The Ghost Train
Directed by Walter Forde
Written by Marriott Edgar, Val Guest, et al
1941/UK
Gainsborough Pictures
First viewing/Amazon Prime Instant Video
[box] Station Master: If this be a natural thing where do it come from, where do it go?[/box]
I certainly didn’t do justice to this comic British thriller by watching it in pieces over a few nights on the old iPad but I probably couldn’t have taken Arthur Askey’s mugging all in one sitting.
A group of English eccentrics is stuck in an isolated waiting room with a dotty old station master when they miss their connection due to the antics of an annoying music hall entertainer (Askey). The station master and a mad woman fail to scare the ill-humored company away on a stormy night with their stories of a runaway train that haunts the station.
This is all pretty clearly a vehicle for Askey’s in your face brand of cheeky humor and works or not based on the viewer’s tolerance for it. My own tolerance proved to be on the low side..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJquGozJsF0
Clip – Arthur Askey singing “The Seaside Band”
