Night Train to Munich
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| Night Train to Munich | |
|---|---|
 VHS cover, using original movie poster |
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| Directed by | Carol Reed |
| 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) |
| Followed by | none |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Night Train to Munich is a 1940 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.
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[edit] Story
When the Germans march into Prague, scientist Dr Bomasch, who is working on a new process for armour-plating, escapes to England. His daughter Anna, also about to flee, is arrested and sent to a concentration camp, where she is befriended by a Czech named Karl Marsen, who is really an undercover German agent. Together they escape to England, where Anna finds her father, now working for the Royal Navy at the Dartford naval base, and being guarded by Dickie Randall, a naval officer working undercover with the cover name of Gus Bennet. Marsen and his agents have been watching and they recapture Bomarsch and his daughter, who are returned to Germany on a U-boat.
Randall volunteers to go to Berlin in the guise of an engineer in the German army and gains access to Anna, pretending to persuade her father to cooperate with the Germans. He 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 recognises Randall from Balliol College, Oxford. While speaking on the telephone, they overhear Marsen preparing to unmask Randall/Bennett.
Randall is openly unmasked by Marsen just before they reach Munich, but Marsen is then overpowered by Charters and Caldicott. On reaching Munich, Randall manages to get himself, Bomasch and Anna into a car, along with Charters and Caldicott in German uniforms. They drive up a mountain pass to a cable car control room and get safely to the Swiss side.
[edit] 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
[edit] Sequel?
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 (Charters and Caldicott, the two slightly eccentric cricket-mad English travellers) 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 (clever young woman in distress and eccentric upper-class Englishman - in the earlier film, Iris and Gilbert; in this one, Anna Bomasch and Dickie Randall; in the case of the female, played by the same actress).
[edit] Quotes
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.
