Once Upon a Classic (TV Series) Night Ferry (1977) User Reviews

Enjoyable crime adventure from CFF

[chris_gaskin123 · 7/10 · 18 November 2013]

Night Ferry has recently been released on DVD in the UK as part of BFI's Children's Film Foundation Collection. I quite enjoyed this one.

3 children try to foil a robbery involving a tomb and Ejyption mummy. These are being kept by a gang in a lock up in Clapham and the gang are intending to smuggle them abroad. So, there is now plenty of chasing and train rides including a trip on the London-Paris Night Ferry service...

An excellent little movie, the best things about this are the location shots including Victoria Station and a rather rundown area of Clapham. With loads of train scenes, this should also appeal to railway enthusiasts like myself. We get to see what could be some of the final moving footage of the Night Ferry service before it was axed in 1980.

A good cast includes the excellent Bernard Cribbens (The Wombles, The Railway Children, Daleks Invasion Earth 2150 AD) and Aubrey Morris as 2 of the gang members.

Rating: 4 stars out of 5.

Realistic Snapshot of the 1970s

[nigel_hawkes · 6/10 · 14 July 2022]

When I checked this out (on a UK free TV channel) the colour made me fear that this would be a glossy, "modern" kids' film. However, I was wrong-this is firmly in the original CFF mode-gritty, realistic, skinny kids making their own amusements on "deprived" streets, or the older one helping out at a mobile caff; plenty of corrugated iron fences surrounding the sort of businesses that councils would later drive away by "improving" the areas; and some railway arch establishments!

There is also good footage of a London station and the old night train service. Plenty of old cars to recognise, and shop fronts and advertising.

Add to this loads of recognisable character actors like Aubrey Morris and Bernard Cribbins, and plucky acting by the kids, and one has here a quite enjoyable little picture.

At one point it gets quite dark when the baddies discuss drugging one of the kids and chucking him in the sea! A moment out of place that almost spoils the fun...

Night Ferry

[CinemaSerf · 7/10 · 3 June 2023]

This is quite a jolly children's crime caper that sees two young lads and their pal "Carol" on the trail of some miscreants that have pinched a sarcophagus and are intent on smuggling it out on the night ferry (actually the boat train) to a buyer in Paris. It's a simple enough story well anchored by stalwart Bernard Cribbins and with three engaging performances from the teenagers using their ingenuity and tenaciousness to thwart the crooks. The comedy tends a little to slapstick at times, but director David Eady manages to keep the pace going along well and the kids have their fair share of near misses, red herrings and journeys on smelly, noisy - and draughty - British railways diesel trains. The scripting is fine and the score adds a fun aspect to an enjoyable hour of light-hearted nostalgia. Good fun!

Night Ferry

[Prismark10 · 4/10 · 14 May 2021]

This is one of the lesser known Children's Film Foundation titles.

Night Ferry stars Bernard Cribbins as a leader of a gang of thieves who is also a master of disguise.

He has robbed a priceless Egyptian sarcophagus and has an ingenious plan to take it out of Britain to France on the night ferry.

Jeff is the boy who stumbles on to the plan. He and his friends try to stop the Egyptian sarcophagus to be taken out of the country.

There is a lot of location filming in various parts of London. The film is passable but it is a little too basic.

Like a other kids own adventures, the various children band together to stop the robbers and enlist the help of adults who will believes them.

Cribbins enjoys himself as the cunning and ruthless robber.

BERNARD Cribbins at his best!

[spidargirl · 9/10 · 26 April 2021]

Great 70s Saturday morning colour film set in Clapham U. K and Victoria Station Wonderful reminder of the area by the railway arches. Spot the actors who went on to other things Including Colin Jefford.

The story is the usual children versus the crooks.

Well paced, just one hour long.

Good to share with the grandchildren.

Tired and formulaic

[malcolmgsw · 5/10 · 5 July 2021]

The CFF had been making films with this sort of plot for 25 years. The comedy just doesn't come off..The only points are of seeing the Victoria area as it was in the seventies and the long defunct boat train service to Paris..The children seem to get on and off trains with impugnity.

Another CFF triumph.

[plan99 · 10/10 · 5 May 2021]

Another CFF film ticked off my list to see all them and this was a great one. Plenty going on with no dull sections and nice to see cars from the 1970s and before moving and parked in glorious colour.

Watchable kids film.

[gnok2002 · 4/10 · 21 April 2013]

I will post a review of any film that I've seen, that at time of my posting lacks one, what follows is my brief note I made when I saw the film on Aug 14th 1993 on Irish TV (RTE2)...

Watchable CFF (children's film foundation) film in which a few kids attempt to foil a plan to steal an Egyptian mummy and sneak it out of the country.

I can't add anything now almost 20 years on I don't recall it, I would point out that though it may have been used as part of a TV series in the USA these CFF films were made for and shown in the cinema in the UK. If you think that I have written too much that is about my review, rather than the review itself, then I agree but for reasons I don't understand IMDb insist that reviews be a minimum of 10 lines! Why?

Another strong instalment

[Leofwine_draca · 8/10 · 16 May 2021]

Another strong Children's Film Foundation movie of the 1970s. This one has a surprisingly sinister Bernard Cribbins on top form as a thief planning to transport a priceless Egyptian mummy out of the country via an elaborate plan involving the titular transport. The usual gang of kids (led by Dexter Fletcher's brother) have to stop him. It's well made and inventive stuff, high in suspense and with lots of unusual situations and larger than life characterisations (including Aubrey Morris) to see it through.

A "ripping yarn" spliced into a documentary about the railways of the 1970s

[deanlane · 8/10 · 14 March 2023]

It's a simple story, but for me this is also a fascinating record of the way things were on British Rail in the 1970s. The film gets off to a great start, with a young lad trespassing in a railway yard to try and find his model aeroplane. It's a hump yard, where wagons are sorted by pushing them over a low hill and letting them run down into different sidings. He has no idea of the danger he's put himself into but fast cutting makes it all very real and alarming, for me at any rate. Ducking between wagons, even when they're stationary, can have tragic consequences.

The actual story, of smuggling on the London to Paris Night Ferry train, is of less interest but no doubt entertained the film's intended audience. Older viewers will appreciate seeing the late Bernard Cribbins playing a much more menacing character than Mr Perks in The Railway Children, and going through a wide variety of costumes and accents to avoid detection. And he has the last words in the film, a great one-liner.

The film was "made entirely on location", and the railway settings are all genuine (made with the co-operation of British Rail and the Wagons-Lits company, say the credits). There always seems to be a train passing in the background: even the breakdown train with its rail-borne crane makes an appearance. Continuity is good, with no use of unrelated stock footage - though the loco that brings the sleeping cars into Dover disappears rather abruptly, just before the final chase sequence. It's just a pity that we don't see those carriages being shunted onto the ferry.

All the actors, children included, put in credible performances, though of course it's Cribbins and Morris who steal the show.