Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

***SPOILERS**** With the just elected president of the United States Abe Lincoln on his way to Washington D.C to be inaugurated a plot has been hatched by his pro south & slavery opponents to knock him off on his way there when the train he's on stops in Baltimore for him to make a speech. It's now up to NY police sergeant John Kennedy, a possible decedent of future US President John F, Kennedy, played by tough guy and former song & dance man Dick Powell to stop that national tragedy, the assassination of the president, from happening.The rub here is that the persons out to get the just elected Lincoln are on the train planning that his trip to D.C will never get there with him being shot to death in transit!Right from the start Sgt. Kennedy has trouble convincing any one in authority that Lincoln is targeted for assignation and is deemed to be either out of his mind or a publicity hound trying to get attention and make a name, as a kook, for himself.It's later after almost being thrown off the train by not having a ticket that Kenneduy in taken under the wing by US Army Col. Cleb Jeffers, Adolphe Menjou, who seems to feel sorry for the not so stable guy. As it turns out Col. Jeffers is actually involved in the planned assassination of the president in not only being sympathetic to the southern cause but being related to non other then Jerrerson Davis the soon to be installed President of the Southern Confederacy! With time running out and the future president of the United States life on the line Kennedy attempts to have Lincoln switch trains and get to Washington D.C unannounced by a horse and buggy to trick and confused his penitential killers. ***SPOILERS*** In what turned out to be a Three Card Monte like game the President with the help of Sgt. Kennedy have everyone fooled in where he was with his carefully staged disappearance act that has those out to get him left out in the cold in their attempt to assassinate the President. Sgt. Kennedy who protected Abe Lincoln the last time he was in NYC to take in a Broadway show watch the races at Sheepsheadbay Racetrack did the same her, on the train to D.C, preventing then unimaginable to happen. Thios is all fiction anyway but in real life no one was there when Abe needed them to prevent him from getting gunned down from behind at the Ford Theater on the evening of April 14! Not even the fictional Sgt. John Kennedy!

"The Tall Target" (1951 MGM) starring Dick Powell and Adolph Menjou Is A Great "Thriller On A Moving Train" Movie! "Moving train movies" always work, and this is a good example.Abe Lincoln, elected but not yet in office, tries to sneak into Washington DC and must get past southern sympathetic and very hostile Baltimore Maryland USA on a train......assassins wait to shoot him during a planned Lincoln whistle stop speech from the rear of his train stopping briefly in Baltimore Maryland USA on its way to to Washington DC.Most of the movie takes place aboard the train, and most scenes show the passing scenery from the train windows.....the movie takes place mostly in the inside of the train's passenger compartments.Train movies are worth studying and comparing....."The Lady Vanishes" (1937 UK) starring Michael Redgrave, "A Hard Day's Night" (1964 United Artists) starring the Beatles, "North By Northwest" (1959) starring Cary Grant, "The Thirty Nine Steps" (1935 Gaumont) starring Robert Donat.....all great train movies which "move" because they take place in a visibly moving train (airplane movies can't compete with moving train movies, and neither can ocean liner and "ship" movies).Train movies require very good actors, and "The Tall Target" (1951 MGM) starring Dick Powell, Adolph Menjou, and Will Geer deliver the "good actor goods" in first class style.Train movies are an excuse for many facial closeups, and prolonged conversation and dialog sequences where two main actors in a small space (a train compartment, most often) talk back and forth, and have to sound interesting, convincing, and at the same time be visually interesting (i.e. the camera must "like" the actors.....put another way, the main actors must have "star quality" in train movies).Train movies also provide great chances for interesting and unusual character actors.....weird people traveling on the train main characters are stuck with....trains are claustrophobic, part of their charm and and dramatic usefulness in "train movies." Eccentric old ladies, obnoxious yet precocious children, beautiful ladies of various types, entertainers, uniformed soldiers......an excuse to use all the costumes in the famous Western Costume Co. (Hollywood) storage tower on Melrose Ave. located in Hollywood, Calif. USA. An excuse to beef up the monotonous, predictable scenery on trains, especially older ones usually dull and dark and claustrophobic."The Tall Target" (1951 MGM) takes place almost completely on board the insides of a moving passenger train, right to the end of the movie....the train is still moving as it enters 1861 Washington DC USA and the final "The End, Made In Hollywood USA, MGM Studios" credit flashes on the screen (BTW, MGM was located in Culver City, California, far away from Hollywood, Caifornia....not even a short automobile drive away....far away!) It's a good "moving train movie," and is worth seeing and comparing to other movies of its interesting, always successful type.--------------- Written by Tex Allen, SAG-AFTRA movie actor. Visit WWW.IMDb.Me/TexAllen for more information about Tex Allen. Tex Allen's email address is [email protected] Tex Allen Movie Credits, Biography, and 2012 photos at WWW.IMDb.Me/TexAllen. See other Tex Allen written movie reviews....almost 100 titles.... at: "http://imdb.com/user/ur15279309/comments" (paste this address into your URL Browser)

Having collected an off-air recording of this film I now make sure to watch it at least once per year. Why? It's almost perfect.A New York police detective stumbles upon a plot to kill President elect Abraham Lincoln en route to Washington for his inauguration. The plotters plan for multiple gunmen to assassinate Abe whilst he is speechifying in Baltimore.Having failed to convince his superiors that the plot is real, the cop hands in his badge and takes "The Flyer" - an overnight train from New York to Baltimore. The bulk of the film concerns his efforts to find out more details of the plot, and figure out which of his fellow passengers are part of it. Having done so, he must stop them from bumping him off or getting him locked up until it's all over. It's a great plot, extrapolated to some unknown degree, from real events.For me, the film has a quality that should put it right up there with other film noir classics such as "The Big Sleep". You actually feel the cop's physical desperation that he must stop the conspirators, and you feel their fanaticism to succeed. Dick Powell as the cop (Ironically called John Kennedy) carries the film superbly. Will Geer (he eventually played the Grandfather in "The Waltons") is completely believable as the harassed train conductor. The more minor characters (such as the driver/engineer and some of the non-principal passengers) are given depth and motivation to a degree that is quite unusual.The settings feel like a train, rather than a set being rocked gently by a set of burly teamsters. The external train shots are mostly real, not the usual laughable model shots you get in many train films of this vintage. In fact, overall, the technical competence of the whole production is top notch. The photography, lighting, sound, visual effects and sets are of a very high calibre indeed.Even if you are not usually given to watching movies as old as this one, I urge you to track this one down - it's well worthwhile.Alan T.

I was totally blown away by this film. Dick Powell played a detective by the name of John Kennedy--who tries to stop a plot to assinate President Lincoln. This film was released in 1951--several years before John Kennedy took office. Also, in the film,there is a scene where one of the conspirators is describing to head honcho, Aldolph Menjou, just where the assassin will be ( in a hotel window ) from where he will shoot President Lincoln with a high powered rifle. This sure hearkens back to all the conspiracy vrs. lone gunman theories that surrounded President Kennedy's assassination. I wonder if Lee Harvey Oswald had seen this film!