Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #220086 in DVD
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Running time: 80 minutes

Customer Reviews

Art film of the early 1980s
I'm sure CAUGHT ON A TRAIN is one of those arty films that I will have to watch several times to fully appreciate. I bought the DVD because I like Peggy Ashcroft (JEWEL IN THE CROWN) and Michael Kitchen (FOYLE'S WAR). Only thing is that Kitchen is very young in this film and not much like that wizened fellow called Foyle. The third actress listed in the DVD credits (Wendy Raebeck) is a relatively minor character, mostly a witness or observer of the action between Ashcroft and Kitchen. Kitchen's young man (Peter) is an employee of a book publising firm in England .Peter represents the face of modern Europe, extremely in need of success (at any cost?), and dispising the "old order" represented by Ascroft's Frau Messner. The interaction between the two characters is mesmerizing. Depending on your age and outlook on life you will find the story amusing, frustrating or sad. The setting is some time after WWII on the express train that runs from Ostend to Vienna. The train is the backdrop for the whole film, and the shots of the vintage express are woth the price of the DVD for those who love trains (me).

The scenes from the train of stations, rivers, industrial areas and farm land will probably never be seen again in quite the same way, as Europe has "modernized" it's old cities farms (progress from the perspective of those who value success as the reason for living, a disaster for those who cherish the past). If you appreciate an artistic exploration of the intense psychological exchange that can take place between two fellow passengers on a long trip, you will find this 80 minute film holds it's own with films of it's ilk.

Makes Amtrak look posh
If you think European long-distance trains are the epitome of classy service, perhaps you should see CAUGHT ON A TRAIN, a British dark comedy that has similarities to 1985's AFTER HOURS in that it focuses upon the macabre, nighttime misadventures of the lead character otherwise out of his element.

Peter (Michael Kitchen, very young with lots of hair), a self-absorbed English businessman on his way to Linz, boards the Ostend to Vienna Trans European Express. Peter usually travels by air, but has decided this once to take to the rails just to see what it's like. Big mistake.

At first, the journey looks promising. Peter is to share his six-seat reserved compartment with a very attractive and sexy American girl, Lorraine (Wendy Raebeck). Perhaps they'll have the space to themselves? But that's not to be as other occupants crowd in, including Frau Messner (Peggy Ashcroft), an imperious, impatient, Viennese grand dame who's used to getting her way, and getting it now. She and Peter immediately lock horns as she demands, and he refuses to relinquish, his window seat. Then, Peter almost misses the train's departure as he reluctantly volunteers to make a dash to the station newsstand to get the old lady some magazines for the trip. Their relationship goes from bad to worse to bizarre such that, by the time Peter stumbles off the carriage at his destination, he's exhausted, unshaven, shirtless, mud-spattered, with a torn suit jacket, discomfited, and minus his ticket.

CAUGHT ON A TRAIN isn't a complete success. The potential provided by the Lorraine character goes nowhere for reasons that aren't immediately apparent. Indeed, her presence is such a plot dead end that I felt she should've been left out of the script entirely. The emphasis is, and rightfully should be, entirely on the manic relationship between Peter and Frau Messner, the latter both repelling and fascinating the former.

A further nice touch to the surrealism of the journey is the presence in the car of some violence-prone German rowdies who've apparently made it on board with "standing room only" tickets. (The presence of seatless passengers is still a phenomenon on main corridor European trains, and which results in the nearly impossible passageway overcrowding that I noticed with some irritation on a Frankfurt-Berlin run in 1999. It makes the much maligned U.S. Amtrak look positively luxurious by comparison.)

The reason I'm not awarding more than three stars is that the ending, by which time Peter and his nemesis seem to be he only passengers left on the train (trashed beyond belief - where's the staff?), is curiously unfulfilling. Peter wanders off, perhaps made a little wiser and a better person by the experience, but I wasn't convinced that he was either, or indeed cognizant of why he should be. For me, and for Peter, Frau Messner remained too much of an enigma.

A great little atmospheric film
I first saw this film when it was broadcast on the A&E cable channel in the U.S. in the early 1990's. I loved it then, but I remember that A&E's on-air promotional spot for it made it seem like a thriller and completely missed the whole point of the movie.

I won't simply re-hash the plot as you can read that above, but I will say that what I like about this movie is the rich, late-night atmosphere of overnight train travel in early 80's Europe. Add to that Stephen Poliakoff's script, the superb acting all around (especially by Kitchen and Ashcroft) and the truly wonderful jazz soundtrack by Mike Westbrook. One sees this and has to wonder why American television doesn't ever turn out tv movies of this calibre.

I was extremely pleased and surprised to find that this film is out on DVD and I bought it immediately. The DVD has a decent little featurette which includes lengthy comments by writer Stephen Poliakoff as well as some brief interview clips from Dame Peggy Ashcroft about, "Caught on a Train." There is also an interesting and insightful screen-specific commentary track with Poliakoff and producer Kenith Trodd.

Poliakoff and Trodd both ask a question which I too was wondering: what an earth has happened to actress Wendy Raebeck who plays Lorraine in this movie?

I very much enjoyed this DVD.