Train of Events

1949 British film by Sidney Cole et al

Train of Events

Original British quad poster

Directed by| Sidney Cole
Charles Crichton
Basil Dearden
Written by| T.E.B. Clarke
Basil Dearden
Angus MacPhail
Ronald Millar
Produced by| Michael Balcon
Michael Relph
Starring| Jack Warner
Peter Finch
Valerie Hobson
Cinematography| Lionel Banes
Gordon Dines
Edited by| Bernard Gribble
Music by| Leslie Bridgewater

Production
company

Ealing Studios

Distributed by| GFD (UK)

Release date

* 18 August 1949 (1949-08-18) (UK)

Running time

| 90 minutes
Country| United Kingdom
Language| English
Budget| £144,978[1]

Train of Events is a 1949 British portmanteau film made by Ealing Studios, directed by Sidney Cole, Charles Crichton and Basil Dearden and starring Jack Warner, Peter Finch and Valerie Hobson.[2] The film premiered on 18 August 1949 at the Gaumont Haymarket in London.[3] In the film, as a train is heading for a crash into a stalled petrol tanker at a level crossing, four different stories are told in flashback.

## Plot

[edit]

A Liverpool-bound train departs from Euston station in London in the period immediately after World War II. After dark, the train is travelling north at speed when a lantern being waved by the trackside is seen by the driver. He applies the brakes but a road tanker stalled across a level crossing is looming up just ahead. Plainly, there is not enough room to stop but, just as the collision is about to occur, there is a fade-out succeeded by a view of the locomotive sheds at Euston three days earlier. Personal stories of passengers are then told in flashbacks which make up the "train of events" of the title.

The first story, "The Actor", is about Philip who has a dark secret. He has been visited by his estranged wife and we learn that she has been unfaithful while he was in the Army. She jeers at him and he is roused to revenge, strangling her while a gramophone plays These Foolish Things. The theatre party to which he belongs is on the train, en route to Canada. Also on board is a costume hamper containing the body of his wife. He is hoping to get rid of it on the transatlantic crossing but detectives have been tracking him and are on the train.

The second story, "The Prisoner-of-War", is about Richard and Ella. He is a prisoner of war on the run who does not wish to return to Germany. They have hitherto endured a miserable secret life in assorted seedy lodgings and Ella is hoping they can start again abroad. However, she has stolen money from her landlady to pay her fare and there is only enough for one of them to emigrate. Selflessly, she intends it be him.

The third story, "The Composer", is about composer Raymond Hillary who is travelling to a performance with his star pianist, the temperamental Irina, and other musicians. Although married he has had a string of dalliances, Irina being the latest.

The fourth story, "The Engine Driver", is centred on engine driver Jim Hardcastle. He is facing his own crisis: he is a candidate for a management job at the locomotive sheds. Getting the job would take him off the footplate and allow him to work office hours, the heartfelt wish of his wife Emily. However, to cover for his daughter's future husband who was accidentally knocked out when Jim and his mate were trying to stop him resigning, then put into a fish wagon to come round which was hitched to a loco that ends up in Macclesfield, Jim covers for him by working his shift and, if this were to come to light, it could cost him the promotion.

The film returns to the train, roaring through the night. Again we see the light by the track and the tanker just ahead, but this time also the collision. The derailed and damaged train lies in ruins. Jim Hardcastle groggily recovers consciousness in a pile of coal from the overturned tender, as shocked passengers wander about. One of them is Richard, but his Ella is badly injured and on a stretcher; she dies before she can be taken away and Richard runs from the scene and the attending police, unaware of the steamship ticket in Ella's handbag, which blows away. Philip seems unhurt and makes a dash for freedom, but as he tries to evade the detectives he runs dangerously close to the wreckage and an unstable coach collapses upon him. Irina and Raymond are only bruised and their music company is able to continue, albeit in bandages. There is a happy ending for driver Jim. The final scene shows him waving goodbye to his wife as he prepares to cycle across to the locomotive sheds on the first day of his new job.

