Night Train to Munich

This film was made at a point of frustration and fear for the British. They had bumbled into a frightening war against a truly evil foreign government, and had watched helplessly as their ally fell. It is a mark of the strength of British character that this movie was made, complete with a healthy dollop of comedy in it (including self-parody). Basically the film acknowledges the treachery and evil of the Nazis and their collaborators (Paul Henried here), and the failure of the British to successfully account for it in the period of Chamberlain's government (Baldwin's previous government had tried to counter it but faced overwhelming pacifist spirit in the Labor and Tory Parties). Rex Harrison (aided by Basil Radford and Naughton Wayne) represent the Britain that pulls itself together to use the same deceit to snatch back what was lost.

As noted in several comments above, Radford and Wayne are Charters and Caldicott again, still traveling on continental trains, discussing cricket matches, and proving up to fighting the enemy if that enemy shows it's hands. Harrison looks almost dashing (complete with monocle) in his Nazi disguise outfit. He makes the comment about the Siegfried Line at one point...and nobody ever has explained it. The best single line belongs to Raymond Huntley, as a Nazi officer trying to understand whether the comment "This is a fine country we live in" was meant as a put down or not. After being left alone for a moment or two, he repeats it with different emphasis on "fine country". Then looking at the camera with complete honesty he says "This is a bloody awful country we live in." I am sure British audiences in 1940 fully agreed with Huntley.

Night Train to Munich (1940)

This British movie was made in 1940 a year after German and Britain began WWII. It is set in the late summer of 1939, just as the declaration of war was on the horizon. And while the filming and post-production is going on, London is being bombed by the Nazi air force. (The film was released in December, several months after the first raids.)

The most memorable lead is Rex Harrison playing an agent and double agent, falling in love with and saving the scientist's daughter (Margaret Lockwood) as well as the scientist himself (while he's at it). And then as a competing suitor, the dubiously aligned German officer played by Paul Henreid, who a year later would play a kind of counterpoint in the American Nazi film, "Casablanca."

Director Carol Reed marshals all these forces and makes a surprisingly terrific movie. It's fast, smart, fanciful, and patriotic. It's also really really funny, and the more you catch the British humor the more you'll be glad--at times it's relentless even as its subtle. The little barbs against the Germans, both as German stereotypes and as Nazi buffoons, is highly calculated. The British come off as daring and dashing, even the bumbling travelers rise to the occasion. It's often been commented that Harrison makes a very fit precursor to James Bond, and there must be a backwards truth to that because Ian Fleming (who invented Bond) was a WWII British OSS worker. Art imitating life. Imitating art.

And yes, this is an homage and reference (if not sequel) to Hitchcock's "The Lady Vanishes," including use of the same writers, the same kind of comic suspense, the same leading actress, and even two comic side characters from one train to the other. Reed even acknowledged the connections, as if he could deny them, and wanted no doubt to coattail some of the movies huge success.

It taints a movie to call it propaganda, so I won't. It's not, really. What it does (just as "Casablanca" does) is strike one up for the good guys. You end the movie thinking the British might just win this thing. And at the time that wasn't a foregone conclusion--London was only sinking further into the terror of the Blitz. Of course, we know that British resolve and resourcefulness won the day, with a little outside help, and this is part of exactly that.

Great stuff.

An intrepid British spy boards the NIGHT TRAIN TO MUNICH in a desperate attempt to rescue a scientist & his beautiful daughter from the Nazis.

Here is an excellent wartime thriller, with just the right amount of puckish humor to keep the film from becoming too heavy. Very fine acting & excellent production values add tremendously to the success of the film, with director Sir Carol Reed showing hints of the style which would distinguish his postwar crime classic, THE THIRD MAN, a decade hence.

Margaret Lockwood is lovely, but she is given remarkably little to do outside of looking anxious or scared. Not to worry, the action is carried admirably by the male side of the cast, most notably Sir Rex Harrison as the British agent. Whether glibly singing silly songs or engaged in deadly gun battles in the Bavarian Alps, he carries off his role with his characteristic aplomb.

Paul Henreid completes the quasi-romantic triangle. Menacing & sophisticated, he is an excellent example of Nazi determination & evil. Sir Felix Aylmer, very effectively playing against type, wraps his unique voice around the small part of a German spy master. Roland Culver, Torin Thatcher & Ian Fleming - the character actor, not the author - might be glimpsed in cameo roles.

Fans of Sir Alfred Hitchcock's splendid THE LADY VANISHES (1938) will be heartened at seeing the return of the characters Charters & Caldicott, those criquet-mad twits, played by the original actors, Basil Radford & Naughton Wayne. Their initial performances had proved so successful that they were given the opportunity to reprise the roles several times, this being the most successful of their reappearances. Their inclusion here, about two-thirds into the story, gives the film a decided lift, making the whole procedure jolly good entertainment.

Carol Reed's wonderful and interesting style of suspenseful film (seen in all its glory in 'The Third Man') is evident in this early spy flick. Rex Reed is an OSS operative who must journey deep into the heart of the Third Reich to rescue an important scientist before the Nazis can make full use of him. The characters are not just two-dimensional although they may seem that way; they use every trick and opportunity to get through their sticky situation. The sudden appearance of two of the characters from Hitchcock's 'The Lady Vanishes' is a real treat, too!

The story itself is very intricate, with crosses and double-crosses and random occurances causing problems in our hero's way. The film is successfully able to weave genius storytelling, great acting, and effective cinematography to make it an intriguing spy film that is surely ahead of its time! And the finale is certainly an indicator of what the James Bond films would bring us years later.

Even though it was filmed in the beginning of WWII, it is not a stereotypical, or dull, film. A must-see!

Carol Reed directs this thriller in the Hitchcock tradition. A Czech scientist(James Harcourt)and his daughter(Margaret Lockwood)are pursued by Nazis. The pair escape to England, but Lockwood is captured and placed in a concentration camp in hopes of influencing her father to cooperate with the Germans. The lovely Lockwood escapes to rejoin her father only to have the pair kidnapped and taken back to Germany. A British agent(Rex Harrison)in disguise as a German officer infiltrates the German high command and tries to get the couple out of Germany by way of a night train to Munich. Nazi faithful Paul Henreid does his best to spoil the escape. My favorite scene involves the cable-car in the Swiss Alps. Harrison is outstanding. Supporting cast includes: Basil Radford, Naunton Wayne, Roland Culver and Austin Trevor. The intelligent script is witty with room for a little deadpan humor.