In the 1930s and 40s, there were at least 6,000,004 B-mystery movies made...or so it seems. It was one of the most popular genres and while there were some excellent ones, the rest mostly fall in the category of Time Passers....and "Midnight Limited" is one such time passer.The film is set mostly on trains, where a criminal genius keeps robbing folks of huge sums of money...and the police seem powerless to stop this. However, Val ('Dusty' King) promises to solve the case.Dusty King was an actor known for B-westerns and action movies. In other words, he was pretty good at punching folks and the like....but wasn't the most charismatic or sexy actors. In fact, in this one he seems incredibly ordinary. He couldn't help it...he just wasn't a strong leading man type for this sort of film. Add to that the rather cheap look of the film and you've got a film that isn't bad...but isn't all that good either.

Well if you watched the picture, you know who the train robbers are, just like I know who the train robbers are. However I'm going to have to admit something here - I don't know how the heck Valentine Lennon (John King) figured it out, even after he explained it to Miss Marshall (Marjorie Reynolds). How did he get from Point A to Point B to know it was Krantz (Monte Collins) in the baggage car that was in league with the Phantom Robber (I. Stanford Jolley)? Folks, this is bugging me.Up until the ending, I thought this little programmer had something fairly clever going for it. The desk clerk at the Ritz Plaza calling the plays was a pretty creative way to set up the train heists. But what about the guy they called The Professor (George Cleveland)? Except for the coincidence of being on the same runs on which the robberies occurred, that whole business with delivering the letters to Montreal was just a red herring. Am I missing something here? I have to say, I was a little surprised to see John 'Dusty' King in a leading role in this picture. I'm more used to catching him teamed up with Ray Corrigan and Max Terhune as one of The Range Busters, a popular cowboy trio of the era. And if I had to bet, the last time I saw Marjorie Reynolds she was portraying Peg Riley in the old 'Life of Riley' TV series opposite William Bendix. Now there's a memory. Tell you what, dispense with the story and just leave Miss Reynolds on screen for the hour and I'd be just as happy.At some point, I think I'll have to go back and see what I missed here. The resolution to the mystery is still nagging me, so there must be a missing piece of the puzzle. When I figure it out I'll get back to you. Or better yet, if you figure it out, drop me a line.

By the humble standards of Poverty Row, this is a fairly intriguing mystery offering, despite a script that often seems to be marking time rather than getting on with the plot. A major fault here is that none of the leading characters are so much as "filled in", let alone developed. At movie's end, we know as much about the leading man as we did at the beginning—namely zilch. True, a more appealing hero than John "Dusty" King would have certainly have helped. Edward Keane—in a rare, major role—proves no great shakes either. The heroine is also little more than a cypher, but fortunately she is so charismatically played by charmingly vivacious Marjorie Reynolds that our almost total lack of any knowledge at all as to her likes and dislikes, her background and personality, seems not to matter. True, the script stratagem that cements her into the plot is most obtrusively unconvincing, but nonetheless I'm not complaining on this score. What does upset me is that an opportunity for a first-class little "B" has been thrown away by inadequate scripting. Another minus is that all the exterior train footage is so obviously stock material—and rather ancient stock material at that! This lessens the movie's appeal for train buffs. And the usual racist "humor" with the eye-rolling porters doesn't help matters either. Tighter film editing was certainly called for. Any volunteers?

This movie was interesting but a little corny at times( when Val sings) They had to cram a lot in 61 minutes. the movie's movement had a little Dragnet to it.."just the facts'. The police characters seemed a little stiff and the mechanics of the railroad police etc was not very believable.( Adding Majorie to the force just because she said she would help) The addition of Willie the conductor was a nice a piece but the dialog with him was too simple and not as comic relief as it could have been... Majorie Reynolds was good and you can see her potential...remembering her as the wife to Chester a Riley is quite easy..The plot was good and could have been developed better but...All in all a good investment of your time far better that reruns on TV.....