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Bookmark this pageTrain of Events (1949)
Director: Basil Dearden, Charles Crichton, Sidney Cole
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Trying to repeat the formula of Dead of Night, Ealing came a horrible cropper with this portmanteau telling, in flashback from a train crash, the stories which brought three groups of people aboard the Euston-Liverpool express. Shorn of the talents of Cavalcanti and Hamer, the direction is flat. The trilogy of shoddy yarns (melodramatic, comic, tragic) sprout clichés by the yard, and arbitrarily resort to the crash as a resolution. Worst of all is the linking device involving scenes from the life of a Cockney engine-driver and his wife, soon - as played by Jack Warner and Gladys Henson - to achieve cosy apotheosis as Mr and Mrs Dixon of Dock Green in The Blue Lamp.Author: TM
User reviews of this film
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- John Manley said...
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Posted on Jun 05 2009 11:55
The only reason I watched this film was because am a steam railway enthusiast. Unfortunately, there was only about 15 to 20 minutes of railway footage which I found quite interesting. I'm afraid to say, the rest of the film was absolutely dreadful. The plot was boring and predictable. The direction was unimaginative and the acting on the whole, apart from Valerie Hobson was very uninspiring. I thought Laurence Payne was particularly bad in this film. His voice came over as very monotonous and almost robotic.
This was not one of Ealings best. - Report as inappropriate
Cast & crew
Director: Basil Dearden, Charles Crichton, Sidney Cole
Producer: Michael Relph
Cast: Valerie Hobson, John Clements, Jack Warner, Gladys Henson, Susan Shaw, Joan Dowling, Laurence Payne, Peter Finch full cast
Duration: 88 mins
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