Terror On A Train. aka Time Bomb

[Bob M.]

Sat through this Victor Maddern Britmovie today and enjoyed it from start to finish. All those Brit. actors in one film. But what was Glenn Ford doing in it? This was 1952 when Glenn Ford was at the height of his fame. Why did he come to England to make this film? Anyone know?

BobM.

[Bobj]

This movie was made by MGM British Studios in the UK. At this time it was common for the films they made in the UK to feature a Hollywood star presumably to help sell the movie in the states.

As well as Glenn Ford other names included Gene Kelly,Elizabeth Taylor, Robert Taylor, Clark Gable, Greer Garson, Joan Fontaine as well as numerous lesser known MGM contract players. Presumably with many of these names especially the less powerful ones because they were under contract they had to work where and when they were told. The book 'British Film Studios'by Patricia Warren is a helpful source.

I like this movie whose UK title was 'Terror on a Train' (sorry don't mean to be picky. Not a great work of art and shot on a low budget but suspenseful and enjoyable never the less. One of those movies that rainy afternoons were made for!

[Bob M.]

Of course it's called Terror. I don't know where I got Danger from as I only watched it an hour and a half ago. Great Britmovie, even if it was low budget.

[DAVID RAYNER]

Actually, the British title was TIME BOMB, made in 1952 and co-starring with Glenn Ford were Anne Vernon and Maurice Denham.

[Bobj]

Quite right David - my mistake.

Get confused because whenever TCM show it they always use the US title.

Same with the Gene Kelly movie 'Crest of the Wave' aka 'Seagulls over Sorrento'

[DAVID RAYNER]

What I'd like to know is why British television can't show the original British versions. Why do they have to import the American versions to show? Surely, not all the British copies have been destroyed.

[Hackett]

The main reason American actors like Ford and Kelly came over to Europe was money. Due to US tax laws if they stayed out of America for a year they could keep all the Cash.

[dylan]

The appearance of American actors in British films is explained as follows (pasted from a

review of Night and the City):



"That's because the real reason has to do with the economics of what was called "runaway production" of Hollywood movies. In response to laws in Britain to stop the money taken in at the box office there by Hollywood movies from leaving the country, Hollywood studios used their British profits to make films in Britain -- set in Britain but with American principal stars.

The same thing happened in Italy and France, and so you can see a whole bunch of Hollywood movies, mostly from the '50s and '60s, where American stars get caught up in Hollywood-type stories -- only set in Rome or Paris and full of

Europeans."



As well as A-satrs like Peck and Widmark there was also a trend by British studios to import washed-up American actors and put them in star roles to get US distribution. This was why Hammer

totally miscast Brian Donlevy in the first two Quatermass films - although they made amends by using the excellent Dean Jagger in X The Unknown. Other actors like Sam Wanamaker, Alexander Knox and Lionel Stander were on the run from the blacklist.

[DaveB]

Walt Disney is a variation on the above. He used his British profits to make live action movies such as "Robin Hood", "The Sword and the Rose" and "Rob Roy", using a British cast with no imported American star.

[Gibbie]

DAVID RAYNER:

What I'd like to know is why British television can't show the original British versions. Why do they have to import the American versions to show? Surely, not all the British copies have been destroyed.

That's a good question to be asked in Parliament of BFI.

[Gibbie]

That wouldn't happen today. The Walt Disney Co is quite a different business today.

[DB7]

As Dylan says the Eady Levy had been introduced so there would have been financial inducements to MGM-British for bringing Ford over.



A bit of an implausible plot but there's some good nighttime photography from Freddie Young.



Does anybody know where the railway siding was?

[Bob M.]

Victor Maddern ran a succesful printing business in Norfolk ( I think ) and gave speech and diction lessons to Tory politicians. I still admire his early film work though.

I am making enquires about the siding. Some say it was near Neasden in North London.

[smudge]

That's right Bob -



He niched his market in two areas actually, both related to his trade. His printing company used, I believe, to specialise in printing scripts.



His other angle was occasionally he'd buy 'job lots' of theatre scenery from closed productions and hire them to other companies. Good strings to have to your bow when 'resting'.



Walter Gotell (character villian and occasional Russian in 007) was also a successful businessman as well as an actor - he ran a number of engineering firms. thumbs_u



SMUDGE

[Jim]

smudge:

That's right Bob -

He niched his market in two areas actually, both related to his trade. His printing company used, I believe, to specialise in printing scripts.

His other angle was occasionally he'd buy 'job lots' of theatre scenery from closed productions and hire them to other companies. Good strings to have to your bow when 'resting'.

Walter Gotell (character villian and occasional Russian in 007) was also a successful businessman as well as an actor - he ran a number of engineering firms.

SMUDGE

He did indeed Smudge. Walter had an interest in an engineering firm in Leicester and made the employees' day by turning up at the factory and spent quite a long time with them.

Is Victor still alive? I saw him in one film and he looked as if he had been very ill.

[Hackett]

He died 22nd June 1993 of a brain tumer.

[MrT]

Hi all,

If anyone's interested. the railway station in Terror on a train is Platform 1 at Portsmouth and Southsea station. Not much different today after 52 years!

Best wishes

Mike (MrT)

[Bob M.]

Bob M.:

Victor Maddern ran a succesful printing business in Norfolk ( I think ) and gave speech and diction lessons to Tory politicians. I still admire his early film work though.

I am making enquires about the siding. Some say it was near Neasden in North London.

The sidings in the film were in fact at Willesden, North London. The giveaway is the large camoflaged chimney of the railway generating station in the background, long since consigned to history itself.