Director Charles Crichton and writer Tibby Clarke team up again for the first Ealing comedy to be produced in Technicolor. When an antiquated railway line is threatened with closure, the villagers decide to run it themselves and enter into frenzied competition with the local bus route, with hilarious consequences. The defiance of authority by local inhabitants was a favourite topic in the 40's and 50's and embellishes the characteristic Ealing theme ? 'small is beautiful and big is bad'. viewer's comments: - Patriotism of the best sort As you may gather from my signature i have railways in my blood,so it is practically inevitable that i love this movie.However it is more than a simple comedy about a village trying to save its railway branch line,though that would be good enough.It is also a picture of a time when a way of life was about to disappear with the railways,a time when people had good manners and treated each other with respect.A time also when to love your country didn"t open you to the charge of xenophobia.The cast are just fabulous with Hugh Griffith as Dan being the funniest,and a youngish Sid James [who always looked 55] before his Carry On heyday! The star is the countryside in beautiful Technicolour and funnily enough my favourite scene is a minor one; its where a girl in a summer dress is running down a hill to see the "Thunderbolt" go past! Now some good news; a couple of years ago i set out to walk the Limpley Stoke-Camerton line where the line was filmed,and was amazed to find how much was unchanged.Apart from the missing track,the cricket field [with the road viaduct behind] was exactly the same and at Monkton Combe [Titfield] the huge iron gateposts are still there.Anyone wanting to do the same should alight at Freshford station near Bath,walk through the lovely village past "Mr Valentines House" then to Limpley Stoke Station and follow the line from there.Like the film you"ll love it! -Lost in the mists of times-gone-bye! Electronic links lead me to a site which reveals that the VHS video of this charming comedy is available only in the PAL format, not compatible with the equipment most of us in the U.S. own. How unfortunate, for I remember seeing this many years ago on a TV broadcast and was delighted with that inimitable brand of English wit that transported me to a countryside and a wonderful group of people who were so uniquely British and so utterly fascinating to a young American who was (and is) unendingly interested in what else there is in the world beyond the borders of the continental U.S.A. Reading the other comments that have been posted by those who reside in Great Britain, it's distressing to read that the depredations of the big money men laid waste traditions and conveniences that at one time so enhanced daily life there. You probably know about the parallels here where vast networks of rail communications and transport, including many minimally polluting streetcar lines in many U.S. cities were intentionally destroyed by those whose motive was short-term profit and the enrichment of the Detroit automakers and their nefarious bedfellows, the oil company executives, who even today are assisting in embroiling both of our nations in horrendously costly and destructive conflicts (notwithstanding that there may, indeed, be some reasons for protecting ourselves against the mounting threats of technologically-assisted terror.) One thing I do recall about this film was the incredibly beautiful use of "Colour by Technicolor." Hollywood cinematographers, at their best, rarely matched what their English counterparts often achieved. (Was it the addition of the letter "u" in that first word?) I've seen many others of the most famous Ealing comedies and every one of them was an entertainment experience that I savored then and which I often return to on those videos in my library that can be slipped into my non-PAL format equipment. Cheers! and Thanksalot! - It's A Wonderful Ride. I'll tell you- when you finished seeing an Ealing comedy, you walked out of there with a little spring in your step. This one is a tale of the lovely English village of Titfield, and its close-knit residents who are suddenly faced with losing a piece of their history. The distant authorities have planned the imminent abandonment of their historic branch-line railway, which had been built by a forefather of the village rector. The community protests, but the die seems to have been cast, and the clash of wills intensifies. The "Thunderbolt" of the title is the railway's original locomotive, which is eventually pulled from its graceful museum retirement, fired up, and pressed back into service by the desperate villagers. Heady material, indeed. Now, this could have been a cardboard, slapstick farce.... but Ealing always did things right. We feel the residents' deep sense of impending community loss as they work together against time to stave off the forces of apathy and of mercenary gain aligned against them. That means, of course, we'll be sharing their final trump over all the bad guys and naysayers. (Come on, you knew they'd win.) Are there really places like Titfield out there? (Or Bedford Falls, or the other stick-together hometowns that Frank Capra would tell us of?) At least we can all become honorary citizens for an hour or two. And I've revisited Titfield many times. Highly recommended to all. cast: Stanley Holloway .... Valentine George Relph .... Sam Weech Naunton Wayne .... George Blakeworth John Gregson .... Gordon Godfrey Tearle .... Ollie Matthews, Bishop of Welchester Hugh Griffith .... Dan Gabrielle Brune .... Joan Sid James .... Hawkins (as Sidney James). Runtime: 84 min Country: UK Language: English Colour (Technicolor)
