Lady on a Train (1945)

(On Cable TV, December 2022) Hovering at the edge of mystery and comedy, Lady on a Train is a lightweight suspense that pokes fun at far more serious material. It gets going once a debutante visiting Manhattan (the ever-beautiful Deanna Durbin) looks outside the train window before arriving at Grand Central Station and witnesses a murder. Not being taken seriously by police, she eventually enlists the help of a murder mystery writer and they both get involved in a sombre succession drama involving a rich family. More light-hearted than overly comic, Lady on a Train starts with a decent mystery and adds in a few comic situations, being self-aware enough to have both a murder-mystery fan and an author of such fare to undergo the kinds of things they only approached at a distance. It works—this is not a great movie, but it’s fun enough to watch. Fans of 1930s–1940s murder mysteries, which were often cranked out quickly with few big expectations but often surprisingly good results, will feel right at ease.