I love Ealing, comedies and serious dramas, love seeing the old actors, love looking back across time. I came very well-disposed to this movie.
But oh dear! The railway family story was by the numbers stuff, inoffensive but that's the best you can say for it. I agree with most others here that the musical story was ridiculous. Where I disagree with others is on the story about the murderer and his faithless wife - it's hard to say whose acting was more atrocious, Peter Finch or his on-screen wife. The wife was a downright cartoonish villainess; and Finch was mugging away as if nobody ever told him that the silent era had passed 20 years ago.
The only story with a germ of interest was the plain girl and her German boyfriend. Why was he so desperate not to return to Germany? Was he utterly disgusted with what his country had done - or had he taken part in a way that might lead to a prison cell, perhaps in the SS? Whatever he had or hadn't done, her all-consuming love was nicely handled.
I enjoyed being transported back to a dreary, grimy post-war London, and loved the railway stations full of steam trains; but apart from the setting there's not a lot to commend this. I'm glad not to have paid for a DVD.
But oh dear! The railway family story was by the numbers stuff, inoffensive but that's the best you can say for it. I agree with most others here that the musical story was ridiculous. Where I disagree with others is on the story about the murderer and his faithless wife - it's hard to say whose acting was more atrocious, Peter Finch or his on-screen wife. The wife was a downright cartoonish villainess; and Finch was mugging away as if nobody ever told him that the silent era had passed 20 years ago.
The only story with a germ of interest was the plain girl and her German boyfriend. Why was he so desperate not to return to Germany? Was he utterly disgusted with what his country had done - or had he taken part in a way that might lead to a prison cell, perhaps in the SS? Whatever he had or hadn't done, her all-consuming love was nicely handled.
I enjoyed being transported back to a dreary, grimy post-war London, and loved the railway stations full of steam trains; but apart from the setting there's not a lot to commend this. I'm glad not to have paid for a DVD.