JOHNNY, YOU’RE WANTED

GB
1956
1hr 10mins
Dir: Vernon Sewell
Starring: John Slater and Alfred Marks

A long-distance lorry driver returning to London gives a lift to a woman who later turns up dead

This crime B-movie climaxes with the criminal escaping on a boat train to Southampton. The railway journey features a studio-bound carriage with two very dark shots of passing expresses, one of which is an LMS service possibly hauled by either a ‘Patriot’ or a ‘Royal Scot’. The police board the train at ‘Otterbourne’ where an express pulls in hauled by ex-Southern Railway streamlined ‘Merchant Navy’ Class 4-6-2 No.35025 Brocklebank Line. However, the shots were filmed at night and identification of the station is thus very difficult. However, it was not Otterbourne because the Hampshire village never had a railway station! There is also a shot earlier on in the film of the frontage to Bayswater Underground station.

The entrance to Bayswater Underground station on Queensway
A police car pulls up outside an unknown station
An LMS express crosses a bridge. This shot was later reused in the 1958 musical Six-Five Special but was edited to show just the carriages.
Another express passes over a level crossing
The locomotive briefly comes into view. This shot is actually used twice in the film, the second time in reverse. It would then go on to appear in Six-Five Special (1958), Snowball (1960 also in reverse) and The Mind Benders (1963).
A police car pulls up outside the fictitious ‘Otterbourne’ station. If this is a real station, then it appears to be different to the one shown previously above.
The view of the platforms of the unknown station. The conductor rail can at least narrow things down to the Southern Region.
‘Merchant Navy’ No.35025 Brocklebank Line pulls in on its train (interestingly, the police board a Royal Mail coach that is behind the tender but not seen here). The locomotive is still with us, as it is one of the eleven class members that have been preserved.