Tonight's Movie: Lady on a Train (1945) - A Kino Lorber Blu-ray Review

One of my most favorite Deanna Durbin films, LADY ON A TRAIN (1945), has just been released on Blu-ray by Kino Lorber.

Although Kino Lorber did not follow its first volume of Deanna Durbin films, released in 2020, with a second set, I'm thrilled that LADY ON A TRAIN has been released as part of Kino Lorber's Dark Side of Cinema IX collection.

LADY ON A TRAIN is probably the Durbin film I've seen most; I first reviewed it here in 2009 and have seen it several times since, including on a big screen at the 2017 Noir City Film Festival.

Another of my repeat viewings came in 2015, when I reviewed the film for the ClassicFlix site; I shared an updated version of that review here in 2018. Clearly, having seen it so many times, this is a film I love and recommend!

I've been thrilled to see this film appear regularly in the Christmas movie rotation at Turner Classic Movies over the last few years. As I wrote in 2018, "...it's a giddy mashup of murder mystery, screwball comedy, and musical, with the added plus of being set during the Christmas season."

Given how frequently I've written about this film over the years, I'll keep my comments here relatively brief and refer readers to the links above for plot specifics and my analysis of the film. Suffice it to say that Deanna is absolutely wonderful playing a "Nancy Drew" type character who happens to witness a murder when her train stops at a station.

As she attempts to bring the killer to justice, she interacts with a variety of entertaining characters played by David Bruce, Dan Duryea, Patricia Morison, Edward Everett Horton, Ralph Bellamy, Allen Jenkins, George Coulouris, and more. Viewers will also find plenty of familiar faces in small roles, including William Frawley, George Chandler, Jane Adams, Barbara Bates, and Sam McDaniel.

And of course -- Deanna sings! She has a wonderful variety of songs in this film, ranging from "Silent Night" to "Night and Day" to "Give Me a Little Kiss."

It's a giddy, fast-paced 94 minutes directed by Deanna's future husband, Charles David, and filmed in lovely black and white by Woody Bredell. Deanna's wardrobe by Howard Greer is a stunner. The background score was composed by Miklos Rozsa.

The only extras on this nice-looking disc are trailers, but having this film on Blu-ray is pleasure enough for me. A couple of the scenes are momentarily soft, which I seem to also recall from the DVD, so that might be inherent to the source material. Overall it looks and sounds great.

I've previously reviewed the other two films in this set, TANGIER (1946) and TAKE ONE FALSE STEP (1949), and I particularly enjoyed the former title, a "B" thriller starring Maria Montez. Both films make fun "extras" to watch along with the gem of this collection, LADY ON A TRAIN.

Thanks to Kino Lorber for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray.

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