Lady on a Train

1945

Technical Information:

Studio:  Universal
Running Time:  1 hour, 24 minutes
Black and White
Video Availability:  Available on MCA/Universal home video.

Cast:

Deanna Durbin...Nicki Collins
Ralph Bellamy...Jonathan Waring
David Bruce...Wayne Morgan
George Coulouris...Saunders
Allen Jenkins...Danny
Dan Duryea...Arnold Waring
Edward Everett Horton...Haskell
Jacqueline de Wit...Miss Fletcher
Patricia Morison...Joyce Williams
Elizabeth Patterson...Aunt Charlotte
Maria Palmer...Margo Martin
Samuel S. Hinds...Wiggams
William Frawley...Sgt. Christie

Credits:

Associate Producer...Howard Christie
Screenplay by...Edmund Beloin, Robert O'Brien
Original Story by...Leslie Charteris
Musical Score...Miklos Rozsa
Musical Direction for Miss Durbin...Edgar Fairchild
Director of Photography...Woody Bredell, A.S.C.
Art Direction...John B. Goodman, Robert Clatworthy
Set Decorations...Russell A. Gausman
Special Photography by...John P. Fulton, A.S.C.
Film Editor...Ted J. Kent
Director of Sound...Bernard B. Brown
Technician...Joe Lapis
Assistant Director...William Holland
Produced by...Felix Jackson
Directed by...Charles David



    Nicki Collins (Deanna Durbin) is traveling from San Francisco, California to New York to visit her aunt Martha during the holiday season.  She is an avid mystery fan and is shocked when she witnesses an old man being murdered with a crowbar from the window of her train car.
    Once she gets off the train in New York, she meets Haskell (Edward Everett Horton), one of her father's employees, though she manages to get away from him to go to a police department.  She tells an officer there (William Frawley) of what she witnessed, though he doesn't believe her.  Discouraged, she goes to see mystery author Wayne Morgan (David Bruce) to help her solve the crime.
    He gives her the idea of going to the scene of the crime, though she isn't able to find it.  Morgan then goes with his snooty girlfriend Joyce (Patricia Morison) to a newsreel theater, where Nicki bothers him.  At the theater, Nicki sees a newsreel about the death of shipping magnate Josiah Waring (Thurston Hall).  She realizes that that was the man she saw killed, though he supposedly fell to his death off a stepladder while decorating his Christmas tree.
    Nicki goes to the Waring family mansion on Long Island, where she meets Arnold Waring (Dan Duryea), Josiah's nephew.  He mistakes her for Margo Martin, his grandfather's mistress, a singer at the Circus Club, which Josiah ran.  She plays along with the ruse to get inside.  The family has gathered at the mansion for the reading of the will, and Josiah's sister Charlotte (Elizabeth Patterson) is shocked when she hears that everything has been left to Margo.  Unbeknownst to the family, the Circus club manager, Saunders (George Coulouris) and his assistant Danny (Allen Jenkins) are eavesdropping outside.
    Nicki manages to sneak upstairs to Josiah's bedroom.  Danny follows her and she hides from him.  He looks around the room and leaves.  Nicki notices a chain swinging from a compartment in the wall, and pulls on it.  A pair of bloody bedroom slippers, the same kind Josiah was wearing when Nicki witnessed his murder, fall out and make a crashing noise.  Knowing that they are evidence, she throws the slippers out the window and on top of Arnold's car.  Saunders then finds her in the room and asks for the slippers but she yells before he can do anything to her.
    Afterwards, she takes a ride with Arnold back to the city and smuggles the slippers from the roof of his car, inside.  Saunders and Danny see her do this, and so Danny follows them in order to get them back.
    Back at Nicki's apartment, Haskell sees the slippers and gets suspicious.  Danny breaks in and knocks Haskell unconcious.  Nicki calls Morgan on the phone and asks him to come over, though he refuses.  In order to get him to come over and help her, she pretends like a man has broken into her apartment and is going to attack her.  Little does she know that there really is.  Danny then steals the slippers, and leaves just as Morgan is arriving.  Danny knocks Morgan unconcious as well and leaves.
    When Morgan comes to, he finds a matchbook from the Circus club.  He then enters Nicki's apartment and tells her what happened.  She then realizes that the slippers are gone, and that someone must've broken in and stolen them.
    Nicki decides to go to the Circus club. She sneaks into the real Margo Martin's (Maria Palmer) dressing room.  Inside, Nicki finds a picture of Josiah Waring and speaks with Margo.  Margo is rather suspicous since Nicki knows all about her inheritance.  Nicki then sees Arnold arrive, and greets him, posing as Margo.  She then locks Margo in a closet, goes out to the dance floor, and performs.  Morgan also comes to the club with Joyce and thinks that Nicki is really Margo Martin.
    After her performance, Nicki sits with Arnold.  His aunt Charlotte and brother Jonathan (Ralph Bellamy) then arrive.  Joyce gets mad at Morgan for flirting with Nicki and leaves.  Outside, Morgan recognizes Danny as the man who knocked him out and follows him.  Danny is going to see his boss, Saunders who is in the middle of an argument with the real Margo.  Saunders is glad that Danny got the slippers back.
    Nicki is summoned to Margo's dressing room by a waiter.  She finds Saunders waiting, and she confirms his suspicion that she knows Josiah Waring was really murdered.  Morgan then comes in and punches Danny, which gives Nicki enough time to grab the slippers.  They both run away.  She then informs Morgan that she is not really Margo Martin and says she needs to give the slippers to the police to prove Josiah's murder.  Saunders attempts to get the slippers back again but Nicki escapes by going back to the table where Jonathan is sitting with the rest of the family.
    Saunders and Danny observe Nicki and the family through a trick mirror in Margo's dressing room.  Morgan overhears him make a comment about Nicki having the slippers "right under his nose," and realizes the killer is at the table with Margo.  He calls her from a phone booth in the nightclub and tells her this, but Danny and Saunders take him away before he's finished.  Nicki is then told to perform again, so she carefully hides the slippers in the booth where she's sitting.
    Saunders chases Nicki, but gets away again.  She then sees Danny locking Morgan in the wine cellar.  When Danny leaves, she goes downstairs.  Saunders then enters and starts to fight with Morgan.  Nicki flees.
    Meanwhile, Danny locks Nicki in Margo's dressing room. She is stuck.  She hurriedly changes clothes before her next performance (!).  Saunders then comes in.  Scared, and with no way out, she takes a chair and throws it through the trick mirror looking out on the dance floor from the dressing room.  She then performs while Saunders and Danny wait backstage.  Morgan manages to get out of the cellar after his fight with Saunders and joins Nicki after her song.  Suddenly, gunshots ring out.  Saunders has been murdered.  Just as the police arrive, Nicki takes the slippers out from their hiding place in the booth.  The police are suspicious but let her go.  She stays the night at Morgan's house.
    The next morning, the police arrive with Danny.  Danny tells them that Morgan killed Saunders.  Nicki decides that now is her chance to give the bloody bedroom slippers to the police in order to implicate Saunders and Danny in the Josiah's murder, but it turns out that Morgan's servant Maxwell (Ben Carter) found them and washed them!
    Nicki and Morgan end up in jail, though Nicki doesn't stay there for long.  Arnold Waring bails her out.  After they leave, Jonathan arrives.  He also wants to bail her out.  He then finds out that Arnold beat him to it.
    In his car, Arnold asks Nicki how she knew his uncle was murdered.  She realizes that her cover has been blown when she sees a newspaper headline proclaiming that Margo Martin has been killed.  Arnold takes Nicki to his father's offices, which are closed.  Danny is also there.  Nicki gets scared, realizing that Arnold might be the killer.  He confesses that he hated his uncle, as well as Saunders and Jonathan though Nicki runs off the first chance she gets.
    He chases her but she jumps in an elevator.  She gets off on another floor and is called by Jonathan.  He tells her that she is safe with him, and they both hide from Arnold in a dark room.  Soon, Nicki realizes that she is in the same room that Josiah was murdered, since they are right next to the train tracks.  Jonathan is really the murderer, though he has no apparent motive.  All of Josiah's money went to Margo, but Saunders was Margo's boss.  So he killed them both and got the money since he was Saunder's boss.  Jonathan then says he's going to kill both Nicki and Arnold and make it seem like self-defense from his brother.
    Arnold then enters the room and wrests Jonathan's gun away from him.  He is pointing it at his brother when Morgan rushes in, and knocks the gun out of Arnold's hand, believing that he is the murderer.  He hands the gun to Jonathan before Nicki tells him of his mistake.  It doesn't matter though.  Morgan brought the police with him, and they promptly arrest Jonathan for the murders of Josiah Waring, Saunders and Margo Martin.  Nicki and Morgan then live happily ever after.


