I remember THE GHOST TRAIN being shown on our regional television station STV on a fairly regular basis . No Christmas TV schedule or rainy bank holiday was complete without a showing on this movie . For some reason it abruptly disappeared from the schedules and can't recall it being broadcast on British television later than 1976 or 1977 . It's not a film I remember with any great affection either but it did stick out in my memory due to it being something of a scheduling institution in the 1970s along with certain scenes and I was curious as to how it would appear to my adult cynical self
Many of the scenes I vividly recall still remain no better and no worse such as the title sequence which does have a low key effectiveness as we're shown the POV of train speeding along tracks as the unfocused credits rush towards screen . I also remember the sequence where Arthur Askey's character pulls faces in to a carriage trying to impress a young blonde woman . Unfortunately as so many people on this page have stated it's difficult to believe Arthur Askey was funny in 1941 , even more difficult to believe he'd be funny on a wet bank holiday in the 1970s and is painfully unfunny in 2012 and the all talking , all joking and all singing AA means the modern day audience will be on the side of Richard Winthorpe which I doubt was the object of the original play
This is a pity because THE GHOST TRAIN whilst not being a classic is an effective take on the theme of THE OLD DARK HOUSE where a group of strangers fin themselves stuck in a remote rural railway station where they find themselves caught up in a mystery . It's hardly a classic but does have a certain degree of atmosphere especially when the station master relates the legend of the eponymous ghost train . This is however negated as the film becomes a star vehicle for Askey who feels the need to torture his new found companions and the audience with puns and pratfalls
There other curiosity aspects to modern eyes .The acting style where very posh actors and actresses pretend to be working class by dropping the " H " from words which sticks out a mile . Likewise the attitudes of both mental illness and cigarettes and temperence is slightly different than you'd imagine to what it is today . There's also a war on which means rationing and the possibility of normal looking citizens being traitors which means being very dated THE GHOST TRAIN is a film not without interest
Many of the scenes I vividly recall still remain no better and no worse such as the title sequence which does have a low key effectiveness as we're shown the POV of train speeding along tracks as the unfocused credits rush towards screen . I also remember the sequence where Arthur Askey's character pulls faces in to a carriage trying to impress a young blonde woman . Unfortunately as so many people on this page have stated it's difficult to believe Arthur Askey was funny in 1941 , even more difficult to believe he'd be funny on a wet bank holiday in the 1970s and is painfully unfunny in 2012 and the all talking , all joking and all singing AA means the modern day audience will be on the side of Richard Winthorpe which I doubt was the object of the original play
This is a pity because THE GHOST TRAIN whilst not being a classic is an effective take on the theme of THE OLD DARK HOUSE where a group of strangers fin themselves stuck in a remote rural railway station where they find themselves caught up in a mystery . It's hardly a classic but does have a certain degree of atmosphere especially when the station master relates the legend of the eponymous ghost train . This is however negated as the film becomes a star vehicle for Askey who feels the need to torture his new found companions and the audience with puns and pratfalls
There other curiosity aspects to modern eyes .The acting style where very posh actors and actresses pretend to be working class by dropping the " H " from words which sticks out a mile . Likewise the attitudes of both mental illness and cigarettes and temperence is slightly different than you'd imagine to what it is today . There's also a war on which means rationing and the possibility of normal looking citizens being traitors which means being very dated THE GHOST TRAIN is a film not without interest