Train of Events (1949) Brit Anthology Noir

These Anthology or "portmanteau" films are a niche addition to the Noir Style filmology. 

Some have a few Noir segments others are all Noir. They have a framing story that connects or holds the film together. Dead of Night <spoiler >was a recurring dream, Flesh and Fantasy's framing story, was a conversation, about a dream about a fortune teller, along with a book about dreams, by two men in a men's club library. They discuss the occurrences in the book which are the separate stories. Souvenirs perdus' framing story are the articles left over in the Paris Lost and Found, each article has a story to tell. One of these in Souvenirs perdus is one of the unexpectedly darkest Noir I've come across. Check it out if you can. 

Train of Events 

Directors: Sidney Cole directed (segment "The Engine Driver"), Charles Crichton (The Stranger In Between, The Lavender Hill Mob, A Fish Called Wanda) directed (segment "The Composer"), Basil Dearden (The Blue Lamp, Pool Of London, Sapphire) director (segments "The Actor", "The Prisoner-of-War").

Original screenplay written by Basil Dearden, T.E.B. Clarke, Ronald Millar, and Angus MacPhail. Cinematography by Lionel Banes (The Avengers & The Saint TV series) and Gordon Dines (The Blue Lamp, Pool of London, The Cruel Sea). Music Leslie Bridgewater. 

Story

The framing story here is a railway accident on the Euston (London) to Liverpool express and how it effects the lives of the characters in the four stories. 

The credit sequence shows various sequences of station departure and then once the titles cease, the shots of the express barreling down the main line, over viaducts and through cuts, are depicted in ever increasing speed.

t's now night, Jim Haedcastle, the engineer, spots a wildly swinging lantern up ahead. Jim shouts to his fireman and hits the brakes. We continue our cab POV of the track ahead and soon see the tanker lorry ahead that's completely blocking the main line at the grade crossing. We follow right up until immanent impact, then the screen goes black. 

A warning lantern

Jack Warner as Jim Hardcastle

We cut to a daylight. A working railyard. superimposed is the the words "Three Days Earlier." 

"The Engine Driver" (directed by Sidney Cole), Staring Jack Warner (The Blue Lamp) as Jim Hardcastle, Gladys Henson as Mrs. Hardcastle, Susan Shaw as Doris Hardcastle, Patric Doonan as Ron Stacey, Philip Dale as Hardcastle's fireman, Miles Malleson as Johnson, the timekeeper, Leslie Phillips as Stacey's fireman, Percy Walsh as District Superintendent, Will Ambro as Lancashire railway man.

Jim Hardcastle engineer is at the end of his shift is driving his Royal Scott Class  4-6-0 engine onto a turntable for maintenance in the Euston Station yard roundhouse. We get some nice steam engine / railyard atmospherics  during this sequence. The table turns to an open track bay and Jim drives the Coronation into the bay and brakes.

We get some nice steam engine / railyard atmospherics  during this sequence. The table turns to an open track bay and Jim drives the Coronation into the bay and brakes.

He bullshits with the time keeper who is laying it on thick about his chickens egg laying abilities, then meets the station inspector on his way out. The station master gives Jim his watch to look at, (Jim tinkers with watches as a hobby) and then Jim hops his bike for the short ride home. 

We meet Jim's daughter Doris and her boyfriend Ron Stacey (also an engineer). Jim and Ron talk shop Ron mentioning that he pulled a night shift for a guy who called in sick, shunting in the yard on old lizzy. Jim laughs teasing Ron that the engine is so old that its first engineer probably wore a top hat. 

Patric Doonan as Ron Stacey and Susan Shaw as Doris Hardcastle

Doris is upset because she was wanting to go to a dance with Ron and wear her new dress. His working night shift screws that up. In the house Jim and his wife have their usual convo, she asks about his run and he tells her that a faulty signal cost him a few minutes. 

They are all about to sit at the table when Doris receives a telegram from Andy a U.S. service man she met during the war. He's in London and asks if they could get together. Doris is now happy because she can wear her new dress while Ron of course is jealous.

Jim and his wife reminisce about their similar past spats, and the sequence finally segues into the next story when Jim relays the fact that he's on the Liverpool run starting Friday. We cut to a travel agents shop window that displays an Emigrate to Canada from Liverpool poster with a steamship in its window. 

