★ 7 / 10
There are shades of the "Lady Vanishes" in
CinemaSerf
There are shades of the "Lady Vanishes" in Carol Reed's intriguing tale of a complex mission to re-rescue a top Czech scientist from the Nazis. Having already…
There are shades of the "Lady Vanishes" in Carol Reed's intriguing tale of a complex mission to re-rescue a top Czech scientist from the Nazis. Having already been safely in Britain, he was kidnapped from under the very noses of British intelligence and so now they have to devise a plan to get him back. Rex Harrison - who has at least three identities in this thriller is charged with leading the attempt; aided by the scientist's daughter - Margaret Lockwood, and pursued by the duplicitous Paul Henreid as "Marsen". The adventure element is nothing particularly different, indeed I constantly expected Harrison to break into his King Mongkut impression - he made for a very unconvincing Nazi. The real stars, for me, were Messrs. Radford and Wayne as "Charters & Caldicott". Given much more on-screen time than usual they exemplified, I thought by humour and crass ineptitude, much of the mindset of the British establishment in the run up to the Nazi invasions of the late 1930s that probably only Churchill had the foresight to anticipate. To be honest, there's very little suspense in this film - but it is a good team effort with some delightful Haydn accompaniment.
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★ 9 / 10
A fabulous spy film boasting top draw scripting
John Chard
A fabulous spy film boasting top draw scripting and supreme direction. Carol Reed is a truly wonderful director, his CV boasts the likes of The Third Man…
A fabulous spy film boasting top draw scripting and supreme direction.
Carol Reed is a truly wonderful director, his CV boasts the likes of The Third Man, Oliver and Odd Man Out, all great films for sure, which only makes it more infuriating that a gem like Night Train To Munich is incredibly hard to get hold of. I have only managed to catch it myself because of the unearthing of VHS tapes long thought to have been lost years ago, and it's just like finding hidden treasure I can tell you! Based on a story by Gordon Wellesley, and scripted by the adroitly talented teaming of Sydney Gilliat and Frank Launder, Night Train To Munich is a lesson in how to not over blow your subject, all the sequences flow without boring the viewer, with Reed astutely approaching the material with subtlety instead of blunderbuss bluster.
Another highlight of the movie to me is that it could have so easily been a propaganda bore, the Germans being the devil incarnate, but here it feels that an equality of characterisations was the order of the day - something that many other genre pieces lost sight of further down the line. Rex Harrison, Margaret Lockwood and Paul Henreid are all excellent here, whilst wonderful comedic relief comes courtesy of Naunton Wayne and Basil Radford's English cricketers (fans of The Lady Vanishes will identify right away). Although this picture is script driven above all else, the action sequences are a joy to behold, with the final third of the picture an unadulterated pleasure, spies and stooges, plants and treachery, oh it's all here folks, enjoy, if you can get a good print of it that is! 9/10
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★ 8 / 10
A Thrilling Film...
jem132
Starring Margaret Lockwood, Rex Harrison and Paul Henreid (billed as Paul von Hernreid), NIGHT TRAIN TO MUNICH (also known simply as NIGHT TRAIN) is an…
Starring Margaret Lockwood, Rex Harrison and Paul Henreid (billed as Paul von Hernreid), NIGHT TRAIN TO MUNICH (also known simply as NIGHT TRAIN) is an thrilling, topical WW2 thriller directed by Carol Reed.
Quick Plot Surmise: Lockwood is Anna Bomasch, a young Czech woman who escapes to England to join her father, a top Czech scientist, after Prague is seized by Nazi control. She is helped on her journey by a man she met in a concentration camp, Karl Marsen (Henreid). Anna, along with further help from British intelligence agent Harrison (masquerading as a song and dance man), rejoins her father yet is betrayed by Marsen, who is really a top Nazi official/spy. Anna and her father are then snatched back to Europe (Berlin) by the Nazis. It is up to Harrison, in the guise of a Nazi officer, to rescue the pair.
This early Carol Reed film displays the European setting, concern with greater political issues and shadowy black-and-white cinematography that would populate his later 40's masterpieces, ODD MAN OUT and THE THIRD MAN. Lockwood is the first in a line of dark-haired heroines, with Alida Valli and Kathleen Ryan following in her footsteps.
Henried gives a very memorable performance (in my opinion the film's best) as Marsen- this film would launch his Hollywood career. It is interesting to note that Henreid found stardom as a Gestapo agent- a role that would be dramatically reversed in his most famous character, the heroic Victor Laszlo, in CASABLANCA. Lockwood, the talented beauty of British cinema, does not have to stretch too many of her acting capabilities (and this girl had plenty) as Anna, yet she is a delightful, engaging presence and looks gorgeous. You'll fall in love with Lockwood in this one. Harrison, very early in his career, is charming, affable and occasionally roguish as the British intelligence officer, He is remarkably young and thin in this one, yet all the trademark Harrison qualities are there.
Reed's NIGHT TO TRAIN TO MUNICH is an obvious attempt at a Hitchcockian thriller, yet it is a very good attempt that succeeds on most fronts. Clearly indebted to Hitchcock's THE LADY VANISHES, much of Reed's work in NIGHT TRAIN TO MUNICH has been borrowed from the earlier film. Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne return as the legendary cricket-buffs and occasional accidental-heroes Charters and Caldicott, who just manage to run into international intrigue on every train ride they embark on!
Launder and Gilliat's script (they also did the script for THE LADY VANISHES-hence Charters and Caldicott having another outing here)is an excellent one, with the writing for the most part fresh, clever and witty. The train premise is, of course, borrowed from THE LADY VANISHES (note for the very Hitchcock-like cutting between the reactions of Lockwood, Harrison and Henreid), as is a tense eating scene aboard the train and a sexy, lingerie clad Lockwood being visited by a suitor in her hotel room, yet NIGHT TRAIN TO MUNICH manages to be unique all on it's own. The reason? Europe was very much in War by 1940, unlike THE LADY VANISHES, which is set in 1938. It is tense and thrilling because the real-life situation at the time of the film's release WAS tense and thrilling.
I wonder how audiences would have received the film in it's day. Some scenes are actually still quite amazing in how far they go. The opening five minutes or so clearly uses stock footage, yet the rest is conceived just for the film. The sight of Charters attempting to read Hitler's tome Mein Kampf and remarking "It's not exactly Honeymoon material, is it?" and sagely quipping "I'm still in Hitler's boyhood" was probably quite daring back in the day. I also found a small moment with a Nazi officer quite memorable. When alone in a room (with his Fuhrer's picture facing toward him) he is heard to remark in a resigned, strangely sad voice "What a bloody awful country we live in".
Definitely see this film. It's a top little gem.
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