The Last Journey

This film is one of over 200 titles in the list of independent feature films made available for television presentation by Advance Television Pictures announced in Motion Picture Herald 4 April 1942. At this time, television broadcasting was in its infancy, almost totally curtailed by the advent of World War II, and would not continue to develop until 1945-1946. Because of poor documentation (feature films were often not identified by title in conventional sources) no record has yet been found of its initial television broadcast. It's earliest documented telecast was Saturday 2 July 1949 on WCBS (Channel 2), New York City, as one of about three dozen British titles picked up for television distribution in the USA by the CBS Television Network. It first aired in Cincinnati Thursday 1 September 1949 on WCPO (Channel 7).

The film could allow viewers to fear that the only way to stop a runaway steam train is for a psychotherapist to climb over the tender to talk to the driver.

In fact, catch points are fitted on railways to stop runaway trains by diverting them into ballast. This was demonstrated by the more accurate plot in Thomas the Tank Engine when the boy who lit the fire played with the regulator, and Thomas couldn't stop himself from breaking through his engine shed doors, but a catch point stopped him from getting onto the main line.

Video from a restored and remastered version by the BBC from National Film and Television Archive [uk] materials.

Featured in Truly, Madly, Cheaply!: British B Movies (2008)