Joan Dowling as Ella

"The Prisoner-of-War" (directed by Basil Dearden), stars Joan Dowling as Ella, Laurence Payne as Richard, Olga Lindo as Mrs. Bailey, Denis Webb as clerk at shipping office.

Looking wistfully at the poster is a woman named Ella. When she turns from the window she is surprised to see a bobby heading down the side walk towards her. 

She panics and turns in the opposite direction cutting around a corner out of site, then scurries down a narrow street to the rooms she shares with Richard. 

Ella has brought Richard a forged passport and a change of clothes. Ella is in love with Richard. Both her parents were killed in the blitz and Richard is all she's got. Richard is an ex German POW who rather than be repatriated has remained in the U.K. 

Laurence Payne as Richard

They are interrupted by Mrs. Bailey who wants her rent money. She tells them to be out by tomorrow if she doesn't get her money. 

Olga Lindo as Mrs. Bailey

When the lights in the flat go out Ella has no change for the meter, so she heads down stairs to Mrs. Bailey's for some. When she gets to her apartment she finds the door ajar and she calls for Mrs. Bailey, who doesn't answer. Looking about the room she spots a cash box and temptation wins out.

Ella grabs some of the bills and closes the cash box just as Mrs. Bailey returns. Ella asks for some change which Mrs Bailey digs out of the box handing it to Ella. Ella thanks her and heads back up stairs. 

Here we cut to a broadcast TV tower and into the next tale...

"The Composer" (directed by Charles Crichton), Stars Valerie Hobson as Stella, John Clements as Raymond Hillary, Irina Baronova as Irina Norozova, John Gregson as Malcolm Murray-Bruce, Gwen Cherrell as Charmian, Jacqueline Byrne as television announcer. Neil Arden as the compere, and Thelma Grigg as the harpist.

Irina Baronova as Irina Norozova,

Stars Valerie Hobson as Stella

John Clements as Raymond Hillary

The composer Raymond Hillary is married to his wife Stella but is also stringing along Irina his pianist. We are first introduced to them at a TV program that adds some comic relief.  We also get a nice musical sequence with various cuts to the orchestra, its members, Irina, Stella, and Raymond. 

At the end of the performance Stella sends Irina a bouquet of flowers. The not attached aks Irina to have tea with Stella. 

This segues into the ...

"The Actor" (directed by Basil Dearden), stars Peter Finch (Flight of the Phoenix, The Red Tent, Network ) as Philip Mason, Mary Morris as Louise, Laurence Naismith as Joe Hunt, Doris Yorke as Mrs. Hunt, Michael Hordern as first plainclothes man. Charles Morgan as second plainclothes man, Mark Dignam as Bolingbroke, Guy Verney as the producer, Philip Ashley as actor, Bryan Coleman as actor, Henry Hewitt as actor, and Lyndon Brook as actor. 

Here's the Darkest Noir sequence in the film. 

Phillip Mason is an actor who belongs the McCauley Shakespearean theater troupe. They are getting ready to depart on Friday for Liverpool to catch a liner for their Canadian tour. 

We cut into the end of one of their rehearsals. On stage Phillip is rehearsing Exton, in a scene from Richard II, specifically Act V, Scene 6. The Director cuts it short, demonstrates to Phillip how he wants to see more emotion, and tells everyone that its a night. 

As the actors head out the stage door, some asks Phillip if he wants to have a cup of coffee before heading to his flat. Phillip begs off. 

Peter Finch as Phillip Mason

When he arrives at the flat, he stops at the foot of the stair  by the landlords door to ask Joe if he can see about getting his wicker trunk hauled to Euston station on Friday. Joe is out momentarily, but his wife assures Phillip that she will send him up when he returns.

Phillip heads the rest of the way up the stairs as he gets to the landing he hears his phonograph playing These Foolish Things "their song." When he opens the door he finds his wayward wife Louise drinking his gin and playing "their song." 

Mary Morris as Louise

Phillip: Louise!

Louise: Yes Phillip, it's me. [putting her glass down on an end table]  Don't look like that, I never could bear your tragic look.

Louise: Heard you've been looking for me. [pouring herself another drink] Though I'd save you anymore trouble.

Phillip: Good of you.

Louise: Had you been looking for me?

