The Titfield Thunderbolt (1953)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Charles Crichton

Writer:

T.E.B. Clarke (original screenplay)

Release Date:

20 October 1953 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

The Comedy Hit of the Year!

Plot:

Comedy of railfans who take over their village's passenger train service (against bus company resistance) when British Rail abandons it.

Plot Keywords:

Train | Railroad | Railway | Pub | Water Tower

Cast

Stanley Holloway	...	Walter Valentine
George Relph	...	Vicar Sam Weech
Naunton Wayne	...	George Blakeworth
John Gregson	...	Squire Gordon Chesterford
Godfrey Tearle	...	Ollie Matthews, Bishop of Welchester
Hugh Griffith	...	Dan Taylor
Gabrielle Brune	...	Joan Hampton
Sid James	...	Harry Hawkins (as Sidney James)
Reginald Beckwith	...	Coggett
Edie Martin	...	Emily
Michael Trubshawe	...	Ruddock
Jack MacGowran	...	Vernon Crump (as Jack McGowran)
Ewan Roberts	...	Alec Pearce
Herbert C. Walton	...	Seth
John Rudling	...	Clegg - Inspector from Ministry
Nancy O'Neil	...	Mrs. Blakeworth
Campbell Singer	...	Police Sergeant
Frank Atkinson	...	Station Sergeant
Wensley Pithey	...	A Policeman
Harold Alford	...	Guard
Ted Burbidge	...	Engine Driver
Frank Green	...	Fireman
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Hilda Fenemore	...	Lady Washing Baby (uncredited)
Bert Harris	...	Driver (uncredited)
George King	...	Fireman (uncredited)
Sam Kydd	...	Policeman (uncredited)
Jack May	...	Old Man At Bedroom Window (uncredited)
Sid Mitchell	...	Driver (uncredited)
Mervyn Seal	...	Guard (uncredited)
Frank Sieman	...	Beer drinker in Valentine's "corner" (uncredited)
Bob Stride	...	Fireman (uncredited)

Directed by
Charles Crichton

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
T.E.B. Clarke		original screenplay

Produced by
Michael Truman	....	producer
Michael Balcon	....	executive producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Georges Auric

Cinematography by
Douglas Slocombe		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Seth Holt

Art Direction by
C.P. Norman

Makeup Department
Harry Frampton	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Harry Kratz	....	unit production manager
Hal Mason	....	production supervisor

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Terry Bishop	....	second unit director
David Peers	....	assistant director
Peter Crowhurst	....	third assistant director (uncredited)
Erica Masters	....	assistant director (uncredited)
John Meadows	....	second assistant director (uncredited)

Art Department
Norman Dorme	....	draughtsman (uncredited)
Tony Rimmington	....	junior draughtsman (uncredited)
Jack Shampan	....	draughtsman (uncredited)

Sound Department
Arthur Bradburn	....	sound recordist
Stephen Dalby	....	sound supervisor
Peter Gilpin	....	sound camera operator (uncredited)
Mary Habberfield	....	dubbing editor (uncredited)
Cyril Swern	....	boom operator (uncredited)

Special Effects by
Geoffrey Dickinson	....	special processes
E. Hague	....	special processes
Sydney Pearson	....	special effects
E.R. Taylor	....	special effects

Camera and Electrical Department
Paul Beeson	....	photography: second unit
Jeff Seaholme	....	camera operator
Chic Anstiss	....	clapper loader (uncredited)
Frank Bassill	....	camera operator: second unit (uncredited)
Neil Binney	....	clapper loader (uncredited)
Roy Gough	....	still photographer (uncredited)
George Pink	....	focus puller (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Anthony Mendleson	....	wardrobe

Editorial Department
Joan Bridge	....	color consultant: Technicolor
Harry Aldous	....	assistant editor (uncredited)

Music Department
Ernest Irving	....	conductor

Other crew
Felicia Manheim	....	continuity

Production Companies

• Michael Balcon Productions
• Ealing Studios

Distributors

• General Film Distributors (GFD) (1953) (UK) (theatrical) (released through) (as General Film Distributors Limited)
• Universal Pictures (1953) (USA) (theatrical)
• Anchor Bay Entertainment (2005) (USA) (DVD)
• Warner Home Video (1988) (UK) (VHS)

