A totally preposterous but fast-moving and quite enjoyable potboiler that doesn't outstay its welcome, this film also boasts additional interest for its audacious train crash sequences and its status as almost the first British sound film.
It's based on what had been a very successful West End play, co-written by Arnold Ridley, later better known as Dad's Army's Private Godfrey. The characters are all stereotypes of the day: the hero (Joseph Striker) is a good chap, the sort who puts up his fists when some cad threatens him with a firearm, who has retired from being rather good at cricket to help his uncle run a railway, while his plucky girlfriend (Benita Hume) ends up saving the day. There's an annoyingly dense private detective (Leonard Thompson) for comic relief, an oily villain (Carlyle Blackwell, who got star billing) and his moll (Pauline Johnson) who comes good in the end. The villain, the owner of a bus company who also masquerades as a railway general manager, has a cunning plan to promote road transport by organising the wrecking of trains. He should have just waited a few decades for the British government to wreck the railways and then franchise them out to the bus companies.
It's the sort of film where characters turn amateur detective rather than doing the obvious and going to the police, and even a series of horrendous rail disasters and a murder can't shift the impression that this is all a rather jolly jape.
The film claims to feature the most spectacular staged rail crash in British film history, and with some justification. The "money shot" shows a loco hauling a full rake of six coaches down an incline at 65km/h smashing into a steam lorry at Salters Ash level crossing on the since-closed Basingtoke to Alton Light Railway (later the location for the better-known Oh, Mr Porter!). The lorry is simply pulverised; the train jumps from the track and crashes onto its side, belching huge gouts of steam. There's lots of other authentic railway detail if you're interested in that kind of thing: the Southern Railway cooperated with the film makers to provide authentic locations. The railway is brilliantly and innovatively filmed, including one remarkable shot where the camera appears to track sideways from the exterior of a moving train to the interior of the coach.
The soundtrack was never intended to have full dialogue, just sound effects and musical score, with a few snatches from a radio announcer – in fact a plot point revolves around a phonograph recording of the villain instructing a henchman. It's now lost and the current DVD release features a decent new score by veteran silent film accompanist Neil Brand.
It's based on what had been a very successful West End play, co-written by Arnold Ridley, later better known as Dad's Army's Private Godfrey. The characters are all stereotypes of the day: the hero (Joseph Striker) is a good chap, the sort who puts up his fists when some cad threatens him with a firearm, who has retired from being rather good at cricket to help his uncle run a railway, while his plucky girlfriend (Benita Hume) ends up saving the day. There's an annoyingly dense private detective (Leonard Thompson) for comic relief, an oily villain (Carlyle Blackwell, who got star billing) and his moll (Pauline Johnson) who comes good in the end. The villain, the owner of a bus company who also masquerades as a railway general manager, has a cunning plan to promote road transport by organising the wrecking of trains. He should have just waited a few decades for the British government to wreck the railways and then franchise them out to the bus companies.
It's the sort of film where characters turn amateur detective rather than doing the obvious and going to the police, and even a series of horrendous rail disasters and a murder can't shift the impression that this is all a rather jolly jape.
The film claims to feature the most spectacular staged rail crash in British film history, and with some justification. The "money shot" shows a loco hauling a full rake of six coaches down an incline at 65km/h smashing into a steam lorry at Salters Ash level crossing on the since-closed Basingtoke to Alton Light Railway (later the location for the better-known Oh, Mr Porter!). The lorry is simply pulverised; the train jumps from the track and crashes onto its side, belching huge gouts of steam. There's lots of other authentic railway detail if you're interested in that kind of thing: the Southern Railway cooperated with the film makers to provide authentic locations. The railway is brilliantly and innovatively filmed, including one remarkable shot where the camera appears to track sideways from the exterior of a moving train to the interior of the coach.
The soundtrack was never intended to have full dialogue, just sound effects and musical score, with a few snatches from a radio announcer – in fact a plot point revolves around a phonograph recording of the villain instructing a henchman. It's now lost and the current DVD release features a decent new score by veteran silent film accompanist Neil Brand.
