Lady on a Train (1945)

I saw this movie before reading any reviews, and I thought it was very funny. I was very surprised to see the overwhelmingly negative reviews this film received from critics.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

. . . with THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN (the 2016 Emily Blunt flick based upon Paula Hawkins' 2015 novel), since I'm the only person that they know who has seen both movies. Most of my circle assumes that the show that they've actually watched--GIRL--is far more violent than LADY ON A TRAIN, since GIRL is more recent and people are getting offed with rocks and corkscrews during its story. However, LADY does not restrict itself to just polite Edwardian stranglings and Rat-a-Tat-Tat firearm slayings. During LADY a crowbar also gets a homicidal star turn. And while GIRL has two or three "red herring" candidates for the so-called "Real Killer" witnessed by a female train passenger (Blunt's Rachel), LADY's "Nikki" (Deanna Durbin) has at least FOUR bogus murder suspects to muddle her ability to finger the killer she window-peeped from HER Choo-Choo. LADY's perky heiress Nikki certainly seems to have a leg up on the depressed divorcee "Rachel" of GIRL (especially when it comes to singing talent). Though some may wince at GIRL's title, and find it demeaning if not misogynistic, LADY includes a racist reference to a person of Japanese Origin just 10 minutes or so into its convoluted tale. This, however, should be blamed upon what was then known as the U.S. Department of War, which legally forced ALL American movie studios to include such "morale-boosting" language in each and every American flick of the World War Two Era.

This movie has a lot of very talented, very experienced actors. So the sad results are not their fault.I guess the real problem is the script. I haven't heard so much inane dialogue in I can't remember when. HOW did this script get by the Universal directors??? The only real good points, perhaps because they have nothing to do with the dialog, are the few musical numbers. Ms. Durbin's rendition of *Night and Day* is spoiled by a very bad arrangement, but her *Silent Night*, sung to her father over the telephone, is very moving. Such a number could be called a throw-away, I suppose, since it really has nothing to do with advancing the plot. In this case, however, I would suggest throwing away the rest of the movie and just watching that.I've very much enjoyed some of Durbin's other movies. This one is just too weakly scripted to excuse, however.

*Some minor spoilers* There are a heap of negative - or at least heavily qualified - reviews of Lady on a Train already, so hopefully this one will balance things somewhat. I watched the film last night and had a ball.Deanna Durbin hit the screen as a gawky, talented kid in an MGM one-reeler (Every Sunday, alongside Judy Garland), became the gal who saved Universal via a string of enchanting, well-produced musicals, then – with the onset of her adulthood – graduated to more mature fare, before retiring to obscurity in France with husband Charles David.In this excellent hybrid of screwball comedy and murder mystery (directed by David), the 24-year-old Durbin is ideally cast as a pleasant, energetic crime fiction fan. After witnessing the murder of an industrial tycoon, she stumbles confusedly around for an hour, singing a few songs, rubbing people up the wrong way and trying, desperately, to hold on to the fluffy, blood-stained bedroom slippers that constitute her only evidence. The backdrop is like a Falcon film, cross-cut with Bringing Up Baby - with Durbin bouncing around in front.Music-wise, we get three diverse Durbin tracks. First off is a lovely reading of Silent Night that's curiously imagined but exquisitely sung, reducing gun-toting trespasser Allen Jenkins to tears. Then, masquerading as a nightclub chanteuse, Deanna performs the sultry Give Me a Little Kiss and Cole Porter's Night and Day, which is cleverly staged and given a complex, tom tom-led arrangement.The script is smart, sharp and inventive, and the whole thing is shot like a dream by Woody Bredell, cinematographer on six other Durbin films, as well as the classic noir The Killers. Perhaps the Christmas angle could have been hyped up a little in the story, but I've rarely seen a film that looks as Christmassy.The supporting cast is simply as good as it gets. Edward Everett Horton is perfect as a befuddled yes man charged with chaperoning Durbin, while Allen Jenkins plays it uncharacteristically gruff and tough as the murderer's henchman. Our chief suspects are Samuel Hinds (whose part is slightly underwritten), an exceptional Dan Duryea – bristling with charm and menace – and Ralph Bellamy. Elizabeth Patterson shines as Duryea and Bellamy's crotchety aunt. David Bruce, whose career as a leading man was oddly limited, is excellent, entirely lacking vanity as he racks up the laughs.I'd recommend this film to anyone who enjoys classic comedies, or just old movies in general. It really is great fun, with comedy, music, romance and intrigue blending wonderfully.

