Lady of the Train

1952 [ARABIC]

Crime / Drama / Musical

17
IMDb Rating 5.6/10 10 156 156

black and white أبيض وأسود

Plot summary

Fikria is a singer who's married to Farid ,the gambling addict. When she's traveling by train, she gets in an accident and a peasant treats her. After she returns home,her husband asks her to stay hidden to get the insurance money to pay for his gambling debts.

720p.WEB 1080p.WEB
876.24 MB
1008*720
Arabic 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
25 fps
1 hr 35 min
Seeds ...
1.59 GB
1512*1080
Arabic 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
25 fps
1 hr 35 min
Seeds ...

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by gbill-74877 7 / 10

Falters in its second half

Such a strong start to this one, with an elegant singer (Leila Mourad) married to a gambling addict (Yehia Chahine, the director's cousin) who puts them in a difficult position with his losses. Mourad's musical performances are highlighted throughout the film and are generally heartfelt; though the ode to the emerging Egyptian textile industry was a little odd, it may have had something to do with political events that year (see below). Anyway, when tragedy strikes in the form of a train accident, her husband seeks to profit from it, oblivious to her feelings for her daughter.The film could have really gone to some dark places with its noirish setup, but faltered badly in its second half, starting with the voiceover narration that tells us twenty years have passed. From there it devolves into melodrama, and there are just too many contrived aspects to how the plot treats the now older singer, e.g. That she doesn't simply reveal her identity, that her own family don't recognize her, and that she martyrs herself. There is a little bit of everything peppered in here - comedy, romance, musical, and melodrama, and the film needed focus.I still liked it for its window into Egypt in 1952, the year of the revolution against King Farouk which marked the first time Egypt ruled itself since Cleopatra lost the Battle of Actium in 30 BC. I don't know if the film came out before or after the revolution, but there are signs of censorship, like something on the wall in an office that was manually scratched out on all frames. Anyway, despite its flaws, it was interesting enough to round my review score up a bit.
Reviewed by pauluswiggus 6 / 10

Odd mix of genres

Lady of the Train tell the story of a successful singer whose is injured during a train derailment. Presumed dead, her gambling addict husband decides to claim her life insure axe to clear his debts, but soon discovers she has survived.The setup plays like a classic Hitchcock film, and at times this film feels like a 1940s film noir. However, the tension is broken by the inclusion of musical numbers and long sequences of Roman tic melodrama. The overall effect is of a film that feels like it is trying to emulate every old Hollywood movie at once. It's not entirely unsuccessful, the acting is mostly good, the production value is high and the photography is striking. Still, the film ultimately feels disjointed and confused. An intriguing if not exactly enjoyable film.
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