Time Table (1956)

not horrible nor great

Far from Perfect, Far from Terrible

It is not only a funny movie, but it allows a great amount of joy for anyone who watches it.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

I seen many bad reviews for this film and I just do not get it. I love it, it may not be the greatest film ever made but I love it. It is cheesy and I am okay with that. If you watch it without being overly critical it is a fun watch. It has its twists and turns which keep you interested. The plot is pretty decent and for the time original. If you like this genre of film you should really enjoy this one. Mark Stevens does a credible job as the lead and it is the earliest film I believe I saw Jack Klugman in. Ignore the nay sayers and give it go it may not be the best film you have seen but it will keep you entertained and in the end that is all a film is supposed to do. Yes there are some issues with the film but it was not a big budget movie and they do a brilliant job with what they are given. Try it, you won't regret it.

Actor & director Mark Stevens of "Cry Vengeance" plays Charlie Norman, a conventional, suit & tie insurance investigator in "Time Table," a polished but flawed 'perfect crime' thriller. The caper concerns a slick gang of criminals that rob a train and try to live happily ever after with half-a-million dollars in hot money. After this apparently flawless robbery occurs, company executive Sam Hendrix (Raymond Bailey of "The Line Up") contacts his best investigator and persuades Charlie to delay his vacation to Mexico with his wife Ruth until the loot can be recovered. Charlie teams up with another veteran detective Joe Armstrong (King Calder of "The Rains of Ranchipur") who doesn't believe in the concept of the 'perfect crime,' and they embark on their search for clues.Whoever planned the crime knew what they were doing when they had the train's conductor summon a physician to attend to a sick passenger. Urbane physician Dr. Paul Brucker (Wesley Addy of "Kiss Me Deadly") explains that he must have his medical bag stashed away in the baggage car where three capable guys—a guard and two baggage handlers--keep track of everything. Once they had over his bag, Brucker opens it, brandishes a snub-nosed revolver from it, taking them by complete surprise, and instructs the men to lay prone on the floor of the railway coach. Plunging a hypodermic needle into each of them, he administers a knock-out drug that eliminates them as obstacles to his efforts. Afterward, he blows the safe with shaped charges and hides the money in an inconspicuous piece of luggage. Earlier, Brucker informed the conductor that the man that he has examined is violently ill and that they must get him off the train. The conductor calls an ambulance, and the train makes an unscheduled stop. Brucker, his patient, and the patient's wife Linda Alvarez (Felicia Farr of "Charley Varrick"), get off the train and vanish into the night. Eventually, the three guys rendered unconscious in the baggage coach recover from the effects of the narcotic and notify the authorities. By this time, the robbers have disappeared without a trace. Charlie and Joe talk to the train employees in Phoenix and the local sheriff in the nearly town of Winslow, but they have little to offer them. Our investigators are completely baffled. Nevertheless, Joe is convinced that the criminals will make a mistake. Charlie isn't as optimistic as his cynical partner.Thirty minutes into this clever, fast-paced, 80 minute crime epic, "Time Table" delivers its most devastating surprise. We learn that good guy Charlie Norman masterminded the crime! Although everybody got away from the train, the dominoes of bad luck start to topple one after another as the authorities close in on the criminals. The patient that Brucker removed from the train accidentally shoots him during the getaway. Mind you, none of this is depicted, but it is revealed through expository dialogue. Despite Brucker's efforts to save him, the man dies. Later, the authorities arrest the ambulance driver, Frankie Paige (Jack Klugman, later of "Quincy" fame), with his cut of the loot on him. Paige knows next to nothing about the details of the crime. Eventually, the authorities learn how the criminals got away after ditching the ambulance. They used a helicopter that had been reported stolen months before the robbery by airplane rental agent Al Wolfe (Alan Reed of "Breakfast at Tiffany's"), who sweats it out himself when the authorities bring him in for Frankie to identify. Frankie doesn't recognize Wolfe.Meantime, when he isn't coordinating the investigation with Joe, Charlie tracks down his number one accomplice Brucker. As it turns out, Brucker is a former surgeon who tried to file a bogus insurance claim, and Charlie caught him. Instead of turning him in for fraud, Charlie hires Brucker to collaborate in his complicated scheme. Unfortunately, Brucker refuses to obey Charlie's orders, and he is nabbed at the Mexican border and killed. Brucker's wife Linda eludes the authorities. Joe informs Charlie that he will get his long sought-after vacation but he won't have to pay for it since the trail of evidence leads them to Tijuana. By this time, Charlie begins to lose his nerve, and his wife Ruth (Marianne Stewart), learns the truth that he no longer loves her. Before Brucker left for Mexico, the alcoholic former doctor entrusted the money to Charlie. Charlie left the luggage with Ruth. Curious Ruth broke into the luggage and discovered the loot. In a futile effort to salvage their marriage, she sent the money in an anonymous envelop to the authorities. Now, Charlie is clearly rattled. Earlier, he had cornered Wolfe in a hotel room and killed him to keep the airplane rental agent from breaking down and spilling the beans.When Stevens produced "Time Table," the Production Code Administration monitored and controlled the content of the Hollywood studios. This meant that criminals could not succeed in any of their unlawful endeavors, so once we know who planned the scheme, the fate of Charlie and his accomplices are sealed. Charlie cannot turn himself in because he panicked and murdered Wolfe. Later, when he tries to escape from Joe and the police in Tijuana, Charlie cannot and he must pay for his crime. The best things about "Time Table" are its fast-paced action and the big reveal at the half-hour mark. Afterward, it is a foregone conclusion that Charlie is doomed. Unfortunately, Charlie loses his cool and comes unglued far too early. Altogether, "Time Table" qualifies a gripping yarn with good performances and strong pacing reminiscent of director Billy Wilder's "Double Indemnity."

