Night Train to Munich (1940), directed by Carol Reed.
First review
After a Czech scientist and his daughter escape to England, Nazi agents kidnap them and take them back to Germany. Rex Harrison (who lost them) instantly turns the tables and goes to Germany to steal them back again.
This is often compared to Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes (1938). Both are romance/thrillers with comic touches, both were written by the same people, both star Margaret Lockwood and feature "Charters & Caldicott", a pair of slightly dim and bumbling Englishmen who always seem to find the trouble spots (but who are stalwart when the chips are down). Both films use model work for buildings and trains which, although meticulous, are not very realistic by today's standards.
It's great fun, although the comic element doesn't emerge for about half an hour. The final segment with the night train, car chase and cable car battle are exciting and nicely tense. The last bit was copied in Where Eagles Dare (1968) thirty years later.
In the climactic shootout I counted 24 shots from Rex Harrison's revolver before it went click-click.
If you can do a German accent, here is a line by a Nazi bureaucrat you can quote in dull committee meetings: "In the future, don't make remarks that can be taken two ways!"
Criterion DVD, at last. This replaces the dismal Madacy VHS and DVD versions. Strangely, the Criterion disc has subtitles but I can't find a control for them on the menu. Use the remote button.
The image is slightly letterboxed. I wish they wouldn't do that, but I have been waiting for a good version of this film on DVD since day 1 and it would be churlish to complain.
(Later: available on Blu-ray from Criterion).
Second review
The march of recent history is strong in this one. In those days world events whirled toward disaster with new calamities every day.
We already have the evil nazi doctor character.
Between this and The Lady Vanishes (1938) Margaret Lockwood owned the 'menaced by nazis on a train' genre.
Seaside sheet-music emporium seems like a strange cover for the Secret Service. Maybe that would be smart. Did they really do things like that?
The original film poster had the notice: "Not suitable for general exhibition". Maybe because he spends the night in her room with a bottle of champagne? Or because their cunning plan depends on presenting her as having a certain amount of "easy virtue"?
Rex Harrison is rather convincing as a nazi, the way he glares through a monocle.
As I noted for To Be or Not to Be (1942), film makers love the nazi uniforms.
As well as a double, footage of the real Adolf Hitler is used. As I write this the IMDB gives him 1010 credits for "Archive footage", a number that increases all the time. This film is #19 on the list. The only earlier appearance I am likely to see is Raoul Walsh's The Roaring Twenties (1939) with James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart; it is #15. [Later: Anatole Litvak's Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939) with Edward G. Robinson is also on DVD; it is #11].
Let's not forget how good Paul Henreid is here. One slip by Charters and Caldicott -- "I say, aren't you old Dickie Randall?" -- is all it takes. His self-satisfied menace is chilling.
We have action Charters and Caldicott as they run for the train, still unflustered to find themselves in a compartment full of soldiers.
I wonder: to what extent is Night Boat to Dublin (1946) a play on this film? "The allies plan to rescue a Swedish atomic scientist from under the noses of the Nazis". I'll have to see it now. [Later: it's not very good].
Available on Blu-ray from Criterion.