Rex Harrison astonished his fans by donning a Nazi uniform in the British suspenser Night Train (originally titled Night Train to Munich). Actually he's a British agent, working undercover to rescue a Czech inventor from the Gestapo. The inventor's daughter (Margaret Lockwood) becomes the unwitting pawn of a genuine Nazi (Paul von Hernreid, just before he became Paul Henreid) during a long train ride from Germany to France and back again. Director Carol Reed never denied that his inspiration for
Night Train was Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes (both films were written by Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat). The homage was solidified by the presence in Night Train of two carryovers from the Hitchcock film: those ardent British cricket fans Charters and Caldicott (Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne). Night Train was liberally adapted from the Gordon Wellesley novel Report on a Fugitive. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Takes awhile to catch fire. It's always engaging, though, and builds by stages to a riveting climax at the Swiss border that would have done the Master of Suspense proud.
The cast and script are fine, but Reed fatally lacks Hitchcock's light, witty touch and his effortless ability to create suspense out of ordinary circumstances.
A bit methodical in its presentation but still a classic rendering of intrigue and high drama. Rex Harrison and Paul Henreid are superb!
February 4, 2009
Randy Tippy
Super Reviewer
Night Train to Munich has its moments but its generally pretty dull. Margaret Lockwood helped keep me interested but outside of the nifty miniature-based finale, the comic relief and the irony of seeing Victor Laszlo play a Nazi, I wasn't exactly enthralled. Night Train to Munich isn't exactly awful but I can't for the
life of my figure out why there's a Criterion edition of this.
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