Cinq heures de terreur

When the story begins, a Constable finds a man up to no good a the rail yard. At first, he just assumes it's some hobo riding the rails, but after a scuffle they find detorators where he guy dropped them. Obviously, he was saboaging the munitions train. The problem is that it's a big train and there just isn't a lot of time to find the bomb before it explodes....if there is a bomb.

If happens that Peter (Glenn Ford) is a bomb disposal expert and he's nearby. So the police rush to get him to the train and evacuate the area why he does his work. What's next? See the film.

If you want a film with a lot of tension, this movie is a very good choice. While the plot is pretty simple and you have no idea why the bomber did what he did, the payoff at the end is there...and the film very well made.

"Terror on a Train" starts with a bomber (Victor Maddern) fighting it out with the british railway police, after planting a bomb and trying to escape the rail yard. Maurice Denham is "Warrilow", railway supervisor, who calls in Lyncort (Glenn Ford) to check it out. Ford had made a whole bunch of films since his crowning achievement GILDA in 1946. Good suspense thriller. Directed by Ted Tetzlaff, son of race-car driver slash stuntman Teddy Tetzlaff. had also directed Notorious and Talk of the Town, both awesome films, with Cary Grant. and Tetzlaff was oscar nominated for Talk of the Town.

A terrorist plants a bomb on a train transporting sea mines to Portsmouth. A policeman uncovers the plot but the terrorist gets away. Canadian Royal Engineers bomb disposal Peter Lyncort (Glenn Ford) is recruited. The train is redirected to an isolated line but it turns out to be next to a residential area. The police searches for the bomber while the area is evacuated.

Once the train stops, the kinetic energy of the movie becomes more static. Peter's domestic troubles aren't that compelling. Glenn Ford is still great as the steady lead. This is all about the tension. There is some fine moments of tension but it doesn't get that high. Honestly, the highest intensity comes when the train gets stopped by the railyard master. This is solid B-movie thriller.

Post-war thriller set in the English cities of Birhimgham & Portsmouth with a rail a shipment of hundreds of one ton deep sea mines about to explode.

After British Constable Charles Barron, John Horsley, got into a scuffle outside the Birhingham train station with what was at first thought to be a local hobo, Victor Maddern, it was later found at the rail yard a suitcase of full detonators and and bomb making components. Realizing that the person at the train yard was up to no good the police keep the train from going to it destination the Navel Yard at Porthmoth to prevent a major disaster when it gets there.

The film "Terror on a Train" goes into high gear with the local Birhingham authorities getting in contact with foamer US Army bomb specialist Peter Lyncort, Gleen Ford, who's in town vacationing with his wife Janie, Anne Vernon. Peter seemed to be Happy when he got the news from the city's security chief Jim Warrilow, Maurice Denham,since Janie had just walked out on him after their tenth fight in just one month. This would in some way get his mind off his personal problems and give him a chance to save the world, or at least the city of Birmingham.

The police set a trap for the saboteur, who planned and set up the entire nightmare, by stationing police at the Porthsmouth railway station knowing that he, the saboteur, will be there to see the fruits of his labors like an arsonist who stays at the scene of his crime, and to most cases helps in trying to put out the fire.

Spotted by Constable Barron the suspect is quickly apprehended and flown, by helicopter, back to Birmingham to help Peter and his now assistant Warrilow find and disarm the explosive charge hidden in one of the hundreds of underwater mines.

Tense and effective the movie has a somewhat surprise ending when you already thought that the danger was over. Glenn Ford is cool as a cucumber throughout the entire film even putting up with old and nutty Charlie, Herbert C. Walton,who obsessed with trains to the point where he almost gets himself killed.In his trying to get on the dangerous bomb ladened train and distracting both Lyncort & Warrilow from doing their job in preventing the bomb from exploding and taking them, together with Charlie, and the entire city of Bermingham out with it.

During this whole time, while her husband Peter was out risking his life, Janine is completely unaware of what's going on. Coming home to make up with Peter, this would be the 11th time in the last thirty days, after their latest spat Janie finds the hotel room deserted at 3AM in the morning and goes on the phone calling all the hospitals in town fearing that Peter met up with some accident.

It was fitting that at the end of the movie Janie finding out what was really going on with her husband. Thank God he wasn't out painting the town red with another women and that he was at the railway yards disarming a booby trapped one ton undersea mine; Janie by pure chance made it there just in time for the movies grand and explosive finally.

An enjoyable British thriller from the 1950s with an excellent supporting cast makes this well worth watching. But was it necessary to get an actor all the way from Hollywood? Glenn Ford always played himself, perhaps there could have been idea to have a more anonymous actor in the lead? The love story between Ford and Anne Vernon is unnecessary and does not add anything to the story.