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Night Train to Munich
VHS cover, using original movie poster
Directed by	Carol Reed
Produced by	Edward Black
Written by	Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder
Starring	Margaret Lockwood Rex Harrison Paul Henreid Basil Radford Naunton Wayne James Harcourt Felix Aylmer Raymond Huntley
Music by	Louis Levy (musical director)
Cinematography	Otto Kanturek
Editing by	R.E. Dearing
Release date(s)	1940
Country	UK
Language	English
Preceded by	The Lady Vanishes (debated)
Followed by	none
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Night Train to Munich is a thriller film made in 1940. It was directed by Carol Reed, with writing credits by Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder. It is liberally adapted from the Gordon Wellesley novel Report on a Fugitive.

Contents 1 Story 2 Principal Cast 3 Trivia 4 Sequel? 5 Quotes 6 External link

When the Germans march into Prague, scientist Dr Bomasch, who is working on a new process for armour-plating, flees to England. His daughter Anna is arrested and sent to a concentration camp, where she is befriended by a Czech named Karl Marsen, who is really an undercover German agent. Together they escape to England, where Anna finds her father, now working for the Royal Navy at the Dartford naval base, and being guarded by Dickie Randall, a naval officer working undercover as Gus Bennett, a singer at the seaside resort of Brightbourne. But Marsen and his agents have been watching and they recapture Bomarsch and his daughter, who are returned to Germany on a U-boat.

Randall volunteers to go to Berlin in the guise of an engineer in the German army and gains access to Anna, pretending to persuade her father to cooperate with the Germans. He contrives to accompany them on a train trip to Munich with Marsen and two guards.

On the train, they meet two Englishmen, Charters and Caldicott. Charters recognises Randall from Balliol College, Oxford - his rooms were next door to Charters's, and they played cricket together. But they are all forced off the train, which is needed for troop movements, as war has broken out that very day - 3 September 1939. Caldicott speaks to Randall and accidentally gives him away.

They are informed of Britain's declaration of war and Charters realises he has left some golf clubs with a friend in Berlin. While going to the telephone to call his friend, they overhear Marsen preparing to unmask Randall/Bennett (Bennett has up until now been unsure whether or not Marsen recognised him, as they never met whilst Marsen was in England).

Marsen is instructed to let Randall think he is getting away with it, and so they all reboard the train. Charters and Caldicott are sure that Randall is Randall, but are unsure as to whether he is working for Britain or Germany - Charters is unconvinced of the latter, since Randall always played for the Gentlemen. However, when a German officer insults them for not standing up to let him past in the corridor, they make up their minds and decide to help Randall. Caldicott smuggles him a message and Randall manages to avoid Marsen seeing it.

On returning to the carriage, Randall is openly unmasked by Marsen just before they reach Munich, but Marsen is then overpowered by an unseen assailant (Charters or Caldicott). On reaching Munich, Randall wears Marsen's uniform and, impersonating him, manages to get himself, Bomasch and Anna into a car, along with Charters and Caldicott, disguised as Marsen's guards. With Caldicott driving they begin to escape through Germany to a mountain pass Randall knows. The Germans at the station find Marsen and his guards tied up in the train and give chase, arriving at the cable car control room just as the group have started to cross, with Randall covering their escape. A gunfight ensues and, though a wounded Randall manages to escape on the second cable car, Marsen reverses the machinery to bring him back. Randall jumps cars and continues to the Swiss side but, wounded in the leg by Randall, Marsen is unable to reverse the machinery again and Randall gets safely to the Swiss side to join all the others.

• Margaret Lockwood - Anna Bomasch
• Rex Harrison - Dickie Randall / Gus Bennett
• Paul Henreid - Karl Marsen
• Basil Radford - Charters
• Naunton Wayne - Caldicott
• James Harcourt - Axel Bomasch
• Felix Aylmer - Dr. John Fredericks
• Wyndham Goldie - Charles Dryton
• Roland Culver - Roberts
• Eliot Makeham - Schwab
• Raymond Huntley - Kampenfeldt
• Austin Trevor - Capt. Prada
• Kenneth Kent - Controller (as Keneth Kent)
• C.V. France - Admiral Hassinger
• Frederick Valk - German Officer at Munich Station

Despite the title, only a short portion of the film takes place on the train to Munich.

It is not explained why Charters and Caldicott are not arrested as enemy aliens on the declaration of war.

The film has been frequently promoted as a sequel to The Lady Vanishes, although the story is not a continuation and only two of the characters (Charters and Caldicott, the two slightly eccentric cricket-mad English travellers) are carried over. This originates in their similar train-based settings, and in the recurrence of two of the earlier film's character types in the two leads (clever young woman in distress and eccentric upper-class Englishman - in the earlier film, Iris and Gilbert; in this one, Anna Bomasch and Dickie Randall; in the case of the female, played by the same actress).

Charters: I bought a copy of Mein Kampf. Occurred to me it might shed a spot of light on all this... how d'ye do. Ever read it?
Caldicott: Never had the time.
Charters: I understand they give a copy to all the bridal couples over here.
Caldicott: Oh, I don't think it's that sort of book, old man.

• Night Train to Munich at the Internet Movie Database