.
But I digress...
.
I figured I would share some of my very favorite old movies this month. Not the ones everyone knows, but some hidden gems.
.
The first is The Night Train To Munich. The backstory is kind of interesting here. It is based on a Carol Reed book, the same guy that brought us The Lady Vanishes. It is, in fact, very much an echo of The Lady Vanishes. The women in peril is Margaret Lockwood in both, and both take place on a train.
.
The difference a year made in the filming however, brings it all into focus. The amorphous villains of central Europe in Lady can be called out as Nazi's in The Night Train To Munich. And the escape becomes more realistic.
.
Rex Harrison and Paul Henreid play the men in her life here. And brilliant Charters and Caldicott make their second appearance in a film, bring the British to full stereotype life (Basil Radof & Naughton Wayne).
.
This movie goes from London, to Brighton, to Czechoslovakian invasion, to a POW camp (albeit glamorized), to a train, to an alpine cliff hanger (literally!). AND it keeps a fast pace, a sense of humor and a sense of dread. it is the best Hitchcock movie of the time not made by Hitchcock. (Hitchcock had done The Lady Vanishes - and then left for America).
.
The joy in watching it today, however, made it a tough sell in 1940. Was it a comedy, a thriller, a love story, what? You can see the issue by looking at the various posters below.
 |
| As a light hearted romp |
 |
| Playing off the book cover |
 |
| As a Thiller (with the hero a bizarre visual cross of Paul Henreid and Rex Harrison |
 |
| Very Femme Fatale |
 |
| As a comedy |