Appointment With Danger (1951) Ripping Off Union Station (1950)

Olive Films released a four movie blu-ray boxset called Film Noir Collection that contains both "Appointment With Danger" and "Union Station." Seeing these two movies one after another, the story similarities are obvious. In both, the main protagonist is a tough cop, Holden a train station cop, Ladd a postal cop. Both have a female eyewitness who observes criminal activity. In both, trains play a key part of the plot. Both movies depend heavily on coincidences. "Union Station" has its witness coincidentally have a close relationship with the crime victim. In "Appointment With Danger," the witness, a nun, travels from the train stop where her trip is delayed to the city during a heavy rain (she coincidentally has an umbrella with her) to be there when two criminals are coincidentally taking a body out of a car in the open at night on a deserted side street. What are the chances of that? The big difference between the two movies is that in "Union Station," there are at least elements of background reality, as when Holden's character spots a luggage thief in the train station. "Appointment With Danger" exists in a Hollywood Neverland, with no explanation of how postal inspector Gruber could even find out about the planned robbery and no explanation of why the crooks would allow an outsider, postal inspector Goddard (Ladd) playing a cop on the take, to join their gang. For me, the big plus of these tired movies is the location filming, showing a world that is long gone, of trains and steel mills and Los Angeles around 1950.