More Dick Powell (Murder, My Sweet (1944), Cry Danger (1951)). Directed by Anthony Mann from a screenplay that George Worthing Yates and Art Cohn developed from a story by the former and Daniel Mainwaring/Geoffrey Homes. Thoroughly mediocre with a misleadingly high rating at IMDB.
For murky reasons NYC policeman Powell boarded a train to Washington, intent on foiling a plot against Honest Abe's life before he can be installed as POTUS and kick off the Civil War. He mostly just went through the motions with a flimflam plot that makes little sense. (Did people really just leave guns lying around train carriages in 1861?) Militia Colonel Adolphe Menjou (Paths of Glory (1957)) helped and hindered as need be. A very young and radiant Ruby Dee (Do The Right Thing (1989)) played Paula Raymond's slave maid. They were tasked with breaking up the sausagefest and acting suitably shocked as the plot against the POTUS unravelled; a Trumpish manoeuvre ensured things ended well.
Most of the political rhetoric in this film is against Lincoln (stop the warmonger, etc.) perhaps reflecting the spirit of the early 1950s.
Bosley Crowther at the time. Wikipedia. It's not The Lady Vanishes (1938).