## Cast

[edit]

"The Engine Driver" (directed by Sidney Cole)

* Jack Warner as Jim Hardcastle
* Gladys Henson as Mrs. Hardcastle
* Susan Shaw as Doris Hardcastle
* Patric Doonan as Ron Stacey
* Philip Dale as Hardcastle's fireman
* Miles Malleson as Johnson, the timekeeper
* Leslie Phillips as Stacey's fireman
* Percy Walsh as District Superintendent
* Will Ambro as Lancashire railwayman

"The Prisoner-of-War" (directed by Basil Dearden)

* Joan Dowling as Ella
* Laurence Payne as Richard
* Olga Lindo as Mrs. Bailey
* Denis Webb as clerk at shipping office

"The Composer" (directed by Charles Crichton)

* Valerie Hobson as Stella
* John Clements as Raymond Hillary
* Irina Baronova as Irina Norozova
* John Gregson as Malcolm Murray-Bruce
* Gwen Cherrell as Charmian
* Jacqueline Byrne as television announcer
* Neil Arden as the compere
* Thelma Grigg as the harpist

"The Actor" (directed by Basil Dearden)

* Peter Finch as Philip Mason
* Mary Morris as Louise
* Laurence Naismith as Joe Hunt
* Doris Yorke as Mrs. Hunt
* Michael Hordern as first plain clothes man
* Charles Morgan as second plain clothes man
* Mark Dignam as Bolingbroke
* Guy Verney as the producer
* Philip Ashley as actor
* Bryan Coleman as actor
* Henry Hewitt as actor
* Lyndon Brook as actor

## Production

[edit]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

|

Jack Warner was permanently injured while making this film. He had insisted on learning how a steam engine is driven to get his posture right, but slipped on a patch of oil and fell into a locomotive turntable pit and injured his back. As a result, he had a slight limp which remained with him ever afterwards and became noticeably worse as he aged.

A quirk of the film is that one of the digits on the smokebox number plate of a locomotive featured in one of the early scenes is painted out (presumably to avoid worrying passengers who might fear that it really would be involved in an accident), but is still clearly readable because the numbers themselves were made from raised metal.

The locomotives used in the film included two LMS Class 3F "Jinty" 0-6-0Ts Nos. 47327 and 47675, and LMS Royal Scot Class No. 46126 Royal Army Service Corps, though at the time this film was being made, it was in its rebuilt condition from 1943. One of these engines 47327 survives and is based on the Midland Railway in Butterley.

## Critical reception

[edit]

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "This new 'portmanteau' film from Ealing Studios – stories of three separate groups of people travelling on an express from Euston to Liverpool – is far less successful than their earlier Dead of Night [1945]. The episodes are loosely held together by a fourth story, which presents scenes in the life of an engine driver (Jack Warner), his wife and family, cut-to-pattern semi-Huggett cockneys. Moods are dutifully varied – melodrama of a hysterical young actor who strangles his unfaithful wife, ritzy comedy of a philandering composer-conductor unable to choose between his wife and a concert pianist, tragedy of an orphaned girl in love with an escaped German P.o.W. – but the dialogue and characterisation lack feeling, wit and authenticity. While the comedy sequence is merely a facetious attempt at the sophisticated manner, the other two are novelettes, stagily conceived and handled. Once all the characters are aboard the train, a crash provides the inevitable climax and arbitrary solutions. There are three directors, stiff, bloodless, highly conscientious, their styles indistinguishable except for Dearden's pronounced use of melodramatic angles. One performance, that of Mary Morris as the actor's wife, gives a momentary breath of life to a disappointingly artificial film."[4]

Kine Weekly wrote: "Composite melodrama, hinging on a railway crash. It's made up of four complete stories and each, extremely well acted, staged and directed, subtly heightens the other without becoming detached from the main thread. Amusing, moving, heart-warming and thrilling, the veritable library of popular fiction carries wide appeal. ... The magazine type of film is seldom a commercial success, but one of the few exceptions was Ealing's Dead of Night. This, from the same stable, shapes like another. By skilfully intertwining its four stories it enables comedy, drama and tragedy to travel hand in hand without loss of continuity. Each episode is good of its kind and all, whether serious or satirical, have the popular touch. The direction, like the acting, is uniformly good, but if we had to single out a director for special mention it would be Sidney Cole for his showmanlike handling of the train crash sequences. Of the more intimate scenes, the death of Ella is a little gem. Smart and natural dialogue is another of the film's many conspicuous attributes."[5]

