aa56
I was looking forward to a good old English ghost mystery, but this film is mostly like the title of my review. I was getting really close to switching it off, but the thought kept recurring that the English MUST have a good ghost story waiting to unfold.I was wrong. Most of this movie is vaudevillian prattle. The beginning has no plot development, just pointless comedic yakking. Arthur Askey's character Tommy Gander is even more annoying than Kevin Corcoran's Arliss Coates in "Old Yeller." I was so hoping he would die early.The "rule" is, if this is a ghost story, you had better scare the audience somehow within ten minutes, but this film doesn't become even mildly interesting until the stationmaster tells the ghost story. The highlights of this picture are the beautiful Linden Travers and the wonderful Kathleen Harrison, who would endear herself to American audiences as Mrs. Dilber in the 1951 movie "Scrooge."
pitt70
I really wanted to like this film. I really did. It sounded like it had so much potential. A ghost story, a comedy. Another "Ghost Breakers" or "Cat and the Canary", or "Hold that Ghost", I thought. No such luck.I started to loose focus after about 20 minutes but I stuck with it for 45 before I finally called it a night. I thought maybe I just wasn't in the right mood and since I had recorded it on my DVR I decided I'd try again in a few days. The second time around I didn't even make it to 45 minutes.The problem, at least for me, was Arthur Askey. I found myself repeating the words, "God, what an obnoxious ham". I tried to see past him, but he's in every scene, and every scene he's in .. he ruins. I realize that other reviewers seem to think he's great. I guess it's a perfect example of "different strokes".I can't help but wonder what fun this movie could have been with Bob Hope or Abbott & Costello.
utgard14
Train passengers are stranded overnight at a train station due to the hijinks of an obnoxious man named Tommy Gander (Arthur Askey), who pulled the brake so he could go get his hat he dropped off the train. That's the first of this guy's annoyances in this movie, but hardly the last. He spends the entire film being annoying. While they're at the station, they're told the station is haunted and a ghost train passes at night. If anybody looks upon the train they will die. At this point I was cheering for Gander to see the train.I'm a sucker for a train movie so I really wanted to like this. I did like the train station set, particularly the platform outside with the moody matte painting backdrop. The mystery elements aren't bad. I would rate this one a lot higher if not for Askey's overbearing character and the fact we seem to get little relief from him in the movie. As one other reviewer rightly noted, whether or not you will enjoy this film depends on how you feel about Arthur Askey's performance. For me, he was unfunny, irritating, and unlikable. You might think he's the funniest person who ever lived. Watch it and see for yourself.
bob.decker
In the colonies we're not all that familiar with Arthur Askey, so I nearly skipped this film (which had its TCM preview recently) on account of the negative comments here on his appearance in "Ghost Train" -- which I expected to be thoroughly annoying. Instead I was pleasantly surprised to find myself laughing audibly. The physical aspects of Askey's comedy and his timing when delivering a line suggest what you'd get if Charlie Chaplin and Woody Allen had a baby. There is no comparing him to Bud Abbott or any of the other usual purveyors of comic relief who turn up in films of this genre. One can feel, moreover, the thread connecting Askey to British comedy 30 years later; at least it is clear from an American point of view that he has more in common with the Monty Python troupe than with any of his counterparts over here. As for the rest of the film -- the more movies you've seen, the more likely you'll guess at the ending, but it is still quite entertaining and atmospheric and worth waiting for its next appearance.
AD
