The plot of this film, as best I can remember it from 67 years ago was something like this. The bad guys, and in 1941 the bad guys had no redeeming character traits, decided to rob a train because it would be carrying an unusually valuable shipment in its baggage car. They needed more time than would be allotted if they merely stopped the train to perform the dastardly deed.
What most people in the movie had forgotten about was a railroad siding that lead into a long since abandoned dead-ended tunnel. I do remember at the time that there was a logical reason for the tunnel's existence -- but 67 years! Give me a break, I don't remember what it was. Now the reason most people had forgotten about the railroad siding was that not only was the tunnel no longer of purpose but also the tracks leading into the tunnel were covered with a thin layer of sand that had simply blown over the tracks.
So the bad guys stop the train and have it backed into the tunnel, the weight of the passenger cars and engine being enough to keep it on the tracks; tracks covered with that thin covering of sand. The train was backed into the tunnel and the tunnel entrance blasted shut. The wind quickly blew more sand over the tracks hiding all evidence of a train having passed over them and into the tunnel.
Then the clever part; further up the tracks at a railroad crossing the villains set up a system of loud speakers and loudly played the sounds of the train passing by right on time at the very early AM. They telephoned a conductor living in the town, waking him so that he could hear the train go by. The train never arrived at it's destination.
Now in 1941 at 13 years old I didn't much care about Arthur Conan Doyle. I just vividly remember parts of the film and hope that some day it becomes available on DVD. It sure was exciting way back then when just about all the characters in the film "knew" the train was somewhere between points b and c and I sat there really knowing that it was in that abandoned tunnel between points a and b.
What most people in the movie had forgotten about was a railroad siding that lead into a long since abandoned dead-ended tunnel. I do remember at the time that there was a logical reason for the tunnel's existence -- but 67 years! Give me a break, I don't remember what it was. Now the reason most people had forgotten about the railroad siding was that not only was the tunnel no longer of purpose but also the tracks leading into the tunnel were covered with a thin layer of sand that had simply blown over the tracks.
So the bad guys stop the train and have it backed into the tunnel, the weight of the passenger cars and engine being enough to keep it on the tracks; tracks covered with that thin covering of sand. The train was backed into the tunnel and the tunnel entrance blasted shut. The wind quickly blew more sand over the tracks hiding all evidence of a train having passed over them and into the tunnel.
Then the clever part; further up the tracks at a railroad crossing the villains set up a system of loud speakers and loudly played the sounds of the train passing by right on time at the very early AM. They telephoned a conductor living in the town, waking him so that he could hear the train go by. The train never arrived at it's destination.
Now in 1941 at 13 years old I didn't much care about Arthur Conan Doyle. I just vividly remember parts of the film and hope that some day it becomes available on DVD. It sure was exciting way back then when just about all the characters in the film "knew" the train was somewhere between points b and c and I sat there really knowing that it was in that abandoned tunnel between points a and b.