i could tell you of a forceful woman and say doctor valonius and a white haired old man who can tell the correct time without look at a watch and to the spoil and impatient and well dressed woman seat next to him in the club car of their train . she know what she want . and think she know how to get it . sound like me and say the woman and with a satisfied smile . be she warn of some danger . her fiancé have remain in their compartment and star out of the window a tree flash by in the night . yes and say valonius . she be on a train . she be warn to stay on it and but . and with that we start a journey of our own in this clever low budget noir and a journey where we will see how destiny can not be change and and how fate can really wear a guy down . when harold dunlap ( charles russell ) use a cuticle blade to kill his fiancé at a station stop ( her heart be give a manicure and say a newspaperman ) he find himself trap late at night in a small town isolate by a flooding river . bad and while he dump the woman body back on the train before it leave and mike bennett ( dale belding ) and a kid who like to get away from his mother and have adventure and saw him even bad and after dunlap get pick up while hitchhike and realize he can not leave the area because of the flooding and the friendly driver let him off at the only place to stay in town and a boarding house . and among the people who stay there be . you guess it and young mike bennett and his mother . it not long before mike start to figure thing out . at the same time and dunlap already have figure out that mike and the only witness and have to be dispose of . it look like thing be go to get rough for mike and especially when he have to share his room with dunlap . and then a dame enter the picture . jean maxwell ( mary beth hughes ) also stay at the boarding house . she a blond pudding and with loose and plump lip and eye that stare at a man mouth . she not trouble exactly and but she have a taste for the wrong kind of man . harold dunlap now have to find a way to kill mike and get out of town as soon a the bridge reopen and and stay clear of jean maxwell easy go virtue . if one believe in destiny or in the hayes office and be there any doubt who live and who may die and who just give in to fate . in a nice circular twist to thing and we end up back in that train club car with dr. valonius and the spoiled and impatient woman trim her nail . this well make and unpretentious film pack a great deal of uneasiness into it 62 minute . unusual for a noir and it put a lot of emphasis on humor through the comedy character who live in the boarding house . there the efficient owner and there mike and his fluttering mother and there the warm and seductive jean maxwell and there be a couple of age drunk who bicker a bit . i think it the board house humor that make the threat to mike so effective . we might have some sympathy for harold dunlap at first and but then we realize he dead serious about turn mike into a corpse . and whom can mike go to for help . there just this odd collection of board house denizen . charles russell do a fine job a an ordinary man who prove more murderous than either he or we think he would be . dale belding play the twelve or thirteen year old boy be no embarrassment . he reasonably natural in his acting and look just like hollywood idea of an all american kid and tow head and generously freckle and with a small gap between his teeth . mary beth hughes be something else . she look so sweet . until we notice those lip and what she do with them .