The Times said: "The contrivance at best is clumsy, and there are not any inherent virtues in Train of Events to compensate for the inevitable distraction and division of attention."[6]

The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 3/5 stars, writing: "As the night express from Euston to Liverpool is about to career off the rails, the movie also lurches into flashback, showing why various passengers were making the fated journey. There's the engine driver; a philandering orchestra conductor; an actor who's killed his wife; and a girl in love with an escaped German PoW. This portmanteau effort is inevitably uneven, though the cast of stalwarts is worth watching."[7]

In British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 David Quinlan rated the film as "average", writing: "Not one of the better British portmanteau films."[8]

Leslie Halliwell said: "A rather mechanical entertainment, proficiently made."[9]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Chapman, J. (2022). The Money Behind the Screen: A History of British Film Finance, 1945–1985. Edinburgh University Press p 356.
2. ^ "Train of Events". British Film Institute. Retrieved 8 December 2023.
3. ^ "Picture Theatres, Gaumont". The Times. 18 August 1949. p. 10. Retrieved 22 June 2015.
4. ^ "Train of Events". The Monthly Film Bulletin. 16 (181): 159. 1 January 1949. ProQuest 1305806687.
5. ^ "Train of Events". Kine Weekly. 390 (2207): 18. 18 August 1949. ProQuest 2687787773.
6. ^ "New films in London". The Times. 22 August 1949. p. 8. Retrieved 22 June 2015.
7. ^ Radio Times Guide to Films (18th ed.). London: Immediate Media Company. 2017. p. 955\. ISBN 9780992936440.
8. ^ Quinlan, David (1984). British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd. p. 254\. ISBN 0-7134-1874-5.
9. ^ Halliwell, Leslie (1989). Halliwell's Film Guide (7th ed.). London: Paladin. p. 1047\. ISBN 0586088946.

## External links

[edit]

* Train of Events at IMDb
* Train of Events at ReelStreets

* v
* t
* e

Films directed by Charles Crichton

* For Those in Peril (1944)
* Dead of Night (segment) (1945)
* Painted Boats (1945)
* Hue and Cry (1947)
* Against the Wind (1948)
* Another Shore (1948)
* Train of Events (segment) (1949)
* Dance Hall (1950)
* The Lavender Hill Mob (1951)
* Hunted (1952)
* The Titfield Thunderbolt (1953)
* The Love Lottery (1954)
* The Divided Heart (1954)
* The Man in the Sky (1957)
* Law and Disorder (1958)
* Floods of Fear (1959)
* The Battle of the Sexes (1959)
* The Boy Who Stole a Million (1960)
* The Third Secret (1964)
* He Who Rides a Tiger (1965)
* A Fish Called Wanda (1988)

* v
* t
* e

Films produced and directed by Basil Dearden

Director|

* The Black Sheep of Whitehall (1942)
* The Goose Steps Out (1942)
* The Bells Go Down (1943)
* My Learned Friend (1943)
* The Halfway House (1944)
* They Came to a City (1944)
* Dead of Night (1945)
* The Captive Heart (1946)
* Frieda (1947)
* Saraband for Dead Lovers (1948)
* Train of Events (1949)
* The Blue Lamp (1950)
* Cage of Gold (1950)
* Pool of London (1951)
* I Believe in You (1952)
* The Gentle Gunman (1952)
* The Square Ring (1953)
* The Rainbow Jacket (1954)
* Out of the Clouds (1955)
* The Ship That Died of Shame (1955)
* Who Done It? (1956)
* The Green Man (1956)
* The Smallest Show on Earth (1957)
* Violent Playground (1958)
* Sapphire (1959)
* The League of Gentlemen (1960)
* Man in the Moon (1960)
* The Secret Partner (1961)
* Victim (1961)
* All Night Long (1962)
* Life for Ruth (1962)
* The Mind Benders (1963)
* A Place to Go (1963)
* Woman of Straw (1964)
* Masquerade (1965)
* Khartoum (1966)
* Only When I Larf (1968)
* The Assassination Bureau (1969)
* The Man Who Haunted Himself (1970)