Songs:

[Songs performed by Deanna Durbin in boldface]
"Silent Night, Holy Night" (Mohr, Gruber)
"Give Me a Little Kiss" (Turk, Smith, Pinkard)
"Night and Day" (Porter)

Academy Awards and Nominations:

Best Sound, Recording (Bernard B. Brown - nominee)

Reviews:

"Deanna Durbin explores the hazardous path of farce comedy...and does a bang-up job of it."
    - Daily Variety

My Review:

    Lady on a Train is one of my favorite Deanna films for a number of reasons.  First of all, Deanna looks simply fantastic with her blonde hair and glamourous dresses.  The story is top-notch and takes lots of surprising twists and turns.  Her co-stars give great performances as well, especially Ralph Bellamy, Edward Everett Horton and Jacqueline de Wit.  The music is also good with Deanna's smoldering version of "Give Me a Little Kiss," beautiful rendition of the Christmas standard "Silent Night," and the Cole Porter classic, "Night and Day."  All in all, I believe this to be one marvelous film, and one of the best comedy-mysteries I've ever seen.

Notes:

One interesting thing about this film is the fact that two of Deanna's three husbands worked on it.  The producer was Felix Jackson, who Deanna would marry shortly after this movie was filmed, and the director was Charles David, whom Deanna would marry five years later, in 1950.



Picture credits:
1.  Video cover scanned by webmaster.
2.  Publicity still courtesy of Robert/Shadowland Collectibles.
3. Photo courtesy of Anita Henderson.


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