David Niven makes "The Man on the Train" watchable, as one of his contributions to TV's "Four Star Playhouse". The ghost story only suffers from a hokey ending (as do so many supernatural stories).
He imagines seeing Alan Napier on a train with Napier's weird behavior giving away the game (he's a ghost!) immediately. No one believes Niven's story, and director Robert Florey has already shown the viewer evidence that Niven is imagining things (that is, if there's really no such thing as ghosts) early on.
The actual details of the story are quite arbitrary, making the solution of the inherent mystery (why Napier the ghost is pestering Niven) an anticlimax when explained. And the cutesy final appearance of the ghost at the end of the show is insulting.
He imagines seeing Alan Napier on a train with Napier's weird behavior giving away the game (he's a ghost!) immediately. No one believes Niven's story, and director Robert Florey has already shown the viewer evidence that Niven is imagining things (that is, if there's really no such thing as ghosts) early on.
The actual details of the story are quite arbitrary, making the solution of the inherent mystery (why Napier the ghost is pestering Niven) an anticlimax when explained. And the cutesy final appearance of the ghost at the end of the show is insulting.