Producer|

* Let George Do It! (1940)
* Spare a Copper (1940)
* The Ghost of St. Michael's (1941)
* Turned Out Nice Again (1941)
* Davy (1958)
* Rockets Galore (1958)
* Desert Mice (1959)

* v
* t
* e

Films produced by Michael Balcon

* Woman to Woman (1923)
* The White Shadow (1923)
* The Passionate Adventure (1924)
* The Rat (1925)
* The Sea Urchin (1926)
* The Triumph of the Rat (1926)
* The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1926)
* The Mountain Eagle (1926)
* Blighty (1927)
* Downhill (1927)
* The Rolling Road (1927)
* Easy Virtue (1927)
* One of the Best (1927)
* The Vortex (1927)
* A South Sea Bubble (1928)
* A Light Woman (1928)
* The First Born (1928)
* The Wrecker (1929)
* The Return of the Rat (1929)
* City of Play (1929)
* Taxi for Two (1929)
* Woman to Woman (1929)
* Symphony in Two Flats (1930)
* A Warm Corner (1930)
* A Sport of Kings (1931)
* Third Time Lucky (1931)
* The Ringer (1931)
* The Ghost Train (1931)
* The Calendar (1931)
* Sunshine Susie (1931)
* Michael and Mary (1931)
* The Faithful Heart (1931)
* Jack's the Boy (1932)
* I Was a Spy (1933)
* It's a Boy (1933)
* Friday the Thirteenth (1933)
* Princess Charming (1934)
* Evergreen (1934)
* Red Ensign (1934)
* Along Came Sally (1934)
* The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)
* Car of Dreams (1935)
* First a Girl (1935)
* Me and Marlborough (1935)
* The 39 Steps (1935)
* Stormy Weather (1935)
* Things Are Looking Up (1935)
* The First Offence (1936)
* Tudor Rose (1936)
* The Man Who Changed His Mind (1936)
* Secret Agent (1936)
* Where There's a Will (1936)
* Windbag the Sailor (1936)
* Doctor Syn (1937)
* A Yank at Oxford (1938)
* The Gaunt Stranger (1938)
* The Four Just Men (1939)
* Cheer Boys Cheer (1939)
* Let George Do It! (1940)
* The Proud Valley (1940)
* The Ghost of St. Michael's (1941)
* Ships with Wings (1941)
* Turned Out Nice Again (1941)
* The Big Blockade (1942)
* Went the Day Well? (1942)
* The Black Sheep of Whitehall (1942)
* My Learned Friend (1943)
* The Foreman Went to France (1942)
* Undercover (1943)
* The Bells Go Down (1943)
* San Demetrio London (1943)
* Nine Men (1943)
* For Those in Peril (1944)
* Champagne Charlie (1944)
* The Halfway House (1944)
* Fiddlers Three (1944)
* Dead of Night (1945)
* Pink String and Sealing Wax (1945)
* They Came to a City (1945)
* Johnny Frenchman (1945)
* The Captive Heart (1946)
* The Overlanders (1946)
* Hue and Cry (1947)
* It Always Rains on Sunday (1947)
* The Loves of Joanna Godden (1947)
* The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (1947)
* Frieda (1947)
* Against the Wind (1948)
* Saraband for Dead Lovers (1948)
* Another Shore (1948)
* Scott of the Antarctic (1948)
* Train of Events (1949)
* Passport to Pimlico (1949)
* Whisky Galore! (1949)
* A Run for Your Money (1949)
* Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
* Cage of Gold (1950)
* The Blue Lamp (1950)
* The Magnet (1950)
* The Lavender Hill Mob (1951)
* Pool of London (1951)
* The Man in the White Suit (1951)
* Mandy (1952)
* The Cruel Sea (1953)
* The Maggie (1954)
* The Night My Number Came Up (1955)
* Touch and Go (1955)
* The Ladykillers (1955)
* The Long Arm (1956)
* Barnacle Bill (1957)
* The Man in the Sky (1957)
* The Shiralee (1957)
* Dunkirk (1958)
* The Siege of Pinchgut (1959)
* The Scapegoat (1959)
* The Long and the Short and the Tall (1961)

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