***SPOILERS***One the many film noir "Perfect Crime" movies of the 1950's that turned out to be anything but perfect has hotshot insurance investigator Charlie Norman, Mark Stevens, trying to act like a tough guy but coming across more like the wimpy Filex Unger of the TV show "The Odd Couple". In fact it's Felix's partner it that show Jack Klugman, as Oscar Madison, who's in the movie playing a private ambulance driver, using his car, who's given the 3rd degree by Norman while being interrogated by the police. The movie has to do with a $500,000.00 train robbery that Norman dreamed up involving disbarred, for drinking on the job, surgeon Paul Brucker, Wesley Addy, posing as a doctor trying to help one of the passengers, who's part of the robbery detail, suffering from appendicitis.Right from the start all of Norman's plans go downhill with one of his fellow train robbers getting shot accidentally thus upsetting the time table he set to make a quick getaway south of the border to Mexico. Things get even worse when Brucker going against Norman's orders makes a dash for the Mexican border with his wife and fellow train robber Linda ,the former wife of "The Lemon Drop Kid" himself Jack Lemon, played by Felicia Farr only to get gunned down by the Mexican border guards. As for Norman he secretly had the hots for Linda for some time and decided to take her along with him to Mexico and later Argentina with the stolen money and leave his long suffering wife Ruth played by Marianne Stewart, in being married to the two timing heel,behind. It was in fact Ruth who got the last laugh by mailing the stolen money she was to deliver to him back to it's rightful owner the train company.***SPOILERS*** Better then expected film noir crime drama directed by it's star Mark Stevens who kept the action tight, in not stretching it out, and mood depressing as hell in making losers of almost everyone in the film. It's in the final moments of the movie that Norman got everything he had coming to him as well as lost what turned to be the love of his life Linda who foolishly went along with the jerk in his attempt to escape justice. As for Norman himself he gets his piece of justice from the barrel from the .38 of his good friend train inspector Joe Armstrong, King Calder. It was Armstrong who had figured out his plan, with the help of Norman's soon to be estranged & widowed wife Ruth, of escape and stopped it before he could put it into operation!

This is a fast paced crime thriller involving a well synchronized heist of $500,000 from a train. Insurance investigator Charlie Norman (Stevens) and railroad detective Joe Armstrong (Calder) are called in to investigate the crime. The gang of thieves seem to have thought of everything and covered their tracks well. But then things start to unravel and the gang's leader kills one of gang members who is on the verge of telling all to the police. Armstrong is a dogged detective who pays attention to the smallest detail and whose motto is "There's no such thing as a perfect crime." That's certainly so in this case. Stevens does an okay job as Charlie Norman but he doesn't have a particularly striking screen presence and often delivers his lines too flatly. Even so, this movie has a couple of great twists and maintains interest throughout