Other Companies

• Philharmonia Orchestra, The  music played by (as the Philharmonia Orchestra)

Runtime:

84 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System) | Mono (Gaumont Kalee Recording)

Certification:

Australia:G (TV rating) | UK:U | Iceland:L | UK:U (video rating) | Australia:PG

Filming Locations:

Bristol Temple Meads station, Bristol, England, UK

Company:

Michael Balcon Productions

Trivia:

For the sequence where the drunken Valentine and Dan drive a stolen locomotive through the streets of Mallingford, a replica locomotive was built atop a lorry.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: In the last sequence, some men are playing cricket as the Titfield Thunderbolt makes its winning run to Mallingford. Abandoning their game, they rush to the embankment to see the train go by. The scene shows the batsman at the crease being distracted as the train appears in the distance, and being clean bowled as a result. However, although the bails on the wicket fall to the ground, the ball bowled by the bowler clearly sails more than a foot above the wicket.

Quotes:

Sam Weech: We want the Titfield Thunderbolt.
George Blakeworth: Out of the museum?
Sam Weech: Yes, yes, she'll run. She's as good as she ever was. I'll stake my living on it!

Movie Connections:

Featured in Forever Ealing (2002) (TV)

Soundtrack:

The Eton Boating Song

Delightful slice of post war optimism

If you havn't watched this delightful piece of fun, just sit back and enjoy the ride. It's a great film. If you don't like railway locomotives, don't worry, there's so much more to it all than that. The story is a touch daft but very likeable, the characters are much the same as the story in that respect.The scenery is utterly gorgeous and the trains and buses take on a charming human aspect that makes this a kind of prototype, live-action THOMAS THE TANK ENGINE ! The comedy is typical of the Ealing studios at their very best.It's subtle, it's warm, it's wry and it's ironic.The script allows for suitably eccentric characterisation while remaining very British and amusingly restrained. However the premise of a village about to be cut off from it's railway lifeline is only too real. This film actually forecast the dreadfull effects of the Beeching railway massacre a decade later in Britain. Then, a whole century of incredible development in public transport was literally wiped out at the whim of the infamous government hit-man, Dr Beeching. A notorious character who slashed away the infrastructure so carefully created by men of vision as a sop to political morons unable to see beyond the bottom line of a balence sheet. At the time THE TITFIELD THUNDERBOLT was filmed the full effects of line closures on rural hamlets was still some way in the future and perhaps now, in hindsight,having seen the truth of it all, the film gains an ironic and touching element that it probably never had on release. I have heard that the film has only gained it's cult status in later years, and didn't actually do that well at the box office when released. Perhaps the story simply rings more truly now than it did then, or maybe it's simply the glorious look of rural 1950s England that has increased it's appeal over the decades? The central concept of the entire village pulling together - and paying - to keep the line open by running it themselves is sadly one quite alien to the rural England of the 21st century.Todays villages are part holiday-haven, part dormitary. The people who live their often can't find work nearby and many of the houses remain empty much of the time, used only as holiday cottages. The spirit of togetherness seen in the mythical Titfield has ebbed very quickly in the decades since the movie was made. I know, I have lived all my life in an area that suffered badly from 1960s railway-destruction! Back in the 1950s one could almost imagine the village spirit seen in the film, a peacetime spirit-of-the-blitz in fact. But not now. That adds yet more layers of whistful whimsy to the story, more concentration to the serious shot of nostalgea it supplies. Forget the petrol rationing and hardships of real life at the time,watch this film and you can't help wanting to live there! Charles Crighton's loving direction certainly makes the most of the rural locations in South Western England.Little vignettes of white horses frolicking if the fields and chaotic country stations suddenly taken over by runaway livestock give a honey tinted picture postcard vision of the English countryside. Pre-supermarkets and road-humps a more perfect place is hard to imagine. It's almost a visual cliche and yet I know the actual locations still exist today and look very much the same. There is still a railway running through the valley and a canal that still carries boats.Maybe the picture postcard is not quite so unbelievable as it might seem? Say what you like about the film from a technicians or drama critics point of view, it's simply wonderfull to sit through as a human being. Enjoy.