Review of Terror by Night (1946) by Brian R — 21 Jun 2011
Not the finest film ever made - not even one of the best in the Rathbone/Bruce series, but it is (ahem) splendidly mounted and commendably brief. It's a fast-paced beast of a film, all over in just an hour.
I do like a film set on board a train (The 39 Steps, The Lady Vanishes, even The Cassandra Crossing, dagnab it) and Terror by Night takes advantage of the inherent dramatic possibilities of travel by chuff-chuff.
Holmes and Watson are hired to protect an old lady's bling on The Flying Scotsman supposedly - although it seems to metamorphose into a dozen different trains during the course of the journey, including The Orient Express if I'm not mistaken, thanks to the archive train footage used! There are two highlights for me: Watson coming a cropper while trying to question an academic duffer with very impressive side-whiskers, and the all-too-brief appearance of the unusual-visaged and terrifically named Skelton Knaggs as Sands, Colonel Sebastian Moran's creepily camp apprentice.
He's a little ripper.
This review of Terror by Night (1946) was written by Brian R on 21 Jun 2011.
Terror by Night has generally received positive reviews.
Was this review helpful?
