THE GHOST TRAIN
UK, 1941, 84 minutes, Black and white.
Arthur Askey, Richard Murdoch, Kathleen Harrison, Raymond Huntly, Lyndon Travers.
Directed by Walter Forde.
The Ghost Train was a popular story about a railway station and a haunting. Adapted by prolific film writer and director Val Guest, it was adapted for the World War Two situation and Nazi sympathisers using a train as if it were the ghost train.
The film was a star vehicle for Arthur Askey, a radio personality, with his sidekick Richard Murdoch. This was Askey’s third film. Five foot two, with a somewhat abrasive personality, he dominates the film – and is something of an acquired taste. However, he represents a certain style of British comedy, especially in the number of films he made in the first part of the 1940s. Veterans like Kathleen Harrison and Raymond Huntly appear in support.
1.A popular British film of 1941? The background of World War Two? An Arthur Askey vehicle? Richard Murdoch as his sidekick?
2.The Cornwall setting, the studio sets, the train, the railway station? The musical score? Arthur Askey’s song and dance?
3.Arthur Askey, as a comedian, wisecracks, impersonations, song and dance routines? His carefree attitude, walking through all situations? Rubbing people up the wrong way?
4.The train, the passengers, Askey and his getting his hat and stopping the train, the group missing the connection to Truro? The reaction to Tommy Gander, the guards and their wanting to fine him for stopping the train?
5.The people getting off the train, at the station? The stationmaster and his telling the story about the ghost train? The historical background, the visualisation, the group and the train crashing from the bridge into the river?
6.The Winthrops, Jacquie as the heroine? Her cousin and his bad temper? Teddy Deacon and his interventions – and his emerging as a government official at the end? Doctor Sterling and his brandy? Miss Bourne and her parrot? Her drinking the brandy? Edna and Herbert and their wanting to get to Truro for their wedding? The film’s quick delineation of character and characteristics?
7.The rain, the guard wanting to get the people away from the station? Their determination to stay? Tommy Gander and his performance to keep them all occupied and happy? Their negative reactions?
8.Price as a rival? Suspicious? Julia Price and her histrionic telling of the ghost train story, saying she wanted to see it? Price unmasked as a Nazi sympathiser?
9.The train, the people involved, the stationmaster? Smuggling arms from Cornwall into England? The war effort and the Fifth Column?
10.A film of its time? Dated? Entertaining elements?
