I speculate that the producers of Station West decided to apply the old axiom, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," by casting Dick Powell as Army Intelligence Officer Haven using the style of dialogue taken straight out of the Raymond Chandler playbook. Powell sounds almost exactly like Philip Marlowe, Chandler's gumshoe who he played four years earlier in "Murder My Sweet" except here the story is set in the old wild west.
Despite all the smart dialogue the Station West plot lacks suspense and hardly goes anywhere. The setup has Haven assigned to investigate the murder of two soldiers who were ambushed guarding a stagecoach while transporting a shipment of gold.
The gold belongs to the owner of a gold mine Mrs. Carlson (Agnes Moorehead) whose boyfriend is Captain George Isles (Tom Powers), Haven's commanding officer while he heads the investigation. The gold is kept for safe keeping on the army base until the perpetrators responsible for the murders are caught.
In a bit of a twist, the sultry saloon singer Charlie (Jane Greer) turns out to be a femme fatale running illicit activities in town aided by her shady lieutenant Prince (Gordon Oliver). Haven proves his mettle by winning a fistfight with the saloon bouncer and is then hired by Charlie to ride shotgun on a stagecoach transporting what turns out to be stolen gold.
The action ramps up a bit when the stagecoach is ambushed, and a Wells Fargo detective is murdered by a gang of masked bandits. Inexplicably Haven is only knocked out and it appears he's being protected (all hands point to Charlie as his benefactor).
There is a subplot involving Charlie's lawyer Bristow (Raymond Burr) who owes a good deal of money to Charlie due to gambling debts. I'm not sure exactly why but he's bumped off on Charlie's orders as he attempts to skedaddle out of town.
At this point there's little suspense left as we pretty much have already figured out that Charlie is in on all the criminality involving the stagecoach thefts and murders. It's just a question as to how much she's personally involved, and that question is answered at the climax.
After Haven learns that a gang is basically working for Charlie and plan to disguise themselves as soldiers and steal all the gold at the fort, he burns down their hideout and is off to the final confrontation with Charlie. Prince's bullet meant for Haven ends up striking Charlie who is mortally wounded. Right before that Haven dispatches Prince so the bad guys get their just desserts.
Despite all the witty and clever banter between Powell and Greer (in which it's made clear that their characters had fallen in love before the fatal shootout), we never find out what makes Charlie tick. Is it just simple greed that causes her to get involved with all those unsavory gang members along with the extremely distasteful Prince?
Charlie needed to be a more likeable character along with a more fleshed out backstory. Here there is little reason for us to be interested in her at all.
Powell's Marlowe imitation set in the wild west proves to be engaging. But Station West is a very slow-moving potboiler dependent on clever dialogue but a narrative that cannot hold its own in relation to better tales set in this time period.
Despite all the smart dialogue the Station West plot lacks suspense and hardly goes anywhere. The setup has Haven assigned to investigate the murder of two soldiers who were ambushed guarding a stagecoach while transporting a shipment of gold.
The gold belongs to the owner of a gold mine Mrs. Carlson (Agnes Moorehead) whose boyfriend is Captain George Isles (Tom Powers), Haven's commanding officer while he heads the investigation. The gold is kept for safe keeping on the army base until the perpetrators responsible for the murders are caught.
In a bit of a twist, the sultry saloon singer Charlie (Jane Greer) turns out to be a femme fatale running illicit activities in town aided by her shady lieutenant Prince (Gordon Oliver). Haven proves his mettle by winning a fistfight with the saloon bouncer and is then hired by Charlie to ride shotgun on a stagecoach transporting what turns out to be stolen gold.
The action ramps up a bit when the stagecoach is ambushed, and a Wells Fargo detective is murdered by a gang of masked bandits. Inexplicably Haven is only knocked out and it appears he's being protected (all hands point to Charlie as his benefactor).
There is a subplot involving Charlie's lawyer Bristow (Raymond Burr) who owes a good deal of money to Charlie due to gambling debts. I'm not sure exactly why but he's bumped off on Charlie's orders as he attempts to skedaddle out of town.
At this point there's little suspense left as we pretty much have already figured out that Charlie is in on all the criminality involving the stagecoach thefts and murders. It's just a question as to how much she's personally involved, and that question is answered at the climax.
After Haven learns that a gang is basically working for Charlie and plan to disguise themselves as soldiers and steal all the gold at the fort, he burns down their hideout and is off to the final confrontation with Charlie. Prince's bullet meant for Haven ends up striking Charlie who is mortally wounded. Right before that Haven dispatches Prince so the bad guys get their just desserts.
Despite all the witty and clever banter between Powell and Greer (in which it's made clear that their characters had fallen in love before the fatal shootout), we never find out what makes Charlie tick. Is it just simple greed that causes her to get involved with all those unsavory gang members along with the extremely distasteful Prince?
Charlie needed to be a more likeable character along with a more fleshed out backstory. Here there is little reason for us to be interested in her at all.
Powell's Marlowe imitation set in the wild west proves to be engaging. But Station West is a very slow-moving potboiler dependent on clever dialogue but a narrative that cannot hold its own in relation to better tales set in this time period.