Close but no cigar for this B+ programmer from M-G-M that grafts Ernst Lubitsch romantic calculation between rivals-turned-lovers Edmund Lowe & Madge Evans to International-Intrigue-On-A Train. In a runup to Alfred Hitchcock’s THE LADY VANISHES/’38, Paul Lukas is the man-of-the-moment as Europe teeters toward war, a munitions mogul whose sales could alter the balance of power in the region. His journey is the top story of the day and Evans goes after it for her newspaper using her editor’s passport to slip into hostile countries as his wife. At the same time, popular novelist Edmund Lowe, covering for a reporter pal, is forced to play husband to Evans when his real passport & visa are stolen. A clever meet-cute that plays out over the entire first act. Better yet, while Evans bonds with Lukas mistress Ketti Gallian, Lowe bonds just as closely to munitions man Lukas thru a mutual love of music. (That tune Lukas supposedly wrote actually from Tchaikovsky’s EUGENE ONEGIN.) A neat setup, nicely complicated by a gaggle of spies & assistants moving thru the train while authorities & train officials get in the way. Journeyman director Kurt Neuman keeps up the pace, but there’s only so much he can do to straighten out a script that misses plot points and never quite lines up the action. Still, fun to watch, with a good amount of old-fashioned glamor (thanks to lenser Ray June) in spite of Evans frustrating lack of sparkle. And watch for a magnificent aborted sneeze from master of the form Billy Gilbert.
DOUBLE-BILL: Try the excellent ROME EXPRESS/’32, a well-made British film that helped lay down the intrigue-on-a-train tropes and also lets you see what Conrad Veidt does in the Paul Lukas spot.
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