Night Train to Munich (1940)

 Carol Reed's "Night Train to Munich"


Many have described Carol Reed's 1940 British thriller "Night Train to Munich" as somewhat of a spiritual sequel to Alfred Hitchcock's 1938 "The Lady Vanishes." After all, both involve the situation of a war-torn continental Europe, both are scripted by Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder, both feature two of the exact same characters - slightly eccentric and cricket-mad English travelers Charters and Caldicott, both films feature the similar settings, as well as similar character architypes. I cannot deny all these similarities, especially the two exact same characters played by the exact same actors. However, to me, they are completely different films all together with completely different thematic points of view.

"Night Train to Munich" is about a British secret service agent who must safety escort an inventor and his daughter out of the imprisonment of the Gestapo at the onset on the war. The British secret service agent disguises himself as a Nazi officer in order to infiltrate the Gestapo headquarters. While taking a train to Munich, his identity comes into question.

While "The Lady Vanishes" is a half-mystery, half-thriller thematically focusing on Britian's sleepy awareness of impending war, ""Night Train to Munich" is a full-on-thriller set right at the onset of the war with Britain fully engaged. Reed's film is more of a simple commercial thriller. With that being said, it still fully thrills and excites. It can understand why its especially more thriller given the freshness of the subject matter in 1940, as the film had come out less than a month after Germany areal assault on British skies. 

Overall, I really enjoyed "Night Train to Munich." Although it does not live up to the 'spiritual' counterpart "The Lady Vanishes," it is a very timely 1940 British film all the same. 



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