Ghost Train [1941]

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Starring: ~ Arthur Askey, Richard Murdoch Kathleen Harrison Peter Murray-Hill Carole Lynne
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Product Details:

Studio: Network

Region: 2

Number of Discs: 1

Format: PAL,

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Sales Rank: 3808

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Customer Reviews:

forgotten treasure (10 December 2008)
I was delighted to find this film available on dvd. It evoked great childhood memories of wintery days snuggled up watching old films. The disc aside from a chapter index has no extras. But its worth it to see Arthur Askeys unique acting style and the elegant Richard "Stinker"Murdoch hamming it up for all their worth in this classic creepy comedy. I was suprised to discover that it was based on a play written by Dads Army legend Arnold Ridley. I never knew he was a writer and judging by this film a pretty good one. As with many "Old Dark House" type comedies it oozes atmosphere and the supporting cast are uniformly good. It perhaps hasnt aged that well but its certainly worth a look, even just for old times sake.

Brash, corny and nonstop...and it sure isn't Masterpiece Theater (13 July 2007)
There was a type of British comedy film which they were careful never to send over to the States. I suspect it was because in their hearts they knew that some time in the future Masterpiece Theater was going to do more for America's image of Britain than Churchill, the Tudors and Noel Coward would do rolled into one. And these comedies would make Masterpiece Theater unbelievable. These were comedies that were just as brash and broad as Coward's diction was clipped and upper class. They were comedies for the working class, and in Britain that could be a bad thing as well as a good thing.

Sometimes the condescension is overwhelming. The stars were household names in England. Most of them came from the music halls and often were equally big on radio. A few even managed to survive television. We're talking names like Will Hay, Tommy Trinder, George Formby, Arthur Askey and quite a few more. And if Churchill gave the Brits courage in World War II, these men and women kept them smiling through. The Ghost Train, a big hit for Arthur Askey, is a first-class example. In a word...it's awful. But put yourself back in those days, imagine yourself a hardworking bloke who might not survive the next bombing, and see if you don't wind up laughing at Askey's endless shenanigans, his irrepressible optimism and his terrible jokes.

Tommy Gander (Askey) is a short bundle of energy who is always on. He's a song and dance comic traveling by train to his next music hall engagement. And when his hat blows off, he immediately pulls the emergency stop, runs to get the hat, and trots back to the train. From this, the train is late to the next station...so six passengers miss their connection...and the next connecting train isn't until morning...so the small group must stay overnight in the deserted train station...which has a ghost story attached to it about a years-ago crash and a phantom train that roars by with death on board. When a horrendous rain storm blows up, the electricity starts to fail. There's no food except what the passengers can share. And then death appears. The sullen station manager who had left for help shows up at the door in the rain, clutching his heart...and apparently murdered.

Through it all, Tommy Gander almost skips with energy, making things worse, joking so often and so terribly the other passengers (and us) want to shove him into a piece of luggage. He sings and does a dance, he looks on the bright side, he feeds brandy to a spinster, he manages to locate water for tea only by standing in a downspout downpour. He is one of the most exhausting comedians I've ever seen. But he and his friend, Teddy Deakin (Richard Murdoch, who in old age played Uncle Tom in the Rumpole series) save the day in more ways than one. Think fifth columnists, unlawful arms delivery and a train that arrives in the rain which isn't a ghost.

I'm fond of old stuff like this. Askey and those like him are a window into a part of British life you'll never get in the U. S. on Masterpiece Theater. The DVD is in better shape than you'd expect. There are no extras.

Crusty old comedy (15 June 2007)
With Bob Monkhouse appearing from beyond the grave recently, it's apt to mention that he was the last person(he had an amazing film library)to own a copy of the original"The Ghost Train"it was ruined by HM Customs whose X-ray equipment wiped the negative.The remake split the lead character into Arthur Askey and 'Stinker'Murdoch.Stranded rail passengers in a remote Cornish station become involved in a local legend concerning a ghost train.Strange events materialise and the finger of suspicion points to the different rail travellers.Both atmospherically funny and fraught with suspense.It has to be said,Askey was born to play Tommy Gander,a third rate comic, responsible for the missing connection that left everybody marooned on an eerie deserted railway halt.Throughout the film he is an annoying,always performing bad jokes,little irritant(not unlike his real show biz personna)irking everyone.Murdoch plays the suave randy charmer with a hidden secret.This is a little treasure of a film that should be watched late at night in the dark.

nostalgia at its best (08 March 2007)
Arnold Ridley (Dads Army) is in sparkling form as the playwright who scribed this b&w gem. A very good story , reasonable acting and a very atmospheric set. I suppose you could describe the category as comedy , although my preference is Comedy/thriller. The main action is set in a Cornish Railway junction station , where a group of travellers are forced to spend the night at , owing to a missed connection. The station holds scarey secrets which are revealed during the night. Well worth watching !! ps Railway buffs will pick up the continuity error of two different trains in the same sequence , in the early stage of the film.

Wonderful British comedy (23 February 2007)
There is something immensely comforting about black and white films from this era and The Ghost Train is a delight. Whether you like Arthur Askey or not (and he had many critics), his energy is that of the old music hall performers who had learned how to strike a spark with a live audience night after night, and it's impossible not to be swept along by his energy. In this slightly altered version of Arnold Ridley's play, Askey is the irrepressible but exasperating comedy turn, bound for what one suspects can only be a third-rate booking at a provincial theatre, but caught up in half-comic, half-spooky events at a deserted railway station. The minor characters are a delight - Kathleen Harrison as the abstemious spinster with the caged parrot: Edna and Herbert as the gloomy couple about to be married: the doctor who's a little too fond of a tipple, "Purely medicinal, you understand..." And, of course, the ghost train itself - "If it be a natural thing, where do it come from, and where do it go...?"
I have loved this film for many years, and I'm so pleased that it's finally come out on DVD.