the audience applauded

Instant Favorite.

I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

The third Inspector Hornleigh film is not up the standards of the previous two films, partly as it is now set in wartime and involves fifth columnists rather than being a straightforward mystery. The early part where Hornleigh and Sergeant Bingham go undercover in the army is dull but once the first murder occurs it picks up steam until the mail train climax. The humour is still there but story is not as gripping as the first two films.Harker and Sim do enact Hornleigh and Bingham like seasoned performers and play off each other peerlessly. Phyllis Calvert and Edward Chapman are wasted but reliable players like Raymond Huntley, Wally Patch,Betty Jardine and Bill Shine are effortlessly watchable. The great Cyril Cusack plays an early role as a postal worker.There is a framing device to the film in which Inspector Hornleigh dictates his memoirs to Sergeant Bingham which gives a feeling of rounding of this series of films. It's a shame there were no more done.

Let me join other reviewers in praising this fast-paced and witty thriller featuring strong characters. Scotland Yard, rather than a hive of ruthless efficiency, is populated by posturing egomaniacs, yet Gordon Harker and Alastair Sim get their man (and his very glamorous sidekick) in the end. While their time in the Army may drag a bit nowadays, then it was part of the nation's collective experience and a suitable case for affectionate satire. Once our pair are on the trail of the spies, things move faster and the other settings of creepy dentist's house, eccentric boarding school, country hotel and final mail train are all well evoked. Enjoyable double entendre abounds whenever Sim encounters a good-looking woman. My favourite is Phyllis Calvert as the dentist's apparent widow, who promises him she will hide nothing as she takes off her cloak and puts her décolletage under his nose. When shortly after that she disappears with the contents of the murdered dentist's safe, it is handy for her that Sim had previously disabled the alarm.So many characters to applaud that I'll just give a special mention to Raymond Huntly for relentless sneering as principal villain: it takes a real professional to keep it up.

This film, "Mail Train", is also known as "Inspector Hornleigh Goes to It". The Inspector (Gordon Harker) is a very talented but very serf-assured member of Scotland Yard. Through much of the film you doubt his competence (since he's so self-assured you can't but think he's a bumbler), but through the course of the film he proves himself to be a very capable and intelligent officer. He is assisted by Sergeant Bingham (Alastair Sim)--a more bumbling sidekick I cannot recall! The film begins with the two being assigned to a rather dull case involving tracking down missing supplies from the army--stuff that's gone missing and probably found its way to the black market. However, along the way the case diverges to a ring of so-called 'fifth columnists'--spies working for the Nazis. At this point in the film, Hornleigh uses his wits and through some good detective work is able to learn about an ingenious German method for smuggling information out of the country. About that time, bumbling Bingham is captured by the enemy and Hornleigh rises to the occasion--in a rousing ending to this exciting film."Mail Train" rather surprised me. At first, I wasn't all that impressed by the film but through the course of it, good writing, an excellent mystery and a nice blend of comedy (Sim) and action made this a very good WWII propaganda film. Very nice....I just hope I can find copies of the other two Hornleigh films Gordon Harker made.

Having never seen the other 'Inspector Hornleigh' flicks I was unsure what to expect here, which sure made it all the more exciting. Harker was splendid as the droll Hornleigh but definite kudos go to Sim, his side-kick Bingham, who blunders his way through to heroics each time. The plot is your average war-spy-drama - who is sending the secret code to the Germans and how are they doing it? - but this is easily one of the better of the genre. It was also fascinating to see sweet little Phyllis Calvert playing an out-and-out bad girl. It's a shame she didn't get to play more of the same type of role!