Station West (1948)

A military intelligence officer (Dick Powell) arrives in a small town but keeps his identity to himself except to the Captain (Tom Powers) in charge of the local Army troop. His mission is to find out who killed two soldiers who were guarding a gold shipment. Suspicion points in the direction of the beautiful owner (Jane Greer) of the town's saloon. This western is a bit of an oddity in that it seems a film noir disguised as a western more than anything else. Powell's tough talking cowboy could be Philip Marlowe out west and Greer's femme fatale is right out of Raymond Chandler. Substitute the military for cops and the bad guys for mobsters and there you have it! I thought it was just okay myself but one has to give credit to Frank Fenton and Winston Miller's adept screenplay for the lively dialogue which goes a long way in making the picture a notch above the average oater. The direction by Sidney Lanfield doesn't suggest much style which the film sorely needs. With Agnes Moorehead, Burl Ives, Raymond Burr, Regis Toomey and Steve Brodie.