Night Train to Munich

Night Train to Munich
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Carol Reed
Produced by	Edward Black
Written by	Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder
Starring	Margaret Lockwood Rex Harrison Paul Henreid Basil Radford
Music by	Louis Levy
Cinematography	Otto Kanturek
Editing by	R.E. Dearing
Studio	Twentieth Century Productions Ltd.
Distributed by	Twentieth Century Fox
Release date(s)	29 December 1940 (1940-12-29)
Running time	95 min.
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Night Train to Munich is a 1940 British thriller film. It was directed by Carol Reed, with writing credits by Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder. It is liberally adapted from the Gordon Wellesley novel Report on a Fugitive.

Plot

When the Germans march into Prague, a scientist who is working on a new process for armour-plating, Dr. Bomasch (James Harcourt), is flown to England. His daughter Anna (Margaret Lockwood), however, is arrested and sent to a concentration camp. There, she is befriended by a fellow Czech prisoner named Karl Marsen (Paul Henreid). Together, they escape to England, and Anna finds her father by placing a cryptic advertisement in a newspaper at Marsen's suggestion.

Dr. Bomasch is working for the Royal Navy at the Dartford naval base. He is guarded by Dickie Randall (Rex Harrison), a naval officer working undercover as an entertainer called 'Gus Bennett'. Marsen, who is actually an undercover SS agent, has followed Anna; he and his agents soon capture her and her father from Randall, and return them to Germany on a U-boat.

Randall volunteers to try to rescue them while they are still in transit in Germany. Posing as a German army engineer major named Herzog, he gains access to Anna, telling the Germans that they were lovers in Prague four years ago, and that this could help him persuade her to get her father to cooperate. He contrives to accompany them on a train trip to Munich with Marsen and two guards.

On the train, they meet two Englishmen, Charters and Caldicott, who are trying to get home after Britain's declaration of war on Germany. Caldicott (Naunton Wayne)) recognizes Randall from their days at Balliol College, Oxford. Randall denies knowing him, but Marsen's suspicions are aroused. At a stop, he telephones his superiors, who agree to investigate and call him back. Charters (Basil Radford), attempting to use another telephone, overhears the return call confirming there is no Major Herzog. Marsen arranges to have Randall arrested when they arrive in Munich.

Caldicott slips a warning to Randall, who is thus prepared when Marsen pulls out a gun and ends the charade just before they reach Munich. Charters and Caldicott overpower first the two guards, then Marsen. After swapping uniforms with Marsen, Randall manages to get a car. Along with Charters and Caldicott, they make a break for neutral Switzerland. They drive up a mountain road to a cable car and, amidst a gun fight with the pursuing Germans, safely cross the border.

Principal cast

• Margaret Lockwood - Anna Bomasch
• Rex Harrison - Dickie Randall / Gus Bennett
• Paul Henreid - Karl Marsen
• Basil Radford - Charters
• Naunton Wayne - Caldicott
• James Harcourt - Axel Bomasch
• Felix Aylmer - Dr. John Fredericks
• Wyndham Goldie - Charles Dryton
• Roland Culver - Roberts
• Eliot Makeham - Schwab
• Raymond Huntley - Kampenfeldt
• Austin Trevor - Capt. Prada
• Kenneth Kent - Controller
• C.V. France - Admiral Hassinger
• Frederick Valk - German Officer at Munich Station

Sequel to The Lady Vanishes

The film has been frequently promoted as a sequel to The Lady Vanishes, although the story is not a continuation, and only two of the characters (the two slightly eccentric and cricket-mad English travelers Charters and Caldicott) are carried over. This originates in their similar train-based settings, and in the recurrence of two of the earlier film's character types in the two leads: the clever young woman in distress and eccentric upper-class Englishman. In the earlier film, this is Iris and Gilbert, and in this one, Anna Bomasch and Dickie Randall. The female character is played by the same actress, Margaret Lockwood, in both films.

External links

• Night Train to Munich at the Internet Movie Database
• Night Train to Munich at AllRovi
• Night Train to Munich at the TCM Movie Database