I remember THE GHOST TRAIN being shown on our regional television station STV on a fairly regular basis . No Christmas TV schedule or rainy bank holiday was complete without a showing on this movie . For some reason it abruptly disappeared from the schedules and can't recall it being broadcast on British television later than 1976 or 1977 . It's not a film I remember with any great affection either but it did stick out in my memory due to it being something of a scheduling institution in the 1970s along with certain scenes and I was curious as to how it would appear to my adult cynical self Many of the scenes I vividly recall still remain no better and no worse such as the title sequence which does have a low key effectiveness as we're shown the POV of train speeding along tracks as the unfocused credits rush towards screen . I also remember the sequence where Arthur Askey's character pulls faces in to a carriage trying to impress a young blonde woman . Unfortunately as so many people on this page have stated it's difficult to believe Arthur Askey was funny in 1941 , even more difficult to believe he'd be funny on a wet bank holiday in the 1970s and is painfully unfunny in 2012 and the all talking , all joking and all singing AA means the modern day audience will be on the side of Richard Winthorpe which I doubt was the object of the original play This is a pity because THE GHOST TRAIN whilst not being a classic is an effective take on the theme of THE OLD DARK HOUSE where a group of strangers fin themselves stuck in a remote rural railway station where they find themselves caught up in a mystery . It's hardly a classic but does have a certain degree of atmosphere especially when the station master relates the legend of the eponymous ghost train . This is however negated as the film becomes a star vehicle for Askey who feels the need to torture his new found companions and the audience with puns and pratfalls There other curiosity aspects to modern eyes .The acting style where very posh actors and actresses pretend to be working class by dropping the " H " from words which sticks out a mile . Likewise the attitudes of both mental illness and cigarettes and temperence is slightly different than you'd imagine to what it is today . There's also a war on which means rationing and the possibility of normal looking citizens being traitors which means being very dated THE GHOST TRAIN is a film not without interest

From the first few minutes of the film it was clear that the main character, Arthur Askey, was an obnoxious person that would have been better left on the tracks after pulling the emergency cord on the train. Because they waited for him to pick up his hat and return to the train we are forced to listen to a man that should have been beat with a large stick until his mouth was so swollen that he could not speak. But since none of this happened, we are forced to watch a performance by Askey where he tries to hog every scene by what some call humor.Askey was like a case of herpes- he would just not go away. He kept inserting himself in every third line by means of something like juvenile humor. (I do not mean to speak bad of juveniles)I know I am being rough on Arthur Askey. I have seen other comedy films from this period that is just as dated as this film. But that does not make a poor performance any better to watch. Some will say that this is classic humor. If so, thank goodness we do not live in a time where we think classic humor needs to be obnoxious and unfunny.Actually this story is not a bad idea for a film. If you took Askey out of this and inserted another comedian, that was not so obnoxious, then this would be a good film. The last half of the film could have been a good film on it own merit except for one character.This film does contain the beautiful actress Kathleen Harrison. I have never seen a film where Ms Harrison gave an unpleasant performance. She is the only one that deliveries in this film. But with Askey, it was hard for anyone else to do anything but listen to his rants.It is clear that Askey was better in front of a live audience. He could play and mingle with the people. He relied on the interaction of people to be funny. In front of the camera that did not play well. In this film it did not play well - at all.

I feel sorry for the English people trying to suffer through WWII with privation, air raids, and their sons off at the front, and I understand why they might have wanted some git prancing around on stage or screen acting like this Askey fool to distract them from falling bombs and the dire outlook of 1941, but it's not 1941 anymore, the Nazis aren't invading us, and the film looks stupid now. The "ghost train" part of the story does not start until nearly minute 25, so what this is is a short mystery film interspersed with the lowest of low stage humor. A few action scenes are run behind narration, then it's back to the prancing git again. The little bit of dramatic acting here is dated, as well. It's not a comedy, it's not a ghost story, it's just a mess. As sympathetic as I feel for the English of that era, and as thankful as I am that they held off the Nazis for so long by themselves, I'm not so grateful that I can recommend this travesty to appease their nostalgia.This is another case where I look at the average user rating and scratch my head and say "huh?"

Ghost Train, The (1941) ** (out of 4) British comedy/horror film has comedians Arthur Askey and Richard Murdoch among a group of people who misses their train at an old station. The group have to spend the night there when they learn of a mysterious ghost train, which apparently appears at night with the souls of people who were killed on it forty-years earlier. This is a rather strange film that once again follows that "old dark house" theme and tries to mix the horror and comedy elements. These types of films always depend on whether or not the comedians make you laugh and the team here didn't do that for me. For the most part Askey takes the lead with Murdoch only throwing in a few lines and it got to the point where it was really hard to tell that they were actually working as a team. Askey's brand of humor just wasn't for me, although I did find myself laughing at a few jokes but overall he just struck me as annoying. What does work however are the horror elements, which are pretty thick and contain some wonderfully dark atmosphere. The film reminded me a lot of the Val Lewton produced horror films that would follow within the next few years. The horror elements are all right on the mark but for the most part the film goes for all laughs. This certainly isn't a bad movie and I'm sure many will enjoy it but it didn't quite do the trick for me. Future director Val Guest is credited with the dialogue.