Pitch for a movie: A London bus travelling in heavy rain crashes into a crane that falls from a building site; we then use flashbacks to explore the lives/personal problems of the passengers involved. Not a bad premise for the time, 1933, so not bad in fact that Gainsborough bought into it and shot it as Friday The Thirteenth and released it that year. Ealing liked it so much that they re-made it with a train in 1948 and renamed it Train Of Events which gave Jack Warner and Gladys Henson a rehearsal for their second husband-and-wife pairing in The Blue Lamp two years later. There are four sets of passengers equating to four stories and none of them inspire the pulse to reach double figures. We knew of course that John Gregson was as wooden as Pinnochio but to find Peter Finch on his debut giving us his impression of a giant Redwood was a discovery. The then-ubiquitous Susan Shaw is also on hand as is Michael Horden and Lesley Phillips and nostalgia buffs will enjoy a good wallow.
Review of Train of Events
