Night Train to Munich (B&W)

Night Train to Munich (B&W)
The unofficial sequel to The Lady Vanishes (also scripted by Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat) attempts to recapture the thrills of Hitchcock's charming confection of espionage and romance with generally fine results. Margaret Lockwood reprises her role as the flighty heroine, now the daughter of a Czech scientist captured by the Nazis as her father leaves the country. She escapes from a concentration camp with the help of a defiant male prisoner (Paul Henreid) and rejoins her father, only to be kidnapped back by the Germans, and then... Well, you get the idea. Rex Harrison costars as a seaside crooner who turns out to be a resourceful British Secret Service agent, whose stiff upper lip and school wit are handled with smiling aplomb. The headlong plot tosses the characters back and forth across the continent so rapidly the actors have little room to breath life into their roles, and director Carol Reed lacks Hitchcock's deftness and light touch, but Harrison's cocky, effusive charm helps enormously. Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne re-create their roles as blasé British tourists (when Britain declares war they, deep in the heart of Germany, worry about cricket and their golf clubs left behind in Berlin: "I'll never replace those," Radford mourns). Reed would find his stride after the war with such accomplished thrillers as Odd Man Out and The Third Man. In light of those classics, Night Train to Munich is an inconsistent but wholly entertaining lark. --Sean Axmaker
Customer Review: An hour goes by in this film before we even see this train
Having watched---and been quite enamored with Margaret Lockwood in "The Lady Vanishes" (3/4 of which takes place over rails), and having been impressed by that film's plot, dialogue, and direction I decided to board "The Night Train to Munich" so to speak, so as to continue the journey. Contrary to others herein, I cannot say that such was a wise decision on my part: First of all the quality of this film's recording is rather poor which doesn't help matters. Margaret Lockwood's role pales in comparison herein too; as this film is really one without a leading lady's role, notwithstanding Ms. Lockwood's talents. She was wonderful in Hitchcock's "The Lady Vanishes," but here has just not been given enough material to work with. (It's interesting to think that while "The Lady Vanishes" title is not at all suggestive of being set aboard a train, "The Night Train to Munich" declaratively promotes this notion---notwithstanding the fact that little more than a fifth of it takes place aboard any moving conveyance!) Yes, Rex Harrison ably carries his own herein, as do Basil Radford & Nauton Wayne (reprising their Charters & Caldicott---captivated by cricket---characters), but such is not enough to carry this film into the station. Director Carol Reed (of "The Third Man" fame) just wasn't given a screenplay commensurate with the quality that those who wrote "The Lady Vanishes" provide for this film. If you are particularly devoted fans of Radford & Wayne, Harrison, and/or Lockwood you may be interested in seeing this film, but otherwise you'd be better off just watching "The Lady Vanishes" again---or "Strangers on a Train" if you want suspense along rails. There are hundreds of average to above-average films out there, so unless you've seen most of the the great ones already---and have seen the best foreign films too, you ought to take at pass at fare such as "The Night Train to Munich." Cheers!
Customer Review: Wonderful WWII Thriller By Carol Reed
While this is one of Carol Reed's first-class movies, it also owes a lot to Alfred Hitchcock and The Lady Vanishes. It was written by Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder, who also wrote Lady, and the co-star is Margaret Lockwood, who also starred in The Lady Vanishes. The movie is a wonderful WWII chase film, with excellent performances by Lockwood, Paul Henreid and, especially, Rex Harrision. Professor Bomasch, a Czech scientist who has discovered a new kind of armor, and his daughter, Anna (Lockwood), flee their country for Britain one step ahead of Nazi agents. The professor makes it but his daughter is captured and sent to a concentration camp. A fellow inmate, Karl Marsen (Henreid), befriends her and they manage to escape and make their way across the channel. Anna searches for her father and is directed to a seedy boardwalk song man, Gus Bennett (Harrision), who is in fact a British agent charged with protecting her father. Marsen, however, is a Nazi agent whose job is to find and kidnap the professor and return him to Berlin. This he does, taking the daughter, too, and Gus goes after them. After many adventures, including Gus bluffing his way into Gestapo headquarters as a German officer, a danger-filled journey on the night train to Munich and a rousing escape on a tram line high in the Alps between Germany and Switzerland, Gus succeeds in rescuing them and winning Anna's love. This is a skilled, witty and suspensefull movie in the Hitchcock style. The dialogue is quick, Lockwood is a winning and brave heroine, Marsen is not a cardboard caricature, and the set pieces really work. The train ride is full of urgent moments and clever situations. The climax involving the trams is exciting. Best of all is Rex Harrrison. He's resourceful, skeptical, amusing and charming. He's deliberately second rate as a song plugger, and effortlessly first-rate as a leading man. He might have been a selfish SOB in real life, but he was a magnetic actor. This is another film which is not on DVD, and the VHS tape I have looks the movie's age. You'll need to be tolerant; the transfer is not too good. Still, its worth having.