Mild-mannered bookkeeper Kees Popinga lives a mundane life and dreams about the places he can go on the trains that travel through his hometown of Groningen, Holland. But when a French police detective shows up at his firm to inspect the books, Popinga’s unremarkable existence is instantly altered, and he soon finds himself on the way to Paris with a suitcase of cash, on the run from the law and entranced by a strange and beautiful woman.
Based on the 1938 novel by Georges Simenon—the author who created fictional sleuth Jules Maigret, and whose books like The Man on the Eiffel Tower and The Brothers Rico were also adapted for the big screen—The Man Who Watched Trains Go By casts beloved Warner Bros. character actor Claude Rains (Mr. Skeffington) as the meek Popinga. The supporting cast includes Herbert Lom, Marta Toren and Anouk Aimee… with appearances by such solid British veterans as Felix Aylmer, Marius Goring, Lucie Mannheim and Ferdy Mayne.
For thoughts on The Man Who Watched Trains Go By, please check out my piece on The Video Attic here.
Video Quality
The Man Who Watched Trains Go By makes its Blu-Ray debut thanks to ClassicFlix with a brand new 1080p master that largely looks very good. The restored transfer shows off a great amount of depth and enhanced detail within the film’s composition. The lovely Technicolor photography shines in high definition with a nicely suffused palette and natural grain intact. There are slight variations in color temperature depending on the scene, but not so much that you are majorly distracted. There is a pleasing amount of detail present with nice textures on the clothing and within the production design. Black levels are strong with no noticeable occurrence of black crush or compression artifacts. The white levels do not exhibit much in the way of blooming, and the natural film grain resolves well throughout most of the runtime. The track does experience a small amount of damage and scratches. ClassicFlix has done a pretty solid job with this one overall in a way that fans should appreciate.
Audio Quality
The Blu-Ray comes with a mostly pleasant DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio track that serves this movie as well as can be expected given the age of the source material. This track does present with a minor amount of age related wear and tear and some slightly harsh sounding music in the upper registers. The music never overpowers the dialogue or other important information, and the score itself goes really well with the film. Dialogue and background noises are represented in perfect harmony with all competing elements including the sounds of the titular trains. There are optional English (SDH) subtitles included for the feature film. The folks at ClassicFlix have done their best to provide an enjoyable sounding release.
Special Features
There are no special features provided on this disc.
Final Thoughts
The Man Who Watched Trains Go By is a forgotten thriller that keeps you transfixed throughout its brief runtime. The performance from Claude Rains alone is reason enough to give this one a spin, as he delivers a fully committed performance that should be discussed more within his body of work. The film is nimbly constructed from a technical perspective with the set and costume design making an impression, not to mention the tight editing of the narrative. ClassicFlix has released a Blu-Ray featuring a pleasing A/V presentation but nothing in the way of special features. Recommended
The Man Who Watched Trains Go By is currently available to purchase on Blu-Ray and DVD.
Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.
Disclaimer: ClassicFlix has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.
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Dillon is most comfortable sitting around in a theatre all day watching both big budget and independent movies.
