Night Train to Munich (1940)

the audience applauded

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Carol Reed's 1940 thriller "Night Train to Munich" bears more than a passing resemblance to Hitchcock's "The Lady Vanishes" of two years earlier. The two films share a star, Margaret Lockwood; crucial scenes aboard trains in Central Europe during the pre-World War II era; and the use of obvious miniatures. However, the most amusing carry-overs from the Hitchcock film are the characters of Charters and Caldicott, two English travelers who evidently have been touring the continent since 1938. The quintessential Englishmen, embodied by Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne, are always miffed by the inconveniences of travel, bumble into the action at critical moments, and are seemingly more pre-occupied by cricket scores and the whereabouts of golf clubs than European politics on the brink of a world conflict.Unfortunately, the script by Sidney Gilliat, from a story by Gordon Wellesley, does not focus on Charters and Caldicott, but rather on Lockwood and her attempts to get out of Prague to rejoin her inventor father in England, where he has found asylum from the Nazis. Although relatively short, the film has credibility problems, and action often jumps forward inexplicably, leaving gaping holes of exposition missing. Rex Harrison and Paul Henreid star alongside Lockwood; although Harrison was once referred to as "sexy Rexy," Henreid has more appeal, even in this pre-Casablanca pre-Now Voyager role. Evidently made as anti-Nazi propaganda, the film lacks tension, feels light, and borders on unintentional comedy, as when the incompetent Gestapo is easily fooled. Of course, everyone speaks English, and Harrison outwits the Nazis and passes for a German officer, because he once lived in Germany. A simplistic film that requires huge leaps in logic, "Night Train to Munich" is saved only by the talents of Lockwood, Harrison, and Henreid, and, of course, by the welcome return of Charters and Caldicott.

NIGHT TRAIN TO MUNICH is a very enjoyable WWII spy film, though it's also one that may be difficult to watch if you think too much, as the plot is awfully unrealistic and hard to believe. But, if you are able to put aside these problems, the overall film is entertaining and well made.Dr. Bomasch and his daughter, Anna, live in Czechoslovakia. However, when the Nazis take over the country, the Doctor is spirited out of the country because he is a genius at armor plating technology. However, just as Anna is about to join him, she is arrested and put in a concentration camp. Eventually, however, Anna is able to escape--thanks to a "nice guy" who is also an inmate (Paul Henreid). When Anna is reunited with her father, the Nazis spring a trap and take them both by force back to their native land. At this point, secret agent Rex Harrison sneaks back into Czechoslovakia and risks everything to get them back.An interesting addition to this film is the presence of Charters and Caldicott--two characters who were in Hitchcock's THE LADY VANISHES. They play the same people but with a different director--a very odd thing indeed. I liked them, though they did seem like very improbable heroes! The film is tense, the acting is fine (heck, I'd watch Rex Harrison in practically anything) and the direction is good. The problem is that sneaking in and out of Nazi territory seemed amazingly easy. The Nazis, unfortunately, were not that stupid and were also a lot more vicious than they appeared in the film.Overall, a better than average WWII film thanks to good acting and production values. Just don't look for perfection, as the film seems more designed for its propaganda value than for realism.

**SPOILERS** WWII thriller that has to do with the Nazis trying to capture escaped from his Nazi-occupied Checkosolvakia amour plating expert Alex Bormasch, James Harcourt. Alex made his way out of Nazi controlled Checkosolvakia to England with his daughter, who missed the plane by being stuck in heavy traffic, Anna, Margaret Lockwood, being left behind. This all happens just before the of German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939. Within days of the invasion both Engand and France declare war on the National Socialist, or Nazi for short, state.Being sent to a Nazi concentration camp Anna is befriended by fellow Check inmate Karl Marsen, Paul Henreid, who helps her, as well as himself, break out of the place and sail to England. That all happened when the German Army Navy and Luftwaffe was too busy fighting the Poles to have anyone available to stop them. We soon find out that Marsen is really a Nazi spy who in turn gets the unsuspecting Anna to get her father out of hiding in the safety of jolly old England. This leads to both Anna and her father getting captured by a German U-Boat inside English waters. All that happening when Alex as well as Anne and that rat-fink Marsen went out a innocent moonlight fishing in the English Channal.Back in Germany Alex Bomasch is now being forced, against his will, to reveal to the Nazis the secret behind his super armor plating formula that's to be used to reinforce the Nazi Siegfried Line. The British M15 send in their top secret agent, before James Bond, Nicky Randall using the allies Gustav Bennett, a Nazi officer in the transportation department, to rescue both Anna and her father.The tough and nails and very flexible and acrobatic Nicky is played played by an emaciated 98 pound looking Rex Harrison.Catching the Nazi's completely flat footed Nicky ends up getting both Anna whom he fakes having an affair with, to throw the Nazis off guard, and her dad out of Germany. Nicky also gets help from British tourists Charters & Caldicott, Basil Redford & Naunton Wayne, who knew him back in England as a star cricket player and know that he's in fact not Gustav Bennett but one of the good guys; A fellow Englishman working undercover for the British Crown. Put on a train to Munich both Anna and her father are to be brought into the custody of the dreaded Gestapo whom that low down creep Marsen is a member of and in good standing with. The evil Gestapo are now ready willing and more then able to use every means at their disposal, even going so far as in torturing his daughter Anna, in order to get old man Bomasch to talk about his secret armor plating formula. Nicky by commandeering Marsen's government car has the trio-him Anna & her dad Alex-driven to the German Switzerland border where the only thing separating them from a stay at a Nazi concentration camp and freedom is a cable car taking them into neutral Switzerland!***SPOILERS***Humdinger of an ending with Nicky doing all the heroics, as well as acrobatics, for King and Country, in order to get Alex as well as Anna to safety before Bennett, now a Captain in the Gestapo, can get his hands on them. P.S The Hollywood film "Night Train to Munich" was made when the USA was technically at peace, or at least neutral, in the war between Germany and the western allies Britan and France. Still it showed where the US' heart really was in the film making the Germans the bad guys in the movie. Which may well have been one of the reasons, among many, why Hitler was always antagonistic towards the United States and its President FDR. In him feeling that FDR's ultimate goal was to come to Great Britian's, who was at the time under siege from the Nazi Juggernaut, aid! Both financially, like with the Lend Lease program, as well as militarily.This could have also been why Hitler so eagerly as well as stupidly jumped at the chance to declare war on the US, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, when he should have known better by him being engaged with both the UK and USSR at the time. This illogical act on Hitler's part, who's played in the movie by by Billy Russell, would lead to his and Nazi Germany's ultimate destruction. Which in fact it did some four years later in the spring of 1945!

Very good Rex Harrison and Margaret Lockwood vehicle at the dawn of World War 11. As Nazi Germany goes on the march against Austria, The Sudetenland and the rest of Czechoslovakia, a woman and her father prepare to flee the Czech country only for her to be imprisoned. The father, a scientist, is desired by the Nazis to work for them.While the father escapes, the daughter is trapped and imprisoned. There she meets Paul Henried, who comes to her aid to get her to England. What she doesn't know is that Henried is a Nazi official himself who wants Lockwood to lead him directly to her father.When this does happen, Lockwood, in England, had met secret agent Rex Harrison. Harrison goes to Germany disguised as a German army official trying to get Lockwood and her father out.The film is a good one as there are constant twists along the way. Naturally, Harrison is recognized by 2 British men in Germany, but luckily he was as they are later able to warn him that the Germans know what he is up to.The ending is an exciting chase scene as the trio flee to Switzerland via a ski lift with Henried and his men in hot pursuit.Surprisingly, the film has little violence.