DVD Review
Night Train To Munich, Rex Harrison, Paul Henreid, Dorothy Lockwood, directed by Carol Reed, 20th Century Fox, 1940
You have to hand it to the British, at least the cinematic British , to be able to both keep a stiff upper lip and to play World War II, European Theater, you know Hitler, Munich, the Third Reich and all hell breaking loose, including the bombing of London, for laughs, or at least in an archly humorous manner. Maybe it was just to keep the home front spirits up but watching this one seventy years later knowing what we know about what happened on all fronts and by most of the parties was a little disconcerting.
Here’s why. The deal had been done in Munich (a place name that stands for sell-out in world politics, rightly or wrongly compared, even today) whereby Czechoslovakia was forthwith handed over to Hitler in order, well, in order to bring “peace in our times.” This little action culminated the veer to war, big time war, after the earlier annexation of Austria and the forming of a German protectorate in Sudetenland section of Czechoslovakia and merely whetted Hitler’s appetite. Serious stuff though, very serious especially for political opponents of the Nazis and those who had some special skills that the Third Reich could make use of in some way, particularly for military purposes. Of course the other players in the war build-up drama, including Great Britain, had that same interest. And that conflicting premise forms the thriller core of this film.
Enter one Czech scientist who is able to escape to London before the Nazis grab him and his clever fetching daughter who wound up left behind, left behind in a concentration camp when the German Army marched into Prague. The Germans were, however, ready to move might and main in order to get the scientist’s services so they sent a loyal Nazi-enflamed officer (played by Paul Henreid last seen in these quarters leading the European resistance, and caught up in a Rick’s Cafe love triangle in Morocco, in the film Casablanca. Go figure.) into the camp to track him down by having him plot an escape for him and the daughter in order to win the daughter’s confidence. He does track the scientist down and brings him and the daughter back to Germany. That in turn triggers British efforts led by an undercover naval officer (played, played archly, very archly by Rex Harrison) who infiltrated the German high command in order to get one important scientist back to the Allied side.
Of course all of this is going on while Germany, in the meantime, has invaded British ally Poland which in the real world might have complicated things a bit. A very big bit. Not to worry though Rex’s plan, and some personal heroics to impress that fetching daughter, to get father and daughter away to neutral Switzerland via various subterfuges (including enlisting a pair of British travelers, arch, very arch, British travelers) in the end gets them away from the grasping clutches of the arch-villain Henreid. So you can see why this one is, well, like I said is disconcerting. This is not director Carol Reed’s best thriller effort, not by a long shot, the classic 1949 thriller The Third Man starring Orson Welles is.
