calvinnme This starts off as a "love on the dole" flick, though these two newlyweds (Michael Redgrave and Patricia Roc) are employed. Redgrave works the day shift as a crane operator on the Waterloo Bridge project and Roc works the graveyard shift as a hotel telephone operator. Due to their schedules they don't have much time to see each other. Then it turns into a suspense movie when Redgrave sees what appears to be a murder while he is riding on the train to work.After some investigation, it turns out he saw Lukas, as the magician Zoltini, practicing a knife trick with his wife, the very lovely Sally Gray. Lukas is the very jealous type, so he thinks that Redgrave is flirting with Gray, which he is, though in a minor way. Gray is tired of hubby's jealously, so she leaves him and finds Redgrave. They engage in a little smooching, but that's about it. Redgrave returns to his wife and Gray returns to her husband and it looks as if things will work out for both couples.Then Lukas finds some money and a airplane ticket in Gray's purse, both of which are gifts from their manager. As expected, the old boy blows his top and shoots Gray dead. All of this occurs just as Redgrave and Roc are riding in the train and go past the window of the other couple. Now, isn't life strange.Sally Gray is a very lovely lass, and one wonders why she is married to Lukas, who is old enough to be her father. It's workmanlike film, and I wonder what Hitch could have done with the same material. He surely would have improved it and given it more life. Still, it is worth watching anyways.

kidboots Just a terrific little movie - a variation of "Lady on a Train"(1945) and then some!! Instead of a dotty Deanna Durbin addicted to detective stories, you have a young Michael Redgrave as Peter, a sleep deprived mechanic who, as befits wartime austerity, is juggling shifts with his telephonist wife Pat (a young and very pretty Patricia Roc) - they only see each other over breakfast tea and toast!! Then disaster strikes - Pat is sacked but Peter is having an adventure that day that will top hers!! While on the train to work Peter thinks he sees a murder but when he fronts up to the flat with a policeman in hand, it is to find he has only witnessed a rehearsal from the Great Zoltini (Paul Lukas) and his rather nervous assistant Vivian (Sally Grey) - it was all an illusion!!But the reality is different - Zoltini is volatile and insanely jealous, Viv, though loving him, is frightened and fed up!! When Peter is cornered by a roving reporter for a "hero of the hour" interview, the hard luck story the Zoltini's tell him about their once great success evaporating due to a fickle public, makes front page news and they find theatre managers clamouring for their act!! But only because of the admiration and liking for Vivian - as soon as they get to the theatre Zoltini throws tantrum after tantrum!! He is so impossible Vivian does the unforgivable and walks out before the finish leaving Zoltini a laughing stock on the stage. She runs into Peter and through his confidence and support she finds the strength to leave Zoltini.For just over an hour, it packs plenty of wallop, once Peter leaves Viv with the man who's always loved her and can make her a success, life becomes more simple. Pat has now got her old job back with an added bonus that she is now on day shift, but the ending has a gruesome twist of which Peter is blissfully unaware of.By 1940 Sally Grey had already been in films for 10 years but as this film showed she was very capable of tackling characters of many dimensions. First billed Paul Lukas had already spent the 1930s as a dependable Hollywood star. This movie was made just before his return to America where he found his greatest triumph as the sympathetic German in both the stage and film versions of "Watch on the Rhine".Highly Recommended.

writers_reign In the past decade I've watched several British films produced in the lat 1930s - including Climbing High which featured Michael Redgrave - and all were risible despite names like Ralph Richardson and Carol Reed adorning the credits so I wasn't expecting too much when I opted for this but as a great admirer of Michael Redgrave I went along and was presently surprised. It's not, of course, without flaws - Michael Redgrave is arguably the least convincing crane driver in the history of film and how many crane drivers sport a display handkerchief in the breast pocket of a suit and/or frequent West End night clubs, but if we overlook this - plus the fact that Redgrave, having seen what appears to be a murder through the window of 1) a train on which he is passenger and 2) the window of a flat in a large block, is then able to leave the train at the next station and identify not only the anonymous apartment block but also the flat in which the incident took place - we are left with a tasty little thriller, excellently cast with Paul Lukas and Sally Gray as the husband and wife in the window and Patricia Roc as Redgrave's wife. There's a fair amount of location shooting - Redgrave is actually helping construct Waterloo Bridge - and the scenes inside a theatre have a flair and polish sadly lacking in Hitchcock's similar attempts. Albert Prejean and Ginette Leclerc starred in the French original 'Metropolitan' which by all accounts was greatly inferior. I'd definitely buy this on DVD were it available.

kinekrom From a train window, crane-driver Michael Redgrave thinks he sees a woman being strangled. What follows is an unusual and effective story involving a magician, his assistant wife and a subtle interplay of illusion and murder. Refreshingly directed by the overlooked Herbert Mason, and well performed throughout (particularly Redgrave and Sally Gray), this small gem benefits greatly from its varied and credible London backgrounds, including music halls (including magic shows), mundane work places not normally seen in British films of the period, and construction work on Waterloo Bridge, under which the National Film Theatre is situated (which is where I last saw this film).