Nonureva Really Surprised!

Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation

Twilightfa Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.

Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Edgar Allan Pooh . . . with THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN (the 2016 Emily Blunt flick based upon Paula Hawkins' 2015 novel), since I'm the only person that they know who has seen both movies. Most of my circle assumes that the show that they've actually watched--GIRL--is far more violent than LADY ON A TRAIN, since GIRL is more recent and people are getting offed with rocks and corkscrews during its story. However, LADY does not restrict itself to just polite Edwardian stranglings and Rat-a-Tat-Tat firearm slayings. During LADY a crowbar also gets a homicidal star turn. And while GIRL has two or three "red herring" candidates for the so-called "Real Killer" witnessed by a female train passenger (Blunt's Rachel), LADY's "Nikki" (Deanna Durbin) has at least FOUR bogus murder suspects to muddle her ability to finger the killer she window-peeped from HER Choo-Choo. LADY's perky heiress Nikki certainly seems to have a leg up on the depressed divorcee "Rachel" of GIRL (especially when it comes to singing talent). Though some may wince at GIRL's title, and find it demeaning if not misogynistic, LADY includes a racist reference to a person of Japanese Origin just 10 minutes or so into its convoluted tale. This, however, should be blamed upon what was then known as the U.S. Department of War, which legally forced ALL American movie studios to include such "morale-boosting" language in each and every American flick of the World War Two Era.

dougdoepke Ace combo of a bouncy Durbin, a complex murder mystery, noirish lighting, and of course, tuneful songs. I only hope Durbin survived that brain-sucking hat she wore to the snooty nightclub. It looks like it's about to consume her head. But then women of the time weren't considered well dressed without commanding headwear. And some are real doozys. Good thing fashions change. It's a complicated whodunit, with a houseful of suspects. Margo (Durbin) witnesses a murder and decides, in good 40's fashion, to do some amateur sleuthing, which takes her into the jaws of danger since bodies keep piling up. Durbin may get high-key lighting for her tunes, but otherwise she navigates a shadowy world worthy of Edgar G. Ulmer. I like that packed movie theatre that Margo sabotages with her constant seat changes. Takes me back to theatres of years ago.Director David keeps things moving such that the congested plot passes effortlessly. Too bad Durbin left the business so soon. Given half-a-chance, she's a sparkling presence, perfect for light entertainment, such as this. Too bad most folks don't know what a star she was for an all-too-brief period from the 30's to the 40's. Anyway, she shines here as a young adult in an entertaining blend typical of the time. Plus, it's one that still engages....

kapelusznik18 ***SPOILERS*** It's when San Francisco débutante Nicki Collins, Deanna Durbin, saw a murder being committed while in transit to the Big Apple or NYC she tried her best to get the NYPD who,in it being the Christmas holidays, had much better things on their mind to sliver it. While trying to get famed mystery writer Wayne Morgan, David Bruce, to find the killer in a local movie-house where his fiancée Joyce Williams, Patricia Morison, was on the screen Nicki to her both shock & surprise saw a newsreel about the tragic death, he fell from a step ladder, of shipping magnet Joseah Waring! That was the man she saw murdered at the train stop by an shadowy figure!It's when Nicki went to the Waring Estate in Long Island to check things out about the old man's demise she's mistaken for the old guys new flame night cub singer Margo Martin whom he left his entire fortune to. With old man Joseah Warings' relatives being left out of his will things start to heat up with all of them trying in one way or another to get Margo, or better yet Nicki, to give up her claim to her dead lover's money & personal property. As for Margo, the real one, herself she's later murdered at the night club that she works at by one of Waring outraged, in being left out of his will, relatives.***SPOILERS*** The pretty Canadian Nightingale Deanna Durbin was at her best as she belted out songs like "Silent Night" & "Night & Day" as well as being the damsel in distress but it was the final few minutes of the movie that really made things matter in the reason for old man Waring's brutal murder. Not only was he knocked off but everyone who suspected he was in fact murdered, not that he died in an accident, was to be knocked off as well by his killer. It was Nicki who in finding out who the killer was that put her life in mortal danger. Not just by the killer but the Keystone Kops and her boyfriend mystery writer Wayne Morgan who kept screwing things up and almost made it possible for the killer to not only get away with his crimes but add Niki, as his latest victim, to them.

kidboots Deanna Durbin never seemed to go through an "awkward age" on screen. Even though she was a child star, she had already passed that uncomfortable age when she made her first film. Also she was very pretty and Universal studio was small enough to let her talent blossom. In "Lady on a Train" she tries her hand at screwball comedy and it really works. The original story was by Leslie Charteris, creator of "The Saint".Deanna Durbin (as a beautiful blonde) plays scatty Nicki Collins, addicted to crime novels, who sees a murder from her carriage window - she is going by train to spend Christmas in New York with her aunt and uncle.Of course no one believes her so she tries to enlist the help of Wayne Morgan (David Bruce) her favourite crime novelist. He is not interested and is also hampered by his fashion model girlfriend (the gorgeous Patricia Morison). Nicki goes snooping at the murdered man's mansion and stumbles onto the reading of the will. Everyone assumes she is Margot Martin, the murdered man's fiancée and she keeps up the pretense. She meets Arnold Waring (Dan Duryea) glib and carefree and Jonathon Waring (Ralph Bellamy) caring and cautious, both of whom have not benefited from the will. Allen Jenkins plays a surly thug, who is trailing Nicki with instructions to kill her. When he hears her sing "Silent Night" he is putty in her hands for about five minutes.She arrives at the Circus Club and goes on in Margot's place (Margot just happens to be a singer) singing "Give Me a Little Kiss, Will Ya, Huh??". Also figuring in the plot is a pair of men's bedroom slippers - the ones that the victim was wearing. Nicki first found them at the mansion and from then on she has a job to keep them out of the murderer's hands - until the butler gets hold of them and cleans all the evidence off them. She also sings a beautiful, sultry version of "Night and Day".When the real Margot is murdered Nicki is arrested. Creepy Arnold bails her out and on the way to a meeting he confides that he hated his uncle (along with everyone else). She gets away and thinks she has found a safe haven but ......This is a great mystery with screwball elements. Durbin does an excellent job and it is a real pity that she didn't have a longer career. Dan Duryea continued forging his career as a character actor of quirky roles.Highly Recommended.