Often paired with the recently-viewed NIGHT MAIL (1936) – since both deal with trains – this one is clearly the superior film, however, for several reasons. To begin with is the fact that it keeps the commuters (each with their own more than literal baggage – more on this later), filling up Waterloo Station all day long, at its centre rather than concentrating extensively on the workings of the machinery (with flesh- and-blood individuals reduced to mere cyphers serving as the means to an end)! Also, being the award-winning debut of director Schlesinger – soon to be among the leading exponents of the British New Wave (itself a dated commodity, to be sure, but undeniably more appetizing) – events are filtered through with that distinctive sensibility (as opposed to emulating the Soviet style of montage)! Among the more memorable 'characters' on display are a young boy who goes missing in the terminus, an elderly lady complaining that a particular train she has been catching for years did not turn up on the day – while the station official attending her insists such a timetable never existed(!), and another woman way past her prime scrounging for food in the dust-bins littering (pardon the pun) the place.
Review of Terminus
