HOFFMAN

Hoffman (film) - Wikipedia

GB
1970
1hr 53mins
Dir: Alvin Rakoff
Starring: Peter Sellers and Sinéad Cusack

A middle-aged man blackmails his secretary into staying with him for a week

This satirical film is based on the 1969 novel Shall I Eat You Now? by Ernest Gebler and it opens with some excellent shots inside London King’s Cross station. Plenty of blue & grey Mk1 and Mk2 coaching stock is visible along with a pair of Class 31s, one of which has a 5S35 headcode. Presumably, it has brought in the empty stock for 1S35, the 14:00 King’s Cross-Edinburgh.

This is a now classic view of the platforms of ‘The Cross’ seen from a familiar angle. Plenty of blue and grey coaching stock is visible but can one spot the Class 31 on the blocks in the far right hand distance?
So what is happening here? Looking up from the track between two trains Sinéad Cusack does a runner. Having been put on the train by her boyfriend she promptly leaves by one set of doors……
……and having opened up the door of an adjacent train, throws her luggage across the gap then crosses between the two. She calmly shuts both doors behind her then makes her way back to the platform! Filming such a scene would not be possible today but the author had always, always, wanted to see if such a move could be achieved when growing up with slam door trains. It clearly could!!
This is the shot of the sadly unidentifiable Class 31, a not to common loco in feature film
Sinéad Cusack leaves in a taxi when her boyfriend thinks she has left on a train. This is the old west side exit to King’s Cross looking out onto Cheney Road an area now occupied by the station’s new west concourse.