But ace cinematographer Freddie Young does a great job with creating a vivid nocturnal atmosphere for the Birmingham neighborhood where the train gets parked on a siding to await the defusing effort. As critic Glenn Erickson rightly mentions, “One handsome shot cranes up from the abandoned railway cars, over some walls and right to a noisy pub where the evacuation will soon begin” – this comes at the mid-point of the film, and scores not least because, like most of the tense scenes, it plays out without underscoring. Director Ted Tetzlaff is sparing of the music and employs quiet very shrewdly.
Star Glenn Ford (playing a Canadian, which he in fact was) barely appears in the first half of the short film, and the dramatic conflict with his shrewish wife (Anne Vernon) is pretty ho-hum. Overall, the movie is a minor production, but the ambience does linger.
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