By Whose Hand? (1932) American

By Whose Hand? is a 65-minute 1932 American film with noirish elements that takes place in a train station and then mainly on the train. The director Benjamin Stoloff adored shooting all the elements of train travel so much, from the engine mechanism and baggage car set-up to sleeping car accoutrements and the dining car niceties right down to the silverware that the train is the primary character of the movie. This mystery starring Ben Lyon, Barbara Weeks, and Kenneth Thomson kept me captivated the entire time. Maybe one too many traverses of the length of the train while atop the train, but I can see how those sequences would have thrilled in a dark theatre. Definitely a bit too much worship of the freedom to travel, which was a little hard to take during lockdown. The lively dialogue and the committed actors earn a thumbs up from me for this B movie that screened in a double bill.