In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

STATION WEST 1948The only way to describe this film, is, film noir meets the wild-west. Dick Powell exchanges his fedora for a Stetson as he plays a Government under-cover agent investigating a series of gold shipment robberies. The Army is also not amused that several of their soldiers had been killed while on escort duty for the gold shipments. The cast includes Jane Greer, Raymond Burr, Burl Ives, Agnes Moorehead, Tom Powers, Gordon Oliver and Guinn (Big Boy) Williams.It takes Powell a bit of time to shift through the possible suspects. He starts the hard way with a knock down drag out fist fight with Big Boy Williams. This soon gets him hired by the main baddie, Jane Greer, who goes by the name of "Charlie".Greer runs the local saloon, stage line and logging camp. All three are tied into the missing gold shipments. One of the local mine owners, Agnes Moorehead, is in with Powell and the local Army commander, Tom Powers. Unable to move the gold out of the area, the gold is being stockpiled at the local fort. Powell is sure this is what the crooks want. He figures the baddies will raid the undermanned fort and scoop the lot.Powell plays his part as if he just stepped out of a hard-boiled noir role. He is always exchanging barbs with Greer and the town's crooked lawyer, Raymond Burr. Powell's rooting around soon stirs up a hornet's nest and bodies begin to pile up. Of course there is mandatory gun battle, with the "right" people collecting all the required lead needed to end their evil plans. All in all a neatly done western with a noir twist. The film has an excellent look with director Sidney Lanfield handling the action. Lanfield was better known for helming several Bob Hope comedies such as, SORROWFUL JONES, THE LEMON DROP KID and MY FAVORITE BLONDE. The cinematography was handled by noir veteran, Harry J Wild. His work included, MURDER MY SWEET, CORNERED, JOHNNY ANGEL, NOCTURNE, THEY WON'T BELIEVE ME, PITFALL, THE BIG STEAL, THE THREAT, MACAO and HIS KIND OF WOMAN.

In the movie they Might Be Giants, a delusional jurist explains that he loves westerns because they show the clear delineation between right and wrong, which is when I realized why I vastly prefer mysteries to westerns; I like a more complex world view in which the good and evil dichotomy is not so apparent.Station West is a rather unusual movie in that it looks like a western and has a western-themed score but in terms of story and acting is more akin to 40s tough-guy detective flicks, with more moral ambiguity than you'd see in a John Ford movie. It's not dark enough to be called film noir, but it has some of those elements, and the relationship of Haven and Charlie is very Hammett-Chandleresque.The movie is enjoyable and briskly paced, with good performances and decent dialog. At the same time, Powell is a bit too unsympathetic for me, with a fairly callous disregard for the results of his actions. And the plotting is a little lazy, with that convoluted, poorly explained style you get in most of the Philip Marlowe films. But if you like 40s detective movies this is a good bet.

Dick Powell plays his usual sarcastic self in this nice little RKO western about an Army undercover officer investigating a series of gold shipment robberies along with the murder of two soldiers.He gets embroiled with film noir queen Jane Greer as the manipulative seductress who is up to no good. She trades a lot of quick, snappy one-liners with Powell and of course they fall in love. Good dialog.Agnes Moorehead appears as the gold mine owner who is romantically involved with the Army Captain of the investigation, Tom Powers.We also get Raymond Burr as the corrupt but wimpy town lawyer who's involved on the periphery of the robberies that's taking place. Burr was a good heavy for about 10 years before he became PERRY MASON. Too bad he doesn't get to play that kind of character, here. But even as a wimp, he's still sleazy.Nice fistfight scene between Powell and Gunn Williams, who plays one of Geer's henchmen thugs here. He doesn't get to say much other than look mean, but then the role doesn't call for much of that, either.Also notable for the appearance of Burl Ives as the singing hotel clerk who at first, gets on Powell's nerves but later becomes an important ally in his investigation.And at 80 minutes, the film moves along quite smoothly with no awkward moments or wasted screen time. The whole thing ends before ya know it.Gets a 6½ out of 10 for good story and decent action.

Dick Powell was a musical comedy star in the 30's who in 1944 made a dramatic career change when he switched to hard-boiled private eye/cop roles. Station West, his only western, is basically this character in a western setting. Make no mistake, Station West is a good western.Powell plays an undercover army officer trying to find out who murdered two soldiers while stealing a gold shipment (No not the Gold Diggers of 1933). Along the way he meets Jane Greer as a business like saloon owner who may not be what she seems to be. One of the best moments in the film is the knock down drag out fight Powell has with Guinn "Big Boy" Williams, playing a villain this time around. At first, after Powell knocks him down in the saloon, Williams utters a classic line: "You're too small to have made such a big mistake".Other notables in the cast include Raymond Burr as a cowardly lawyer, Agnes Moorehead as Powell's "contact", Tom Powers as the army commander, Powell regular Regis Toomey as an undercover agent and an unbilled Burl Ives as a guitar strumming hotel clerk.The black and white photography is excellent, particularly in the outdoor scenes. Station West raises the question as to why Powell didn't make more westerns. This was a good one.