Night Train to Munich
| Night Train to Munich | |
 VHS cover, using original movie poster |
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| Directed by | Carol Reed |
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| Produced by | Edward Black |
| Written by | Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder |
| Starring | Margaret Lockwood Rex Harrison Paul Henreid Basil Radford |
| Music by | Louis Levy (musical director) |
| Cinematography | Otto Kanturek |
| Editing by | R.E. Dearing |
| Release date(s) | 1940 |
| Country |  United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Preceded by | The Lady Vanishes (debated) |
Night Train to Munich is a 1940 British thriller film. It was directed by Carol Reed, with writing credits by Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder. It is liberally adapted from the Gordon Wellesley novel Report on a Fugitive.
Contents |
Story
When the Germans march into Prague, a scientist who is working on a new process for armour-plating, Dr. Bomasch, escapes to England. His daughter, Anna, who is also about to flee, is arrested and sent to a concentration camp. There she is befriended by a Czech named Karl Marsen. Unbeknown to Anna, he is actually an undercover German agent. Together they escape to England, and Anna finds her father by placing a cryptic advertisement in a newspaper.
By this time, Dr. Bomasch is now working for the Royal Navy at the Dartford naval base. He is being guarded by Dickie Randall, a naval officer working undercover as an entertainer called 'Gus Bennett'. However, Marsen and his agents have watched and followed Anna, and they soon recapture Bomarsch and his daughter, returning them to Germany on a U-boat.
Randall then volunteers to go to Berlin, in the guise of an engineer in the German army, in order to get the pair out of the country. He gains access to Anna, telling the Germans that they are old acquaintances from Prague and that this could help him to persuade her father to cooperate with the Germans. He then contrives to accompany them on a train trip to Munich with Marsen and two guards.
On the train, they meet two Englishmen, Charters and Caldicott. Charters recognizes Randall from Balliol College, Oxford, where they occupied neighboring rooms as undergraduates. While speaking on the telephone, they overhear Marsen preparing to unmask Randall.
Charters and Caldicott manage to pass a message of warning to Randall, who is prepared when Marsen unmasks him just before they reach Munich. Marsen is then overpowered by Charters and Caldicott. After swapping clothes with the German, Randall manages to get himself, Bomasch, and Anna into a car, along with Charters and Caldicott, who are in German uniforms. They drive up a mountain pass to a cable car control room, and after a gun fight with the pursuing Germans, arrive safely on the Swiss side of the border.
Principal Cast
- Margaret Lockwood - Anna Bomasch
- Rex Harrison - Dickie Randall / Gus Bennett
- Paul Henreid - Karl Marsen
- Basil Radford - Charters
- Naunton Wayne - Caldicott
- James Harcourt - Axel Bomasch
- Felix Aylmer - Dr. John Fredericks
- Wyndham Goldie - Charles Dryton
- Roland Culver - Roberts
- Eliot Makeham - Schwab
- Raymond Huntley - Kampenfeldt
- Austin Trevor - Capt. Prada
- Kenneth Kent - Controller
- C.V. France - Admiral Hassinger
- Frederick Valk - German Officer at Munich Station
Sequel to The Lady Vanishes
The film has been frequently promoted as a sequel to The Lady Vanishes, although the story is not a continuation, and only two of the characters (the two slightly eccentric and cricket-mad English travelers Charters and Caldicott) are carried over. This originates in their similar train-based settings, and in the recurrence of two of the earlier film's character types in the two leads: the clever young woman in distress and eccentric upper-class Englishman. In the earlier film, this is Iris and Gilbert, and in this one, Anna Bomasch and Dickie Randall. The female character is played by the same actress in both films.
Quote
Charters: I bought a copy of Mein Kampf. Occurred to me it might shed a spot of light on all this... how d'ye do. Ever read it?
Caldicott: Never had the time.
Charters: I understand they give a copy to all the bridal couples over here.
Caldicott: Oh, I don't think it's that sort of book, old man.
External links
- Night Train to Munich at the Internet Movie Database
- Night Train to Munich at Allmovie
- Also celebrated in song by singer songwriter Al Stewart
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