Deanna Durbin is a "Lady on a Train" in this 1945 mystery/comedy also starring David Bruce, Dan Duryea Edward Everett Horton, Ralph Bellamy, Patricia Morison, and George Coulouris. The film is directed by Durbin's future husband, Charles David.

Photographed and wardrobed like the great star she was, Durbin plays Nikki Collins, a débutante who comes to New York to spend the Christmas holidays with her aunt. On the train en route to Grand Central, she looks out the window and sees the murder of an old man. Determined to investigate, she appeals to the mystery writer whose novel she was reading (Bruce). She nearly wrecks his life. His fiancée (Patricia Morison) is suspicious of Nikki, and thanks to Nikki, he gets beat up a lot. Meanwhile, her father's assistant (Horton) can never find her. Nikki finds herself involved with the victim's money-grubbing family and puts herself in danger.

A screwball comedy with the delightful Durbin doing a great job, singing like a dream, and looking fabulous. It's very slight but fun and directed by David with a good pace. The child Durbin was a little manic for me, but I love her adult work. Plus, she had possibly the best voice and best trained voice in films. The rest of the cast is wonderful, particularly David Bruce as the hapless author.

It's a shame that Universal, with such a valuable commodity, didn't buy and/or develop better properties for her. Durbin is often compared with Judy Garland, who definitely got better treatment at MGM.

Durbin was smart to retire while at the top, though with the coming musicals of the '50s, I'm sure her star would have risen even higher. In many hearts, 60 years later, she's still a star.

As I read through the reviews for "Lady on a Train", I was very surprised at how positive they were. After all, I thought the movie was poorly written and, at times, a bit dumb. Sure, the actors tried their best (it did have a pretty impressive supporting cast for Deanna Durbin), but the film often just made little sense.

When the film begins, Nikki Collins (Durbin) is on a train bound for New York. However, at one of the stops, she sees a man being killed outside her window. Does she pull the emergency cord to alert the driver to stop? Nope. Does she make the conductor stop the train? Nope. Instead, she waits until the train arrives at the station and then goes to the nearest police station--and babbles like an idiot and explains what she saw in a very poor manner. Naturally, the policeman at the desk thought she was a nut. Does she go to another cop or another police station? Nope...she decides to find a mystery writer and get his help!!! He tells her to go to the cops--and instead she runs off on some insane lark to investigate the case for herself!

Soon Nikki reads that the man she saw murdered was a rich guy who's allegedly died by falling off a ladder. So, she tells the cops, right? Nope. Instead, she sneaks onto the dead guy's property and is nearly torn apart by guard dogs. When she is discovered, the guy who found her thinks she's come for the reading of the will--and she then poses as Margo Martin--the nightclub singer who is about to inherit everything! Not surprisingly, this offers her a chance to sing a few songs at the nightclub--where no one (including the band) seemed to notice that she wasn't Margo! Huh?!

There's a lot more to it than this. However, whether you'll care will depend on if you buy the story. I didn't. I hate a film where repeatedly the viewer needs to accept that the leading character NEVER behaves rationally or makes normal decisions. It made watching the film a real chore for me--though as I said before, most reviews on IMDb are very, very favorable. The bottom line is how willing are you to suspend disbelief? And, how much do you adore Miss Durbin? If the answer to both is yes--than by all means watch and most likely you'll enjoy the film. I just couldn't get past the sub-par writing and Durbin deserved better. For me, it's a watchable time-passer and not much more.

It's another Christmas holiday for Deanna Durbin, and this time, she's got a fun script and the perfect atmosphere. She's just passing 125th Street when she witnesses a man being bludgeoned with a crowbar. Reading a murder mystery novel at the time before she glances out at East Harlem, she is full of ideas of how to solve the crime on her own. Through the aide and blockage of a superb supporting cast, Durbin turns this into a very entertaining mystery comedy with a few songs added. Coming from the A unit of a B grade studio that specialized in similar situations in their bottom of the bill programmers, this is the type of crowd pleaser that I will be reminded of every time I walk underneath the trestle at 125th and Park Avenue, just down the street from where I live.

Durbin is continuing to play the ambitious "Little Miss Fix It" whose determination to become involved in her favorite passion (crime solving) and becoming a thorn of the sides of everyone she crosses. There's David Bruce, the poor mystery novelist he stalks; Patricia Morison, a glamorous actress. Jacqueline De Witt as his Eve Arden like secretary; Edward Everett Horton as her father's nervous assistant; Elizabeth Patterson as the imperious sister of the murder victim (Thurston Hall), and William Frawley as a harassed cop. Crashing the reading of Hall's will, she becomes involved more than she intended, encountering Ralph Bellamy as Hall's flip nephew and Dan Duryea as his seemingly shady brother, Maria Palmer as a nightclub singer who got more than just flowers from the deceased, with Allen Jenkins as the chauffeur, all a bit suspicious as potential suspects.

With a cast like this (which I've edited due to space issues), it seems a bit overstuffed by talent, yet the spooky atmosphere mixed with comedy makes this a top of the line variation of "The Cat and the Canary" theme. Durbin once again proves what an able comedian she could be, whether pretending to be a comfy chair (complete with seat cover) or giving a hard time to the always in the wrong spot Horton. She sings a Beautiful version of "Silent Night" during a call to her unseen father as the sinister Jenkins stalks her. She then sings a sultry "Gimme a Little Kiss" at a nightclub after locking Palmer in her closet. This is one of Durbin's best films, certainly close to the top as she began to wrap up her film career. A perfect rainy day diversion for any season, actually night or day.