At the time of it's release in 1953, as one of the last of the well loved genre of Ealing comedies, The Titfield Thunderbolt was considered one of the weaker Ealing films. Time has treated the film well, and this picture of a lost England is now among the treasured possessions of the British Film industry on a par with many of it's more famous stalemates such as Kind Hearts and Coronets and The Lavender Hill Mob. The film tells the story of a village railway line threatened with closure and taken over by the villagers, a classic David and Goliath story so loved by English filmmakers. It has a strong cast headed by Stanley Holloway as the village entrepreneur, John Gregson as the village squire and George Relph as the vicar, with superb supporting performances from Hugh Griffith, Naunton Wayne, Sidney James and Godfrey Tearle. With a sharp script by TEB `Tibby' Clarke and superbly well paced direction from Charles Crichton which does not flag, or let up for one minute. It contains some excellent set pieces such as drunkards Holloway and Griffith stealing a steam engine, the duel between James on a steamroller and a locomotive and the public bar scene with the `villains' mirroring a western film showing in the background. There are also some superb one liners, Relph questioning the faith of men in Canterbury in failing to keep open an amateur railway and the realisation and horror of discovering that the privatised railway is making a profit and could be in danger of being nationalised again. All in all, an excellent portrayal of a long lost rural England where life centred around the village pub, village church and the village squire, an England where the Englishman could indulge his passion for railways.
Review of The Titfield Thunderbolt
