The Ghost Train (1941).
The Scoop:
Don’t let the title fool you – this is more of a comedy than a ghost story. In fact, it’s a vehicle for the prewar British comedy duo of Arthur Askey and Richard Murdoch, who come across as a sort of stiff-upper-lip version of the Marx Brothers.
In “The Ghost Train,” Askey and Murdoch find themselves as part of a group of travelers stuck in a rural train station overnight. After the cranky stationmaster tells the story of the ghost train that sometimes passes through the station, the group passes a jittery night wondering if it’s true.
Askey and Murdoch have good chemistry and a lot of their humor still holds up despite the time and distance. Askey is a dynamo, combining the word play of Groucho, the slapstick of Harpo and the misdirection of Chico into a polite frenzy of activity. Murdoch is the straight man, although he has more to do than Zeppo and gets in plenty of one-liners of his own. Although they hit many of the same notes as the Marxes, their energy is much more subdued and, well, British.
The pair’s tone matches that of the film, which unspools its story at a leisurely pace while delivering a reliable string of respectable laughs. The story is slight, but director Walter Forde manages to build some suspense while mixing in a few light scares. Eventually it turns into standard issue wartime intrigue, but even so “The Ghost Train” manages to be a quality programmer.
Best Bit:
“If he was alive now, he’d die laughing.”
Side Note:
This is the seventh of eight film adaptations of the popular Arnold Ridley play from 1923.
Companion Viewing:
“The Lady Vanishes” (1938).
Links:
IMDb.
British Horror Films.
Take a Look:
Some clips:
The full movie:
Movie-A-Day #91: April Fool’s Day (1986).
Happy April Fool’s Day! The original cycle of slasher movies from the late 1970s to the early 1980s had a film for just about every holiday imaginable. “April Fool’s Day” may not be one of the better ones, but it’s worth watching anyway. Just be sure you stick around for the killer end credits song.
Movie-A-Day #90: Bull Durham (1988).
It’s finally here, one of the best days of the year – opening day for Major League Baseball! I’m going to be spending my evening watching my Dodgers put the hated Giants (defending World Series champions, ugh) back in their place. But this is also a good day for the best baseball movie ever made, “Bull Durham.” Don’t be a lollygagger.
Movie-A-Day #89: Contact (1997).
Besides being Women’s History Month, March also has the important (though unwieldy) distinction of being Expanding Girls’ Horizons in Science and Engineering Month. While society as a whole could do a lot more to promote girls’ interest in the sciences, movies could do better in that area too. On screen, most women in science tend to either be assistants relegated to the sidelines or improbable sexpots who don’t demonstrate a mastery of their chosen field. So it’s refreshing to see a film like “Contact,” based on Carl Sagan’s novel, that raises thought-provoking issues about scientific exploration and puts a credible, realistic female scientist at the middle of the story. It’s just the kind of movie to inspire plenty of young women to reach for the stars.
Movie-A-Day #88: Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life (1983).
Happy 68th birthday to Eric Idle! Monty Python changed the world of comedy in so many ways and although their last movie “The Meaning of Life” is fairly uneven, it does have many of my favorite Eric Idle moments.
Desuko Movie Spot. 