Vendredi treize

Despite its age, this film retains its undoubted charm and attraction, and is a fine, surviving example of early British cinema. It has an underlying air of eeriness, interspersed with shafts of humour which are not out of place, and serve to demonstrate the assured direction & production values involved. So many episodic type films are disjointed and untidy, but this is not one of them. The standard of acting helps a great deal, and the various disparate characters come across as interesting and believable. All in all, this long-forgotten little gem is well worth anyone's attention, in spite of the one jarring note in the film which, surprisingly, escaped the censor's attention!

Even the younger actors have long since left the stage. This was filmed when the crossover from vaudeville productions was not complete. These people know how to portray character to an audience. The writers knew how to construct a good story too. The accident. The rewind showing the lead in to the now inevitable, followed by a denouement that blossoms as the petals fall. All connected, interconnected and ironic. We are an older world than they were. Average age in UK is approximately 40 now, but must have been mid 20's then. It's nice to see younger people with legitimate young peoples issues. A newly engaged couple must transcend their separate lives .. without experience to guide them. Nowadays, there are experienced prevaricators with different issues.

Enjoy this film. Don't expect modern hoopla, but allow yourself to enjoy. I give you permission :D

This film has an excellent premise and is really crying out to be turned into a Hollywood blockbuster. As I recall (and it's a few years since I've seen the film) the action starts with a London omnibus filled with people. There is an horrific crash and one passenger dies. The rest of the film is then told in flashback, with 13 characters who were on the bus getting their recent lives explored in intricate detail. At the end of the film we return to the crash and find out which of these chirpy, vivid characters has met a gruesome end. Great stuff, a little like a good tabloid news story fleshed out in precise, even handed detail. If only it were available on video...

Interesting mix of Hitchcock-type of mystery and early film noir has a London bus careering down the road, on a rainy Friday the 13th, at 11.59pm, when lightning strikes causing an accident which kills two on board. Big Ben winds backward, and we're taken back to Thursday the 12th and shown (in far too much detail?) the lives of the people involved in said bus accident. This series of vignettes ties together each individual's story, placing them together on this doomed bus ride. The mystery comes from wondering which of the two passengers perish in the accident.

A bit of fun is had along the way at the expense of ridiculous clichés and superstitions (seven years back luck, throwing salt over one's shoulder, the film's date of occurrence) and the last scene, with the small boy and the old lady, is most amusing.

So many early British sound films that I've seen on video suffer from either poor print transfer quality or poor sound or both. Fortunately, I was able to obtain a copy of this movie on a video of excellent quality, enabling me to focus on the story itself.

And, an excellent story it was. At first sight, the passengers on the ill-fated bus looked like a pretty boring lot (except for the always lovely Jessie Matthews). But, as the film went back to show each passenger's story on the day before the accident, I discovered that the cast, contrary to initial appearance, was a talented group of performers, skillfully directed so as to bring a real individuality to their distinctive characterizations.

Viewers may have different preferences as to which two passengers are going to meet a tragic end and which ones will survive. But, the movie holds your interest as it keeps you guessing. This film deserves a much wider audience - a real gem of early British Cinema.