Just watched this thriller on the Talking Pictures Channel here in the UK. This is a great channel for us fans of older films – they show them all day, every day – so when  I get the chance I try to tune in. Anyway back to this particular film which is quite an unusual story with plenty of twists – even half way through the film it seemed to be wrapped up but then comes a shock revelation and we are back in there trying to fathom out what is going on. When John North played by Richard Todd, a budding author, pulls the communication cord of a late night train that is taking him away on a weekend with his publishers wife,   he sets in motion a series of events that lead to a train crash, a murder and a police man hunt. As our adventure opens a very angry looking man leaves his house and walks down the street. A moment later a gorgeous young blonde leaves the same house and a man steps out of the shadows to greet her. Together they board a train out of London, and we learn that she is the wife of a prominent publisher and the man she is running away with is an author that her husband publishes. We learn that he is running away from his wife to start a new life with the wife of his publisher. As they head to Paddington Station to board a train, Johnny thinks that a man in a mackintosh is following them but isn’t quite sure . . . Aboard the train Johnny starts getting second thoughts . . . . He is enchanted and filled with lust for the beautiful blonde in his arms, but he also has a loving wife at home. Deep regret and remorse fills him suddenly and he leaves the train booth and stands in the train walkway filled with confusion . . . . Looking up the hallway he spots the man in the mackintosh coat staring at him . . . . . Looking quickly up the other end of the hallway he sees his publisher staring at him . . . . The man whose wife is waiting for him in the coach behind him . . . . In a panic he reaches for the emergency chain that will bring the train to a screeching halt, and as the train slows he jumps off and heads home to his waiting wife . . . . AND then the story really kicks into gear.

Interesting thing here about the TWO of the leading actors in this film.   They both have taken leading roles in productions about Robin Hood A couple of years after this film was made RICHARD TODD was cast as Robin Hood for Walt Disney in The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men – and a year or so after that film Alexander Gauge was cast as Friar Tuck in the long running TV series The Adventures of Robin Hood – a hugely popular Television series it was too, that did really well in the USA as well as here.

He was perfectly cast in this role and he was very good as Friar Tuck.

Above – James Donald and Alexander Gauge in The Pickwick Papers.

Alexander Gauge (1914-1960) actor, best known for playing Friar Tuck in ‘The Adventures of Robin Hood’ from 1955 to 1960. He was born in a Methodist Mission station in Wenzhou, China, but grew up in California before moving to England. He worked on the New York stage in 1945, before becoming a hit in the London theatre production of ‘The Seven Year Itch’.

Physically he was a corpulent character actor, who performed on the New York stage in the 1940s, and then played a succession of minor villains in British films. He is fondly remembered as Friar Tuck in Richard Greene’s TV series The Adventures of Robin Hood (1955). Unfortunately, he found little gainful employment thereafter and committed suicide with barbiturates at the age of just 46.

In 1960, aged just 46, but plagued by gambling debts, he took his own life with an overdose of pills. The Verdict though is that he died from a Brain Tumour – very sad however that his life should end this way at such a young age.