Actuakers One of my all time favorites.

Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

JohnHowardReid BBC radio comedian Arthur Askey's most popular movie foray, was undoubtedly his version of "The Ghost Train". Like the 1931 movie, this one was also directed by Walter Forde. The powers-that-be at J. Arthur Rank Distributors have always claimed that they have the 1931 negative nice and safe in their library. Thirty years ago, they even sold the broadcasting rights to Swedish and Australian television networks. Despite repeated requests by both broadcasters to supply the contracted prints, Rank failed to comply. The print had either got lost or stolen, or even worse, it may have deteriorated. Fortunately it has now been found and has actually been issued on a DVD!Anyway, getting back to Arthur Askey's version: Thanks to Walter Forde's adroit direction and Askey's inspired performance (Herbert Lomas too, generally wasted in nothing roles, is absolutely unforgettable here) the 1941 picture is an exceptionally happy marriage of mystery and comedy. Nowhere and in no place do we ever get the impression of a photographed stage play. It's an absolutely must-see movie through and through! (Good prints are available on both Network and ITV DVDs).

binapiraeus This is the remake of the 1931 version of the 1923 stage play "The Ghost Train" - but, unlike many remakes, it doesn't look inferior to its predecessor (of which unfortunately only parts have survived), but takes a fresh, and very entertaining approach to the old subject, with a nice balance between ghost story and comedy. First of all, it updates the political background that is revealed in the end, giving a VERY real explanation for the 'ghost train' legend: while in 1931, it were Russian gun runners who used the train, now it's the Fifth Column, the stooges of the German Nazis - England obviously had discovered at last who the REAL enemy was... And then, the characters who are assembled here at this lonely train station are even more amusing and typically British than in the first version! It all starts when vaudeville comedian Tommy Gander (Arthur Askey) - who will continue throughout the movie to pester his fellow passengers with his strange kind of 'humor' - loses his hat and stops the train in order to retrieve it; which results in them all losing their connection train and being forced to stay overnight at a shady train station, in the middle of a blazing thunderstorm... So the atmosphere is already nice and creepy - but the station master enhances it by telling them about a 'ghost train' that drives through the station at nights, ever since a horrible train accident years ago, when the then station master, while trying to turn the wheel to close the swing bridge for the train to pass over the river, died of a heart attack, and the train crashed into the deep... He then leaves them, and they try to forget about the spooky story and pass the night as comfortable as possible.But then, at exactly eleven o'clock - the time the accident had occurred then - the station master returns, and collapses on the floor. One of the passengers, a doctor, declares him dead from - heart failure; and the fear of the people in that dark, lonely shack returns. And soon afterward, a young woman rushes in from the rain (beautiful Linden Travers, well known to fans of classic British cinema from Hitchcock's early masterpiece "The Lady Vanishes"), declaring hysterically that she's GOT to see the ghost train - and right after her, her brother appears, who explains that she's mentally ill and only imagines everything... Anyway, the tension rises (despite the constant 'tries' by the vaudeville comedian to cheer up the others) - until the VERY real explanation for the 'ghost train' story is revealed: it's being used for smuggling rifles for the Nazis through the swing bridge over the river; but by the time the passengers understand that, the three spies - the doctor, the strange woman and her brother - already have put them onto a bus and are driving away from the station, while the 'resurrected' station master is preparing the train for its ride over the swing bridge - the only thing they DON'T know is: the seemingly dopey comedian had changed the wheel earlier, and the bridge is OPEN! And so, the Nazis have got to watch from the other side of the river how 'their' train runs at full speed into the river...A very nice, typically British piece of classic movie entertainment, admirably suitable for any fan of good old-fashioned spooky tales who also possesses a good sense of humor!

mark.waltz OK, so Abbott and Costello aren't in this film, but there's lots of laughs here so American audiences can learn to appreciate, as I did, the comedy of someone we here in the states haven't had the pleasure of getting to know. Arthur Askey is a comic I discovered several years ago on TCM with a double showing of "The Band Waggon" and "Charley's Big-Hearted Aunt". I had heard of him before and seen movie stills of him, but hearing his voice and seeing him in his comic firm had not occurred until then. I was able to see this film, based upon an ancient British play, I too, had heard about, yet had never seen in any form."The Ghost Train" is just what the title implies: a train which, filled with ghosts, wants to add the living to their list of passengers. You see the train, you become one. This is the type of play that almost a hundred years ago toured around England and even the states, playing in community theaters (mostly converted barns) and giving audiences a chill much like Tod Slaughter was doing with his similar melodramas "Sweeney Todd" and "Murder in the Red Barn".Previously filmed in 1931, this remake got the comedy treatment with the Harold Lloyd like Askey, playing a ham actor who is stranded in a country station with a group of strangers. Through the station master, these lost folks learn the story of the mysterious train, which fell nearby through a bridge when the old stationmaster died before being able to close the bridge, sending everybody aboard to their deaths. The plot has been updated to the beginning of World War II to give it a sense of timeliness. It still retains the spooky atmosphere, gives Askey a cute song, a damsel in distress, and provides some comedy with a drunken female passenger who passes out and sleeps through the whole thing. Askey's in-your-face comedy is actually quite subtle; He's just a dude who likes to entertain and make people laugh, and some passengers like him more than others. What makes this more watchable for Americans is that there are few references to things we might not get, and the humor is more slapstick than droll.

Michael_Elliott Ghost Train, The (1941) ** (out of 4) British comedy/horror film has comedians Arthur Askey and Richard Murdoch among a group of people who misses their train at an old station. The group have to spend the night there when they learn of a mysterious ghost train, which apparently appears at night with the souls of people who were killed on it forty-years earlier. This is a rather strange film that once again follows that "old dark house" theme and tries to mix the horror and comedy elements. These types of films always depend on whether or not the comedians make you laugh and the team here didn't do that for me. For the most part Askey takes the lead with Murdoch only throwing in a few lines and it got to the point where it was really hard to tell that they were actually working as a team. Askey's brand of humor just wasn't for me, although I did find myself laughing at a few jokes but overall he just struck me as annoying. What does work however are the horror elements, which are pretty thick and contain some wonderfully dark atmosphere. The film reminded me a lot of the Val Lewton produced horror films that would follow within the next few years. The horror elements are all right on the mark but for the most part the film goes for all laughs. This certainly isn't a bad movie and I'm sure many will enjoy it but it didn't quite do the trick for me. Future director Val Guest is credited with the dialogue.