"The Titfield Thunderbolt" is about a village community that does not accept the closing down of the local train service. They decide to operate the train by themselves. For this they need a savety license. Their own amateurism and the resistance of a bus company smelling a monopoly are their main enemies in getting this license.
"The Titfield Thunderbolt" is typical Ealing, but it is not their best comedy. Films such as "Kind hearts and coronets" (1949, Robert Hamer) and "The ladykillers" (1955, Alexander Mackendrick) are clearly superior. Neither is the film the best one of director Charles Crichton, who made also "The Lavender Hill mob" (1951).
Typical Ealing is the porochial approacht, but this can be taken too far and then becomes old fashioned. Compared with the above mentioned titles "The Titfield Thunderbolt" is too well behaved and desperately in need of a spicy ellement.
"The Titfield Thunderbolt" will certainly be to the taste of lovers of '50s nostalgia. It has however also more recent connotations from the 21st century. The sympathy for initiatives by citizens themselves and the resistance against (the local influence) of decisions taken in far away headquarters has been on the rise since the financial crisis of 2008 and the decline of the neo liberal ideas.
"The Titfield Thunderbolt" is typical Ealing, but it is not their best comedy. Films such as "Kind hearts and coronets" (1949, Robert Hamer) and "The ladykillers" (1955, Alexander Mackendrick) are clearly superior. Neither is the film the best one of director Charles Crichton, who made also "The Lavender Hill mob" (1951).
Typical Ealing is the porochial approacht, but this can be taken too far and then becomes old fashioned. Compared with the above mentioned titles "The Titfield Thunderbolt" is too well behaved and desperately in need of a spicy ellement.
"The Titfield Thunderbolt" will certainly be to the taste of lovers of '50s nostalgia. It has however also more recent connotations from the 21st century. The sympathy for initiatives by citizens themselves and the resistance against (the local influence) of decisions taken in far away headquarters has been on the rise since the financial crisis of 2008 and the decline of the neo liberal ideas.