{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2025}} {{Use British English|date=June 2016}} {{Infobox film | name = The Silent Passenger | image = The_Silent_Passenger_film_Opening_titles_(1935).jpg | caption = Opening titles | director = [[Reginald Denham]] | producer = [[Hugh Perceval]] | writer = [[Basil Mason]] | based_on = {{Based on|a story|[[Dorothy L. Sayers]]}} | narrator = | starring = [[John Loder (actor)|John Loder]]<br>[[Peter Haddon]] | music = [[Percival Mackey]] | cinematography = [[Jan Stallich]] | editing = [[Thorold Dickinson]] | distributor = | released = {{Film date|df=yes|1935|11|11|UK}} | runtime = 54 minutes 9 seconds | country = United Kingdom | language = English | budget = }}
'''''The Silent Passenger''''' is a 1935 British [[black-and-white]] [[mystery film]] directed by [[Reginald Denham]] and starring [[John Loder (actor)|John Loder]], [[Peter Haddon]] and [[Lilian Oldland]].<ref name="BFIsearch2">{{Cite web |title=The Silent Passenger |url=https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150291531 |access-date=14 February 2026 |website=British Film Institute Collections Search}}</ref> It was written by [[Basil Mason]] based on an original story written by [[Dorothy L. Sayers]] specifically for the screen. It was produced at [[Ealing Studios]], London.
==Plot== Maurice Windermere, a [[blackmail]]er, is absconding to France with Mollie Ryder, one of his victims. While waiting for the train to take them to the cross Channel ferry, he is murdered by the husband of another one of his victims, railway detective Henry Camberley. Bridge engineer John Ryder, Mollie's husband, jealously searching for her, breaks into Windermere's room just after Camberley has killed Windermere and hidden him in a trunk.
Ryder assaults Camberley, who he assumes is Windermere, and demands the tickets Windermere purchased for himself and Mollie, intending to surprise his wife by taking Windermere's place on the trip abroad. Camberley places the trunk containing Windermere's body with Windermere's other luggage, which Ryder obligingly takes with him on his journey to France.
Windermere's body is discovered in Windermere's trunk when Ryder, using Windermere's tickets, attempts to go through French customs. The French police assume he murdered the rival for his wife's affections and return him to England by the next ferry. Fortunately for Ryder, amateur detective Lord Peter Wimsey, who already suspected Windermere of blackmail, followed Windermere's trail onto the boat train where he struck up an acquaintance with Mollie and John Ryder. Back in England Lord Peter sets about proving his newfound friend's innocence, using Ryder as "bait" to flush out the real killer and solve the murder.
==Cast== *[[John Loder (actor)|John Loder]] as John Ryder *[[Peter Haddon]] as [[Lord Peter Wimsey]] *[[Lilian Oldland]] as Mollie Ryder (billed as Mary Newland) *[[Donald Wolfit]] as Henry Camberley *[[Austin Trevor]] as [[Charles Parker (detective)|Chief Inspector Parker]] *[[Leslie Perrins]] as Maurice Windermere *[[Aubrey Mather]] as [[Mervyn Bunter|Bunter]] *[[Robb Wilton]] as porter *[[Ralph Truman]] as Saunders *Ann Codrington as desk clerk *George De Warfaz as Chief of French Police *[[Annie Esmond]] as old lady passenger with Pekinese dogs *[[Dorice Fordred]] as Camberley's accomplice *[[Vincent Holman]] as works manager *[[Gordon McLeod (actor)|Gordon McLeod]] as Commissioner *[[Frederick Burtwell]] (uncredited) *Percy Rhodes (uncredited)
== Reception == ''[[The Daily Film Renter]]'' wrote: "Crisply directed, splendidly staged and well acted, with Peter Haddon scoring as nobleman detective. Excellent popular entertainment."<ref>{{Cite journal|date=22 June 1935|title=The Silent Passenger|id={{ProQuest|2826301109}}|magazine=[[The Daily Film Renter]]|volume=|issue=2584|pages=4}}</ref>
''[[Kine Weekly]]'' wrote: "Rousing railroad melodrama with an ingenious crime motif, glorious comedy relief, and spectacular thrills framed in realistic atmosphere. Not only does the plot itself reveal arresting dramatic invention, but it makes generous provision for comprehensive by-play. Every link in the human and exciting chain is fashioned with resourceful technical skill, and each, thanks to enthusiastic team work, carries the hallmark of capital popular entertainment. It is great stuff, a proposition of box-office dimensions for young and old alike, and every member of the family."<ref>{{Cite journal|date=27 June 1935|title=The Silent Passenger|id={{ProQuest|2339661294}}|magazine=[[Kine Weekly]]|volume=220|issue=1471|pages=34}}</ref>
''[[Picturegoer]]'' wrote: "An extremely well-made detective drama, novel in plot, ingenious in solution, and seasoned throughout with a real sense of humour. The production, as a whole, is unpretentious and there are minor flaws in construction, particularly in the opening; but it does achieve what it sets out to do – to entertain first and last, and all the time."<ref>{{Cite journal|date=3 November 1935|title=The Silent Passenger|id={{ProQuest|1771189783}}|magazine=[[Picturegoer]]|volume=5|issue=|pages=24}}</ref>
==Home media== The film was released on DVD in 2008 by Sinister Cinema.
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20181113235627/http://www.citwf.com/film320510.htm ''The Silent Passenger''] at The Complete Index To World Film since 1895 (archved from the [http://www.citwf.com/film320510.htm original] on 13 November 2018) https://web.archive.org/web/20181113235627/http://www.citwf.com/film320510.htm * {{IMDb title|0026996|The Silent Passenger}}
{{Reginald Denham}} {{Lord Peter Wimsey}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Silent Passenger, The}} [[Category:1935 films]] [[Category:1935 crime films]] [[Category:British black-and-white films]] [[Category:British crime films]] [[Category:British detective films]] [[Category:Films directed by Reginald Denham]] [[Category:Films set on trains]] [[Category:Films set in London]] [[Category:Films based on British novels]] [[Category:Ealing Studios films]] [[Category:Films scored by Percival Mackey]] [[Category:1935 English-language films]] [[Category:1935 British films]] [[Category:Lord Peter Wimsey]] [[Category:English-language crime films]]