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Bookmark this pageThe Railway Children (1970)
Director: Lionel Jeffries
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Jeffries displays miraculous tact in adapting E Nesbit's children's classic as an affectionate homage to those golden Edwardian days when God was in his heaven and all right with the world. Christmas festivities are under way at a cosy suburban home when Father (Cuthbertson) is spirited away by two suspiciously flat-footed visitors; it's all right really, of course, but meanwhile, Mother (Sheridan) and her three children are exiled to genteel poverty in a cottage on the Yorkshire moors. There the children take over, forming a secret pact with the railway which runs sleepily past the bottom of the garden, and responding gravely to wryly funny encounters with such characters as the portly businessman from the train (Mervyn) who is delighted to be adopted as 'the nicest old gentleman we know', or the stationmaster (Cribbins) who never quite manages to shed his air of stuffy resentment while becoming their best friend. Events are not lacking - mother falls ill, they save the train from derailment, they harbour an unhappy Bolshevik refugee - but above all the film perfectly captures the timeless, magical world of childhood where grief, joy and adventure are solemn, entirely personal affairs, quite unexplainable to adults. It is...almost...another Meet Me in St LouisAuthor: TM
User reviews of this film
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- Mark Stephens said...
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Posted on Aug 06 2007 17:09
i saw this film the day it was released on an unsuspecting world.i fell in love ( and still am ) with jennt agutter who to this day i find so perfect. The film to me is timeless..very well played by all..i mean.. who would have thought Birnard Cribbins as a station master
to the special effects team.. you are not given the credit you desearve.. thats land-slide for instance..i saw one for real..and you cant tell the real from the made up
so overall.. this is a films for the young..your age matters not..Mark - Report as inappropriate
Cast & crew
Director: Lionel Jeffries
Producer: Robert Lynn
Cast: Dinah Sheridan, Bernard Cribbins, William Mervyn, Iain Cuthbertson, Jenny Agutter, Sally Thomsett, Peter Bromilow, Gordon Whiting full cast
Genre(s): Children's
Duration: 108 mins
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