Romance Interrompido

Richard Todd (John) and Christine Norden (Susan Wilding) elope on a train to begin a new life together, leaving behind their current spouses Valerie Hobson (Carol) and Alexander Gauge (Jerves Wilding). Whilst on the train, Todd bottles it at the 11th hour, pulls the emergency cord and jumps off the train to go back to his wife Hobson before she suspects anything. However, once home, the train, which he stopped near their house is involved in a crash that claims many lives, including that of Norden. The hunt is on for the person who pulled the emergency cord and Ralph Truman (Inspector Waterson) is suspicious of Todd. There is a good helping of suspense and there are some twists in the story along the way.

The cast are good in this film and there are plenty of good scenes. The film involves you from the beginning right up until the climax and the director throws in some surreal stuff towards the end. Watch out for Roger Moore sitting in the background at a cafe in Paddington Station while Todd and Norden order tea and rock cakes. The rock cake takes on a significance in this tale.

It struck me that this was a case of life imitating art. Just as Valerie Hobson tries to support her husband in the movie, she would later support her real husband John Profumo when he was involved in a scandal. The story goes up and down emotionally; I thought we'd reached a happy ending but there was a lot more story left. It's noir, lots of shadows, and a good story, though like most reviewers I was disappointed in the end. I enjoyed Tom Walls, whom I had only seen in comedies before.

Richard Todd has quarreled with wife Valerie Hobson and is running away with Christine Norden. He changes his mind, pulls the cord to stop the train and runs home. He tells some lies about where he's been, and there's a full reconciliation...until the train he was on gets into a terrible accident, killing most of the passengers, blamed on someone pulling the cord. Tom Walls -- in his last screen role -- shows up. He's been following Miss Norden on behalf of her husband. After a while, it's cleared up, and things are about to go back to normal...until it turns out that Miss Norden was killed with a missing guns before the crash. Todd is the prime suspect.

I can understand why a viewer might think the movie shifted gears too frequently, and agree that the ending is lame. Up to that insipid finale, I was having a great time, thanks to the increasing arc of insanity, and a fine, final performance by Walls. That ending, however, brought me up short.

Just take a few deep breaths when the film-makers over-stress the plot points, and you'll find this a fun movie with a tasty wee twist on it's tail. The acting is over the top at times, with Mr. Todd doing some ridiculous grimacing, but it was made in '49' when I think these particular film-makers must have thought that their audience was pretty stupid, so they threw subtlety out the window. A good performance by the great Tom Walls. Before watching ask yourself if you are in the mood for this type of film, if so you'll have a good time-I did.

This movie is a pretty good surprise : the story with multiple twists and constant psychological details is really gripping, cinematography is impressive in the important sequences, and casting serves intelligently the story especially Valerie Hobson (so distinguished) and Richard Todd who form a handsome couple. Better than Hitchcock?