt will be made as the president-elect makes his way by train via Baltimore to Washington, DC. His boss, Superintendent Simon G. Stroud (an uncredited Tom Powers), dismisses the threat as "hogwash", as does Caleb Jeffers (Adolphe Menjou), a militia colonel with whom Stroud is meeting. Kennedy resigns on the spot to try to foil the conspirators on his own. Having already sent a copy of his report to the Secretary of War, he telegrams Lincoln, urgently requesting a meeting in Baltimore.

On February 22, 1861, he boards the Night Flyer Express train bound for Baltimore and Washington, where Inspector Reilly (an uncredited Regis Toomey) is to give him his train ticket. However, Kennedy cannot find his friend. Without a ticket, he is forced to get off by conductor Homer Crowley (Will Geer), and there are no more tickets to be had. As the train starts pulling away, Kennedy sprints aboard anyway. Among the other passengers are Mrs. Charlotte Alsop (Florence Bates), an anti-slavery writer; Lance Beaufort (Marshall Thompson), a soldier from Georgia who plans to resign and enlist in the Confederate army; his sister Ginny (Paula Raymond); and their slave Rachel (Ruby Dee).

After much searching, Kennedy finally discovers Reilly's body on the exterior platform of a car, but the corpse slips off the train as he is reaching for it. When he returns to what should have been his berth, he finds an imposter (Leif Erickson) claiming to be him and in possession of his ticket. The conductor is summoned. Fellow passenger Jeffers vouches for Kennedy and gives him a spare ticket to share his compartment.


...
Wikipedia

...