Zeus

The Man Who Watched Trains Go By (1952)

• Director
  • Harold French
• Writers
  • Georges Simenon
  • Harold French
  • Paul Jarrico
• Stars
  • Claude Rains
  • Michael Nightingale
  • Felix Aylmer

  A Georges Simenon novel was the source for the Anglo-American The Man Who Watched Trains Go By. Claude Rains stars as Kees Popinga, chief clerk for a Dutch trading company. Scrupulously honest, Popinga goes off the deep end when he discovers that his employer has been cooking the books to support a mistress. Upon learning that his boss intends to abscond from Brussels to Paris with company funds, Popinga prevents this from happening by stealing the money himself. Through a series of wild coincidences, he winds up entangled with the very woman (Marta Toren) who'd caused his boss' downfall. The Man Who Watched Trains Go By was released in the U.S. as Paris Express.