A Graham Greenesque Spy Movie
International intrigue movies often create the impression of exotic settings, but is London exotic to a Londoner? It's certainly familiar to viewers of films going back many decades. The Thames bends past landmarks like Westminster Hall and Big Ben. Big Ben makes itself known through sound in the backgrounds of scenes, something sounding ominous in Night Train to Munich (1940), directed by the man who made The Third Man, Carol Reed.
The spies involved work for the Gestapo (Paul von Hernreid, who became Paul Henreid, cuckolded husband of Ingrid Bergman's character in Casablanca) and for British Army Intelligence (Rex Harrison). The Nazi poses as a prisoner in a concentration camp, rescuing the daughter (Margaret Lockwood) of a British-based Czech scientist who's developed new technology for tanks. Using the daughter as leverage, the Nazi gets the scientist to return to Germany so he can apply his tech to the tank contingent making up a significant portion of that country's military forces in 1939.
Rex Harrison poses as a Nazi SS officer, taking charge of the scientist and his daughter on a train ride from Berlin to Munich, hence the film's title. Paul von Hernreid suspects Harrison and he's later justified in suspecting him when the British officer's fake back story proves to be false. A chase follows, a dash for the Swiss border, crossing a chasm in cable cars, real Alfred Hitchcock material but not directed or edited by him.
Still, it's pretty good, with Carol Reed's signature theme of betrayal on hand. There's also a lot of British manners on display. Teatime, perfectly spoken sentences, unruffled nerves in the midst of capture by the Gestapo followed by likely torture and death. Rex Harrison, with his young lizard face, is particularly cool-tempered, reacting with similar all-business emotional responses when he's one on one with beauteous black-haired Margaret Lockwood, or when he's making a leap between cable cars passing each other with a great drop below and bullets whipping past him simultaneously.
Cool like Xander Cage or Dom Toretto, but with the fate of World War Two tank development on the line, and sanctuary in Switzerland where the skiing is a dream and scientists are able to develop their mad weapons in peace.
Vic Neptune
The spies involved work for the Gestapo (Paul von Hernreid, who became Paul Henreid, cuckolded husband of Ingrid Bergman's character in Casablanca) and for British Army Intelligence (Rex Harrison). The Nazi poses as a prisoner in a concentration camp, rescuing the daughter (Margaret Lockwood) of a British-based Czech scientist who's developed new technology for tanks. Using the daughter as leverage, the Nazi gets the scientist to return to Germany so he can apply his tech to the tank contingent making up a significant portion of that country's military forces in 1939.
Rex Harrison poses as a Nazi SS officer, taking charge of the scientist and his daughter on a train ride from Berlin to Munich, hence the film's title. Paul von Hernreid suspects Harrison and he's later justified in suspecting him when the British officer's fake back story proves to be false. A chase follows, a dash for the Swiss border, crossing a chasm in cable cars, real Alfred Hitchcock material but not directed or edited by him.
Still, it's pretty good, with Carol Reed's signature theme of betrayal on hand. There's also a lot of British manners on display. Teatime, perfectly spoken sentences, unruffled nerves in the midst of capture by the Gestapo followed by likely torture and death. Rex Harrison, with his young lizard face, is particularly cool-tempered, reacting with similar all-business emotional responses when he's one on one with beauteous black-haired Margaret Lockwood, or when he's making a leap between cable cars passing each other with a great drop below and bullets whipping past him simultaneously.
Cool like Xander Cage or Dom Toretto, but with the fate of World War Two tank development on the line, and sanctuary in Switzerland where the skiing is a dream and scientists are able to develop their mad weapons in peace.
Vic Neptune
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