Phillip: Yes. But I never expected to see you again.

Louise: Our families kept you well informed.

Phillip: You left a pretty smeary trail that wasn't hard to follow. One affair led to another. Each more sordid than the last. 

Louise: You're such a little prig. What else did you expect. After all you were away a long time. 

Phillip: There were a lot of other men their wives didn't look at themselves as war free widows. 

Louise: Perhaps they haven't even found out. 

Phillip: Perhaps not. They wouldn't like to find out about you, ever.

Louise: And yet you married me

Phillip: I loved you. Nothing else mattered then.

Louise: And now it does. 

Phillip: Yes.

Louise: I did fine, you know. For the first of it I really did. It wasn't much of a life. Sitting at home while you toured on different shows, or going with you and sitting in those dreary digs. [shakes off the memories] no it wasn't much. And then the war.

Phillip: Yes the war, 

Louise: You don't suppose it was easy for me, or any woman for that matter.

Phillip: By easy you mean you didn't spend six years in the army, lounging every minute to be home again. Thinking of the woman you left behind. Torturing yourself, wondering how she looked, if she was alright, if she remembered, last seeing you again. If by easy do you mean all this, yet it wasn't easy.

Louise: [Starts clapping in a sarcastic manner]  Bravo! Best performance I've seen you give. Sentimental of course, but then you always were weren't you. [grabbing the gin pointing the bottle at the phonograph, then pouring herself another drink] This is what you used to call our tune, remember? You got a record still after all this time. It was the first thing I saw when I came in here. I knew then you hadn't changed.

Phillip: Why have you come?

Louise: You've been looking for me, you even when to the police to find me. I come to tell you its all over. Finished. For good. I never want to see you again. 

Phillip: You wont after tonight. 

Louise: How can I rely on that. You're still the same, weak and soft-ed up as you always were. 

Phillip: Am I?

Louise: Exactly the same.

Phillip: I loved you once, now I hate you. 

Louise: [laughs] You're to soft and weak even to hate.

Phillip: No Louise I was taught to hate.

Louise: Don't dramatize yourself. A fine soldier you must have been.

Phillip: I was Louise, I was well trained. I am no longer shocked by sudden death, killing, or dying. Six years of war toughened me. I'm not the same.

Louise: No, no your not. [She looks at Phillip, then gets up and walks to the mirror, she then walks back to the chair]  

Relax, come and sit down. [Phillip leans over the phonograph and starts it playing again. He then walks behind her. He puts his hands on both her shoulders. Louise leans her head back.] 

That's better. [She laughs as Phillip, Phillip brings both his hands from her shoulders towards her neck ] My you certainly have changed.[Phillip grabs her neck and starts squeezing] Phillip! Phillip, don't be a fool. 

Phillip squeezes harder, Louise drops her glass, as it shatters her windpipe is probably getting crushed. We cut to the record on the phonograph at the end of "their song" and then making a tick-hiss, tick-hiss, sound as the needle arm swings back and forth, and in the back ground we hear Louise's death rattle. 

Phillip has just crossed into Noirsville.

We cut to a shot of Louise's stockinged legs, her one foot still strapped in a pump, the other is dangling from her toes from her struggle, the nearby gin bottle is laying on its side its partially spilled contents darkening the rug.

We cut again, this time to Phillip breathing hard pulling himself up off the floor by the overturned easy chair. we pan as we follow him as he passes Louise's legs, and the still tick-hissing phonograph and stumbles to his bed and sits. He obviously got a good case of PTSD. It goes from the frying pan into the fire when there's a knock on the door. 

So this is the initial set up for the four stories in the anthology. Its just shy of the half way point in the film.

Noirsville 

This is another good Anthology Film that has a great hard core Noir sequence "The Actor" and a secondary Café au lait Noir sequence in "The Prisoner-of-War" both of which BTW directed by Basil Dearden. Bonus points for some excellent railway / steam engine footage by Sidney Cole and some comedic relief supplied by both Cole and Charles Crichton. There's even a little Hitchcockian sequence.

Kudos to Peter Finch and Mary Morris their little sequence rivals Tom Neal and Ann Savage in Detour.

It's sort of funny, but you will notice in a lot of these Brit Noir that the the police are always depicted as either infallible, or just appear "deus ex machina" and justice prevails one way or another. 8/10