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The Ghost Train 1941 ★★★½
Ninety percent comedy and ten percent forties horror, which means a lot of description and little action. With the biggest stunt being a train driving off a bridge.
The characters fit together well. Peter Murray-Hill is good as the impatient Winthrop, but it's Arthur Askey who steals the show as comedian Tommy Gander. A chatterbox performance that reminded me of Rodney Dangerfield's cameo on The Simpsons. Or Donkey from the Shrek franchise. Same level of amusing for the viewer, same level of annoying for the other characters.
An enjoyable comedy for fans of this style. And available on YouTube.
Dial M for Murder 1954 ★★★★
On the heels of strangers on a train, this was one of his first thriller masterpieces. Which raises an interesting question: Was SOAT actually his first masterpiece or did something come before that that you would rate just as high?
This movie is brilliant. It takes its time on setting up the main characters and the premise. The story where the main character talks Halliday into killing his wife is an excellent piece of acting and screenwriting. The actual kill scene still holds up with a perfectly laid plan going to waste. And that trial montage... that's some scary shit, man.
Not to mention the great performance of the actor playing the cop. In a very credible way, he shows that he is on to the trick being played and that he will prove it. Showing a type of theatrical tension later perfected in Columbo. Or the writing on how they set a JB Fletcher-like trick to capture Toni. Seeing it spring is cinema at it's finest. Being sucked in, kind of knowing what's coming and still being on the edge of your seat rooting for the heroes.
And your cameo is even more subtle than in your other movies. Hat off to you, mister Hitchcock.
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