Caught On A Train [1980] [DVD]

This, apparently, dated journey on a grubby trans European train will contrast starkly with its modern equivalent. Unless of course you’re a British rail commuter when it will seem bang up to date.
Peter, an arrogant ex public schoolboy, is travelling to a Linz book fair when he meets an American girl and hopes his luck is in. However, things are complicated by the arrival in the same compartment of Frau Messener, an elderly, once upper class, Austrian who matches Peters arrogance and surpasses it with her spoilt demands.
Dame Peggy Ashcroft, whose eyes are far to young for her ageing frame, wonderfully portrays the matriarch of a fallen race. The part of Peter, played by Michael Kitchen, seems to have been written for him. Anyone who travelled in Europe in the 70’s, encountering armed border guards who seem to be in training for the next Reich, will appreciate the undertones of paranoia.
Gritty, atmospheric and delivering a sense of frustration right to the fractured end when we glimpse the potential of empathy between Peter and Frau Messener, but tantalisingly never quite make it. Not everyone’s cup of tea, hence four stars, but never the less a classic Poliakoff.

This made a big impression on me when I first saw it in the 80s and it was great to find it again. Poliakoff and director Peter Duffel make a number of subtle references to "The Lady Vanishes" and other train-based classics but in this film the corridors are crowded with obnoxious passengers, the staff surly and the officials intimidating. The train and its passengers serve as a metaphor for a Europe still fighting the cold war and living with political extremists from left and right.

The whole contrast between the old order of glamorous travel for a privileged few and the new one of near anarchy is played out between Michael Kitchen and Peggy Ashcroft's characters. It is the character development rather than the twists of the plot that are the strong points of the movie. This would have been 5 stars but some people might be lulled by the background into expecting some kind of who-done-it. If you are willing simply enjoy the great acting and direction then this is a must-see.

I saw 'Caught on a Train' when it was first broadcast by the BBC in 1980. Once seen, never forgotten.

"It has the structure of a thriller" says scriptwriter Stephen Poliakoff, "...but without the thriller itself". There are nods to both 'The Lady Vanishes' and 'Murder On The Orient Express', but there is no murder and nobody vanishes. Well, nobody much, anyway...

A young publishing executive from England, Peter (played by Michael Kitchen), catches a train across Europe in order to attend a book fair in Germany. His journey starts out straightforwardly enough, but then gradually descends into a nightmare of suspicion, humiliation and seemingly motiveless persecution. At the heart of the story is fellow-passenger Frau Messner (Dame Peggy Ashcroft), a spoilt, imperious and antagonistic old lady who is travelling home to Vienna. Swathed in furs, she represents the old, pre-war order and is accompanied by the dark shadows of past Nazi associations and the Holocaust. The essence of the piece is the antagonistic anti-relationship which is struck up between Frau Messner and Peter as the train carries them to the heart of Europe.

"You are an evil old woman!" He shouts at her, at one point. "The member of an extinct species!"

"And you..?" She quietly retorts, "How long do you think you will last?"

It remains a pertinent question. For if Frau Messner represents both the darkness and the richness of Europe's past, then Peter represents the corporate, lego-block banality of its present. "You have success," the old lady tells him, "but you don't really care about anything...."

In an interview which is included in the "Featurette" on this DVD, Peggy Ashcroft describes Frau Messner as "a monster"; but if so then it is a mark of her achievement as an actress that she can invest this monster with such qualities of humanity and even vulnerability that you end up empathising - even sympathising - with her. Michael Kitchen is no inconsiderable actor, but it is Peggy Ashcroft's tour-de-force as Frau Messner which dominates the film.

The DVD includes interviews with writer Stephen Poliakoff and other cast members. Poliakoff and producer Kenith Trodd also provide a spoken commentary to accompany the film.