Lady on a Train is a 1945 American comedic Film Noir mystery directed by Charles David, starring Deanna Durbin, Ralph Bellamy, David Bruce, and George Coulouris.
While aboard a train halted at a station, Nikki Collins (Durbin) witnesses a murder in a nearby building. When she goes to the police they think she's read one too many mystery novels, so she enlists a popular mystery writer to help with her sleuthing.
Tropes:
- Alone with the Psycho: During the climax, Nikki realises that the person she thought was rescuing her from the killer actually is the killer, and has just brought her into the room where he murdered Josiah...
- Angry Guard Dog: While trying to sneak on to the Waring estate, Nikki is chased by the estate's guard dogs and winds up trapped atop the fence while trying to escape them.
- Chairman of the Brawl: After being locked in Margo's dressing room, Nikki escapes by throwing a chair through the two-way mirror.
- Crowbar Combatant: Josiah Waring is murdered by being bashed with a crowbar.
- Curtain Camouflage: Danny sneaks into Nikki's apartment to retrieve the slippers and hides behind the curtain. Haskell, who is leaving, sees his shoes sticking out from under the curtain. When he bends over to examine them, Danny knocks him out with a Tap on the Head.
- Extremely Short Timespan: Barring the last scene (which happens a undetermined, but short, time later), the events of the movie encompass about 48 hours.
- Follow That Car: After failing to find the scene of the crime, Nikki goes to find Wayne Morgan. Seeing him leaving his apartment with his fiancee, she hails a cab and tells the cabbie to "Follow that car".
- Grievous Bottley Harm: While fighting Wayne in the wine cellar, Saunders attempts to smash a bottle over his head, before toppling a wine rack over on both of them.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: After Josiah Waring is murdered, he body is moved to his mansion and arranged to to look as if he had fallen of a stepladder while trimming his Christmas tree.
- Mistaken for Special Guest: Unable to find the crime scene, Nicki sneaks onto the grounds of Waring's mansion. She is mistaken for Margo Martin, who was expected but has not come. Waring's will is read by his lawyer, Wiggam: Waring's nephews Arnold and Jonathan are not surprised to receive a token $1 inheritance, while the bulk of the estate goes to Margo Martin—his trophy fiancee and a singer at a nightclub he owns.
- Mystery Writer Detective: While in a train halted at a station, Nikki Collins witnesses a murder committed in a nearby building. When she goes to the police they think she's read one too many mystery novels. She then enlists popular mystery writer Wayne Morgan to help with her sleuthing.
- Nobody Here but Us Statues: While searching the attic for the slippers, Nikki avoids being noticed by Saunders by posing as an armchair under a dust sheet.
- "Rear Window" Witness: San Francisco debutante Nicki Collins goes to visit her aunt in New York Before reaching Grand Central, Nicki's train makes a brief stop and, when she looks up from the book she is reading - a mystery by novelist Wayne Morgan - she witnesses a murder in a nearby building.
- Right-Hand Cat: The sinister Mr. Saunders, who is one of the conspirators in Josiah Waring's murder, carries a white cat around with him. At one point, while sneaking around the nightclub, Nikki hears meowing from behind her and knows she's been discovered.
- Sassy Secretary: Miss Fletcher is Wayne Morgan's secretary. She does not think very much of his writing and is not afraid to tell him so in a Deadpan Snarker fashion. When he tells her to take the latest chapters and type them up, she replies "Did you say 'tear them up'?"
- Stick 'em Up: Averted when Mystery Writer Detective Wayne Morgan jams his pipe into Danny's back and tells him it's a gun (something his hero does once per novel) only for Danny to sat "That's a pipe" and spin round and knock him out. Inverted later in the nightclub, when Danny sticks his gun in Wayne's back, only for Wayne to say "That's a pipe" and spin round and knock the weapon from Danny's hand, only to realise with horror it had actually been a real gun.
- Tap on the Head: While sneaking into and out of Nikki's Apartment, Danny knocks out Haskell (twice) and Wayne with a simple tap on the head.
- That Reminds Me of a Song: Deanna Durban sings three songs. Two of them—"Give Me a Little Kiss" and "Night and Day"—are justified by her character being forced onstage while impersonating a nightclub singer, but the third, "Silent Night," is sung into the telephone to her father.
