THE TALL TARGENT (1951)

A New York City detective, traveling by train between New York and Baltimore, tries to foil an on-board plot to assassinate President-elect Abraham Lincoln before he reaches Baltimore to give a major pre-Inauguration speech in 1861. A fictionalized account of the first assassination attempt on Lincoln. There are some anachronisms, for example, when the Volunteer New York Zouves (troops garbed in French/ North African uniforms) are marching to the tune of "Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys", which was not published until 1862. Nevertheless the song used as the Zouaves march from the train in the conclusion of the film, "Tom Brown's Body" ("Battle Hymn of the Republic"), was widely performed in 1861.