GB
1955
1hr 37mins
Dir: José Ferrer
Starring: Trevor Howard and José Ferrer
A fictionalised account of Operation Frankton, the December 1942 raid by canoe-borne British commandos on shipping in Bordeaux Harbour
Part of the plot of this war drama centres on the Marines undergoing training, including a cross-country ingenuity exercise in which some of the characters get a ride home by train. Featured in this long running montage are quite a number of very good railway scenes that include, in order: an ex-SR S15 Class 4-6-0 on a freight passing beneath Chertsey Road between Addlestone and Chertsey stations in Surrey; some very good shots of the closed Fort Brockhurst station on the Gosport branch with ex-LSWR T9 Class 4-4-0 No.30729 skipping through tender first with a single PMV in tow; a scene looking down on Chertsey station with a 2 BIL EMU arriving in the platform on Headcode 18 (Waterloo-Weybridge via Richmond); a shot of Shepperton station with pre-war Southern coaching stock pulling away; and ex-LNER F5 Class 2-4-2T No.67208 (with yellow smokebox number plate?) on a local passenger service at North Woolwich station in East London. For a film set in World War Two, all the trains that feature are in the BR era, but at least there are some rare colour images. Fort Brockhurst, for instance, had closed to passengers in 1953 two years before filming, and North Woolwich has also now gone, closed to passengers in 2006. Most film posters depict the film title without the definite article.