A film noir starring Deanna Durbin may seem as natural as eating an oyster with a splash of chocolate syrup, but if you're adventurous, well, somebody has to be the first to try it. Actually, the movie's a pleasant romp. Lady on a Train is a comedy mystery with some nice noir characteristics...shadows, trains, bodies and a climax in a darkened office building that would make Dick Powell feel right at home. Nikki Collins (Durbin) is a society deb from San Francisco coming in on the train for a visit to New York. As the train pulls into Grand Central, she casually looks out the window of her compartment and sees an elderly gentleman in an office across the way having his head bashed in by a crowbar-wielding murderer. She can see the victim's face, but not the assailant's. There are two things we need to know about Nikki. First, she's an energetic, confident young woman who is as determined as they come. Second, she loves mysteries. In fact, she was reading Wayne Morgan's "The Case of the Headless Bride" when she looked out the window. She goes to the police but they don't take her seriously. Plus, it's a few days before Christmas and no one is looking for more work than they already have. What's an heiress to do? Nikki looks up Morgan's address and pesters and prods him into using his skills as a detective to help find the killer. Nikki isn't fazed when Morgan (David Bruce) tries to tell her he's an author, he's shy, he's faint-hearted and he's no detective. She's determined to enlist his help, but in the meantime she's learned who the victim is, a very rich man. And she learns not only where he lived, but that his family is saying the man died accidentally in a fall. So off she goes to the family mansion in the dead of night with snow starting to sift down...and just happens to be mistaken for Margo Martin, a singer at The Circus nightclub who was the "fiance" of the dead man. Wouldn't you know it, the old man's will leaves nothing to his two nephews, the eccentric and courtly Jonathan Waring (Ralph Bellamy) and the charming and untrustworthy Arnold Waring (Dan Duryea), but everything to Margo. Nikki has to deal with Danny, the Waring's thug of a chauffeur, and Mr. Saunders, the cold- eyed proprietor of The Circus who always carries a large white cat cradled in one arm. She finds she has to keep impersonating Margo, even if it means she has to sing "Night and Day" and "Give Me a Little Kiss, Will You, Huh?" as part of Margo's act. Tailing after her, like a small tug in the wake of a cruiser, is Morgan. I think they're starting to be attracted to each other. Up to now the movie has been amusing, light-weight and very much a vehicle for Deanna Durbin. She's no longer the little girl with a wonderful voice, as she was in the Thirties and Early Forties. She's a grown-up, and the studio is showing her off as a romantic lead who has a sense of humor. She's impeccably photographed, stylishly dressed and confident as all get out. It all pays off in the last 15 minutes when Nikki finds herself in the same office building where the killing took place. She's got both nephews looking for her, and one of them knows where the crowbar is hidden and intends to use it. There's the garage with the creaking car lift, the great storage floor where mounds of grain are piled, there are all the empty offices and hallways...and everything is dark and shadowed. Nikki keeps her cool, although she's quite happy when Morgan finally shows up to help save her. "Oh, darling," she tells him afterwards, as he faints, "you were wonderful." Could the movie end without a marriage? And we know Deanna Durbin has grown up when, just before we see "The End," there's a charming moment of sexual innuendo on the train taking Nikki and Morgan, newly married, to San Francisco. Deanna Durbin never seemed to take herself too seriously; she was always ready for a pratfall in the mud or a joke at her expense. She may not have had Judy Garland's overwhelming charisma, but she came close for a lot of people. More importantly, she didn't have Garland's edgy sense of an impending neurotic breakdown. Durbin was the girl next door with a sunny disposition, a great sense of humor and with a bit of the tomboy about her. In 1948, when she was 27, she announced her retirement. She and her husband, who directed this film, moved to France, where she still lives. She has never shown any interest in her movie-making past. She has never made another movie, has refused all requests for interviews and photographs, and has devoted herself to living a sane life. Good for her. The studio surrounded her in this film with some excellent character actors. In addition to Duryea and Bellamy, there's George Coulouris, Allen Jenkins, Edward Everett Horton, Samuel S. Hinds and William Frawley. And in a small role is Patricia Morrison, who three years later would be wowing the crowds singing "I Hate Men!" in Kiss Me Kate.