GB 1947 1hr 38mins Dir: Basil Dearden Starring: David Farrar and Mai Zetterling
An RAF officer marries a German girl, but she encounters hostility when they return home
There are quite a number of trains in this war drama which include a very good shot of a local, hauled by M7 Class 0-4-4T No.378 in Southern wartime black livery. The train is leaving ‘Denfield’ station, which in reality is Shalford on the Guildford-Redhill ‘North Downs’ line. There are in addition four stock shots of expresses hauled by, in sequence, an ex-LNWR ‘Claughton’ Class 4-6-0, an ex-LMS 4-6-0 in an over-the camera shot, an unrebuilt ‘Royal Scot’ Class 6P 4-6-0, and a particularly good shot of a Class 5MT ‘Black Five’ 4-6-0 leaving a tunnel. The early escape scenes set in Germany feature much detailed model work, though there is a real locomotive in the form of War Department Austerity 2-8-0 No.77180. It is not known where this shot was filmed.
David Farrar and Mai Zetterling board a freight train at night. The loco is WD Austerity 2-8-0 No.77180 but the location could be anywhere.
The montage sequence surrounding a train journey starts with this shot. An all too brief glimpse of an ex-LNWR ‘Claughton’ 4-6-0. And yes they are faces bottom right (Barbara Everest and Glynis Johns). This appears to be the shot of a Claughton on Dillicar Troughs. If so, then it has appeared in Thunder in the City (1937), The Ware Case (1938), The Common Touch (1941), and Theatre Royal (1943). By the time Frieda appeared in 1947 only one remained in service.
The second shot is of this express passing over-the-camera, the loco of which is probably an LMS 4-6-0 (the bracing on the right could be part of a girder bridge)
The third shot features an unrebuilt LMS ‘Royal Scot’, a shot that is also seen in Dreaming (1944) and The Hangman Waits (also 1947)
And the final shot from the montage is of a ‘Black Five’ 4-6-0 bursting out of a tunnel
The railway journey ends with this lovely shot of M7 0-4-4T No.378 at the little seen Shalford station in Surrey, here playing the part of ‘Denfield’
