9/10
Crackerjack Thriller -- Neat and Compact, But With Lots of Moving Part
3 July 2019
I first saw this movie on July 2, 2019, and I was riveted to my seat from the opening sequence. Director Ted Tetzlaff, working in the UK with Glenn Ford (whose presence was the raison d'etre for the movie as an MGM British production), never lets up the tension from the opening confrontation between a uniformed police constable (John Horsley) and a seeming vagrant (Victor Maddern) in a railway yard. The script and story, by Kem Bennett, interweave several stories that end up interlocking, and watching it the other morning, I had to wonder if Arthur Hailey didn't see this movie on original release, because the interaction of human elements and suspense seem to point the way very much to books such as Airport (and yes, I know that Hailey had lots of inspirations along the way). Glenn Ford's marital difficulties with unhappy wife Anne Vernon are given just the right amount of play, when one takes into account her role in the subsequent plot, and his low-key acting is perfectly balanced by the presence of Maurice Denham as the coolly efficient (but quietly scared-to-death) police official in charge on the ground. And then there are the wonderful little uniquely British touches, such as Herbert C. Walton's performance as Charlie, a man who likes trains. There is only one plot flaw and a slight structural flaw in the run-up to the double-barreled finale, but I won't go into those here, as they're not that serious and talking about them would spoil the movie. This is one that I heartily wish were available as a mechanically manufactured DVD, rather than a Warner Archives DVD-R, because it rates the better treatment.
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