Comedy

Crime

Mystery

Romance

Thriller

Lady on a Train

Universal Pictures

United States of America

English

Deanna Durbin

Ralph Bellamy

David Bruce

George Coulouris

Allen Jenkins

Dan Duryea

Edward Everett Horton

Patricia Morison

Maria Palmer

Elizabeth Patterson

Samuel S. Hinds

William Frawley

Jacqueline deWit

Lash LaRue

Jane Adams

Thurston Hall

Ben Carter

Mabel Forrest

Barbara Bates

Chester Clute

Joseph Crehan

Fred Aldrich

Ernest Anderson

Carl Andre

Bobby Barber

Eddie Bartell

Eddie Bruce

Charles Cane

James Carlisle

Nora Cecil

George Chandler

André Charlot

Martin Cichy

Tom Coleman

Oliver Cross

Charles Dechamps

Jack Deery

Robert Dudley

Tom Dugan

Eddie Dunn

Jay Eaton

Sarah Edwards

Harry Evans

Franklyn Farnum

Carl Faulkner

Al Ferguson

Clyde Fillmore

Sam Finn

Mary Forbes

George Golden

Ethyl May Halls

Sam Harris

Dick Hirbe

Stuart Holmes

Jack W. Johnston

Philip Kieffer

Mike Lally

Perc Launders

Ethelreda Leopold

George J. Lewis

George Lloyd

Lock Martin

Sam McDaniel

Matt McHugh

Bert Moorhouse

William H. O'Brien

Frank O'Connor

Kathleen O'Malley

Ralph Peters

Rose Plumer

Albert Pollet

Karen Randle

Bob Reeves

Addison Richards

Cyril Ring

Bert Roach

Jeffrey Sayre

Charles Sherlock

Brick Sullivan

Jean Trent

Leo White

Eric Wilton

Florence Wix

Charles David

Felix Jackson

Miklós Rózsa

Elwood Bredell

Leslie Charteris

Edmund Beloin

Robert O'Brien

Ted J. Kent

Robert Clatworthy

John B. Goodman

Russell A. Gausman

Howard Greer

Genre blender of considerable worth. 

Lady on a Train is directed by Charles David and adapted to screenplay by Edmund Beloin and Robert O’Brien from a Leslie Charteris story. It stars Deanna Durbin, Ralph Bellamy, David Bruce, George Coulouris, Allen Jenkins, Dan Duryea and Edward Everett Horton. Music is by Miklos Rozsa and cinematography by Woody Bredell. 

Part murder mystery, part film noir, part comedy and part musical! And it’s a Christmas movie as well! Lady on a Train has a lot going on for sure. It’s a fun packed little movie that gives Durbin full licence to show her various talents before she retired out of the limelight three years later. In main essence it’s the murder mystery aspect that drives the picture forward. Durbin plays Nikki Collins, a spunky young woman who loves reading detective mysteries, so when she witnesses a murder being committed from her train window seat, she’s obviously all of a tingle. However, convincing the authorities of what she saw proves to be difficult and she decides to take up the case herself. Pretty soon she is up to her neck in intrigue and life threatening peril. 

Things start getting twisty once Durbin meets the victim’s bizarre family, a veritable roll call of miserablists and shifty shysters. Aided by mystery writer Wayne Morgan (Bruce), Nikki has to run the gamut of bluffing and boldness to stay one step ahead of the game, including imitating a chanteuse singer. This allows Durbin to the chance to warble three songs, with a version of “Silent Night” beautifully tender and a sensuous and sultry rendition of “Gimme a Little Kiss, Will Yah, Huh?” Having us in the palm of her hand. It builds nicely to a darkly tinged last third, where Bredell’s noirish photography comes into its own and the resolution of the tale is most satisfactory. Good laughs, good suspense and good songs, well worth a viewing. Story was filmed as a straight British thriller in 1940 titled A Window in London, with Michael Redgrave starring. 7/10

Lady on a Train (1945) - Movie Trailer

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Lady on a Train

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Cast

Deanna Durbin

Ralph Bellamy

David Bruce

George Coulouris

Allen Jenkins

Dan Duryea

Edward Everett Horton

Patricia Morison

Maria Palmer

Elizabeth Patterson

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