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Ghost Train [1941] | ![Ghost Train [1941]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51PZBGWQN6L._SL160_.jpg)
 enlarge | Director: Walter Forde
Actors: Arthur Askey, Richard Murdoch, Kathleen Harrison, Peter Murray-hill, Carole Lynne
Studio: Network
Category: DVD
List Price: £9.99
Buy New: £5.96
You Save: £4.03 (40%)
New (9) from £5.96
Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 2074
Format: Pal
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: Universal, suitable for all
Region: 2
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 83 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
EAN: 5027626238445
ASIN: B000BSQR0S
Theatrical Release Date: May 3, 1941
Release Date: February 13, 2006
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: IN STOCK. USUALLY DISPATCHED SAME OR NEXT WORKING DAY (MON - FRI). PLEASE ALLOW 3 - 6 DAYS FOR DELIVERY. BRAND NEW AND FULLY GUARANTEED BY A WELL ESTABLISHED TRUSTED LTD COMPANY. EMAIL DISPATCH CONFIRMATIONS SENT. TRACK PROGRESS 24/7
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| Customer Reviews: Read 7 more reviews...
Brash, corny and nonstop...and it sure isn't Masterpiece Theater July 14, 2007
C. O. DeRiemer (San Antonio, Texas, USA)
14 out of 15 found this review helpful
There was a type of British comedy film which they were careful never to send over to the States. I suspect it was because in their hearts they knew that some time in the future Masterpiece Theater was going to do more for America's image of Britain than Churchill, the Tudors and Noel Coward would do rolled into one. And these comedies would make Masterpiece Theater unbelievable. These were comedies that were just as brash and broad as Coward's diction was clipped and upper class. They were comedies for the working class, and in Britain that could be a bad thing as well as a good thing.
Sometimes the condescension is overwhelming. The stars were household names in England. Most of them came from the music halls and often were equally big on radio. A few even managed to survive television. We're talking names like Will Hay, Tommy Trinder, George Formby, Arthur Askey and quite a few more. And if Churchill gave the Brits courage in World War II, these men and women kept them smiling through. The Ghost Train, a big hit for Arthur Askey, is a first-class example. In a word...it's awful. But put yourself back in those days, imagine yourself a hardworking bloke who might not survive the next bombing, and see if you don't wind up laughing at Askey's endless shenanigans, his irrepressible optimism and his terrible jokes.
Tommy Gander (Askey) is a short bundle of energy who is always on. He's a song and dance comic traveling by train to his next music hall engagement. And when his hat blows off, he immediately pulls the emergency stop, runs to get the hat, and trots back to the train. From this, the train is late to the next station...so six passengers miss their connection...and the next connecting train isn't until morning...so the small group must stay overnight in the deserted train station...which has a ghost story attached to it about a years-ago crash and a phantom train that roars by with death on board. When a horrendous rain storm blows up, the electricity starts to fail. There's no food except what the passengers can share. And then death appears. The sullen station manager who had left for help shows up at the door in the rain, clutching his heart...and apparently murdered.
Through it all, Tommy Gander almost skips with energy, making things worse, joking so often and so terribly the other passengers (and us) want to shove him into a piece of luggage. He sings and does a dance, he looks on the bright side, he feeds brandy to a spinster, he manages to locate water for tea only by standing in a downspout downpour. He is one of the most exhausting comedians I've ever seen. But he and his friend, Teddy Deakin (Richard Murdoch, who in old age played Uncle Tom in the Rumpole series) save the day in more ways than one. Think fifth columnists, unlawful arms delivery and a train that arrives in the rain which isn't a ghost.
I'm fond of old stuff like this. Askey and those like him are a window into a part of British life you'll never get in the U. S. on Masterpiece Theater. The DVD is in better shape than you'd expect. There are no extras.
Crusty old comedy June 15, 2007
Donald Morrissey (UK)
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
With Bob Monkhouse appearing from beyond the grave recently, it's apt to mention that he was the last person(he had an amazing film library)to own a copy of the original"The Ghost Train"it was ruined by HM Customs whose X-ray equipment wiped the negative.The remake split the lead character into Arthur Askey and 'Stinker'Murdoch.Stranded rail passengers in a remote Cornish station become involved in a local legend concerning a ghost train.Strange events materialise and the finger of suspicion points to the different rail travellers.Both atmospherically funny and fraught with suspense.It has to be said,Askey was born to play Tommy Gander,a third rate comic, responsible for the missing connection that left everybody marooned on an eerie deserted railway halt.Throughout the film he is an annoying,always performing bad jokes,little irritant(not unlike his real show biz personna)irking everyone.Murdoch plays the suave randy charmer with a hidden secret.This is a little treasure of a film that should be watched late at night in the dark.
nostalgia at its best March 8, 2007
R. Pearce (Londinium)
19 out of 19 found this review helpful
Arnold Ridley (Dads Army) is in sparkling form as the playwright who scribed this b&w gem. A very good story , reasonable acting and a very atmospheric set. I suppose you could describe the category as comedy , although my preference is Comedy/thriller. The main action is set in a Cornish Railway junction station , where a group of travellers are forced to spend the night at , owing to a missed connection. The station holds scarey secrets which are revealed during the night. Well worth watching !! ps Railway buffs will pick up the continuity error of two different trains in the same sequence , in the early stage of the film.
 Wonderful British comedy February 24, 2007
A reader in the UK
13 out of 13 found this review helpful
There is something immensely comforting about black and white films from this era and The Ghost Train is a delight. Whether you like Arthur Askey or not (and he had many critics), his energy is that of the old music hall performers who had learned how to strike a spark with a live audience night after night, and it's impossible not to be swept along by his energy. In this slightly altered version of Arnold Ridley's play, Askey is the irrepressible but exasperating comedy turn, bound for what one suspects can only be a third-rate booking at a provincial theatre, but caught up in half-comic, half-spooky events at a deserted railway station. The minor characters are a delight - Kathleen Harrison as the abstemious spinster with the caged parrot: Edna and Herbert as the gloomy couple about to be married: the doctor who's a little too fond of a tipple, "Purely medicinal, you understand..." And, of course, the ghost train itself - "If it be a natural thing, where do it come from, and where do it go...?"
I have loved this film for many years, and I'm so pleased that it's finally come out on DVD.
Eeeek! February 7, 2007
mr inferno (UK)
18 out of 19 found this review helpful
I have never really liked Arthur Askey (He probably would have hated me too!), but in all fairness, this little gem of a film has to be his finest hour (and a half anyway!). This like so many reviewers have said before, is a real saturday afternoon by the fire film, sipping Cocoa & eating a packet of Hob Nobs. The dialogue and gag's are a bit twee and dated in places, but overall it's a wonderful spooky comedy. I would put this and the Will Hay film 'Oh, Mr Porter' at loggerheads, as they are both great little films, although the Will Hay film (for me anyway) wins hands down due to the excellent comic timing - oh and then there is 'The Titfield Thunderbolt' another little cracker of a saturday afternoon film, but that will have to wait for now. If you like old B/W comedies, then this is for you - if you don't then you shouldn't even be reading this review, me I love it, even after putting my Arthur Askey prejudices aside!
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