The Interrupted Journey

The Interrupted Journey
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Daniel Birt
Produced by	Anthony Havelock-Allan
Written by	Michael Pertwee
Starring	Richard Todd Valerie Hobson Christine Norden Tom Walls
Music by	Stanley Black
Cinematography	Erwin Hillier
Edited by	Danny Chorlton
Production company	Valiant Films
Distributed by	British Lion Film Corporation
Release date	12 October 1949
Running time	80 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Box office	£126,179 (UK)

The Interrupted Journey is a 1949 British thriller film directed by Daniel Birt and starring Valerie Hobson, Richard Todd, Christine Norden and Tom Walls. In the film, a man fleeing with his mistress narrowly escapes a train crash after he pulls the emergency cord and is wracked with guilt. The railways scenes were shot at Longmoor in Hampshire. The film bore a tragic resemblance to the Winsford train crash only the year before in which 24 people died.

John North, a struggling writer, is running away with his mistress. After meeting her in London he is sure they are being followed both in the street and at the railway cafe where they have a cup of tea. Once they are on the train he still can't rid himself of his unease as they sit discussing their new life together. Once she is asleep, North goes out into the corridor to try and gather his thoughts and it is then he again sees the man he believes has been following them. In a fit of panic, North pulls the communication cord and jumps off the train. By chance the train is stopped just a couple of minutes away from his house. When he gets there he finds his wife, Carol, waiting for him as usual, as though nothing were wrong. Feeling a burst of fresh affection for her, he embraces her.

As they are embracing the sound of a massive train crash reaches the house. Carol immediately runs to help the victims, while John stands there stunned as he realizes it is the train he has just left that has been involved in the disaster. After they run down to help North walks amidst the chaos and from a shattered carriage he catches sight of a lifeless arm sticking out of the wreckage that clearly belongs to his lover Susan Wilding. She and everybody else in the carriage has been killed in the collision. North chooses to say nothing about his presence on the train to his wife, maintaining that he returned from London by road.

Over the next few days North is guilt-ridden as the details of the crash emerge. After the train stopped when he pulled the cord, it was struck by a goods train. There are dozens dead and injured and bodies are still being dug out from the wreckage. North's problems increase with the appearance of Clayton, an idiosyncratic British Railways crash inspector, who begins to ask questions that clearly unnerve North. North denies any connection with anyone on the train, although Clayton has recovered documents connecting North and his mistress which were found on the man who had been following them, a private detective hired by her husband, who had also died in the crash.