1953
Charles Crichton
A comical and delightful tale of community spirit, written by celebrated Ealing regular and Academy Award Winner T.E.B. Clarke (The Lavender Hill Mob, Barnacle Bill) and directed by Charles Crichton (A Fish Called Wanda, The Lavender Hill Mob).
Originally released in 1953, The Titfield Thunderbolt follows the consequences of when the Government-run, British Railways Service announce the closure of the line linking rural Titfield to Mallingford – the only line the Titfield inhabitants rely on to commute to work and transport their produce to market. A group of the local village residents make a bid to run it themselves, backed by a massively wealthy member of the community attracted to the complete lack of alcohol licensing hours on trains.
Unfortunately their decision puts them into direct competition with the local bus company and soon enough, a whole array of comically genius anarchy and madness ensues, including cunning sabotage and thrilling adventures.
Written By T.E.B Clarke
The Titfield Thunderbolt restoration was completed at Pinewood Studios in high definition using the best original film materials available. After rigorous assessment, the best material for restoration, which was used was the fine-grain inter-positive and scanned in 2k definition. Over 40 hours were spent to ensure a thorough clean up was performed removing dirt, scratches, warps, tears or replacing torn or missing frames and improving stability issues for the digital restoration, ensuring the general look of the film does not stray too far from the original release, particularly with reference to the day for night scenes.
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