Though the film starts out slow and unfocused, it allows
itself to take the time to establish the characters so that when they
eventually get onto the train, we have a sense of who everyone is and a reason
to care about them. Once on the train, the action really starts to pick up. Iris
Henderson (Margaret Lockwood) befriends elderly Miss Froy (Dame May Whitty)
after getting hit on the head with a fallen plant holder. When she falls asleep
and finds kindly Miss Froy missing she begins to inquire, but everyone else
seems to have no recollection of Miss Froy ever having been on the train. As
she investigates the incident, the more baffling and conspiratorial the case of
Miss Froy’s disappearance turns out to be.
The film excels at slowly escalating
events; gradually earning it’s more audacious and exciting turn of events as it
goes along. It remains indelibly exciting in spite of the seventy plus years
that have passed since its initial release; the film deliberately paces itself to
effectively draw us in more and more as the film progresses.
The film also manages to be surprising comical and humorous.
Charters and Caldicott (Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne) in particular provide
some of the film’s most memorable, funniest lines as cricket enthusiasts rushing
back to England to see a match. There’s also an incredibly memorable sight gag
in one of the fight sequences involving a height deficient Iris having trouble
taking away a knife from her attacker.
Some of the most distinctive shots of the film are the
stylish touches that Hitchcock added, but rather than being empty and pointless
they’re used to progress the film. Seeing “FROY” written in the mist clinging
to the window as the train passes through a tunnel is both a very cool visual
and a great way to further Iris’s investment in her suspicion. The incredible
shot of Gilbert (Michael Redgrave) climbing on the outside of the train as
another train passes by is wonderfully exciting and a plausible challenge (especially since that's something that a stunt person would have to actually have done) for
Gilbert to confront while attempting to get into the neighboring passenger car.
Hitchcock always had a tremendous gift for getting great
character work out of his actors. The chemistry between Lockwood and Redgrave is incredibly palpable
and sells much of the film. and even minor, fleeting characters are given
some nice screentime including Cecil Parker as Mr. Todhunter and Linden Travers as “Mrs.”
Todhunter.
Though it’s almost too obvious that Iris and Gilbert will
end up together, and that Miss Froy will show up again at some point, and the “good
guys” will triumph over the “bad guys” up to no good on the train. And though a
lot of these characters are lovable but clear stock characters, there is
something to be said about being the first to do something and to do it well.
As critic Ryan McGee so accurately noted, “Another trope? Sure. But tropes
often last because of their continual applicability, not simply because they
are an easy go-to for a show looking for a plot.” Though McGee was referring to
television, this is also true of films; when put in the right, capable hands of
talented individuals, it doesn’t matter that we’ve seen some of this before.
When it’s this entertaining, and this exciting, and this engrossing, and at
times, deeply, purely fun, why would we want to get nitpicky about the structure?
Not only that, but in 1938, the film industry was still on a learning curve,
and Hitchcock was an innovative, smart guy that took advantage of the medium to
make interesting, engaging stories and he was the first to make them quite like
he did.
Grade: A
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