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The social spaces of 1920s London (parks, pubs and shops) play an important
role in Anthony Asquith's working-class love story. Most central to the
narrative of the film, as the title suggests, is the London Underground itself,
its bustling public corridors and carriages providing an arena in which people
from all walks of life intermingle.
The atmosphere of the Underground is immediately conveyed in the
documentary-style opening shot of the film, as the camera, mounted on the front
of a train, approaches a crowded platform. Once inside the carriage the tone
shifts to comedy as the passengers, a cross-section of metropolitan society, are
surveyed. The rakish Bert (Cyril McLaglen) pokes fun at a well-dressed
businessman; shop girls gossip excitedly, to the dismay of the prim lady
sandwiched between them; and Nell (Elissa Landi) scores a minor victory over
Bert by tossing his hat into the midst of a group of mischievous schoolboys.
Although Underground was only Asquith's second film (and the first for which
he would receive a full directing credit - Shooting Stars (1926) was officially
credited to veteran director A.V. Bramble), he handles the melodramatic story
with sophistication. As in Alfred Hitchcock's The Lodger (1926) and Blackmail
(1929), the psychological aspects of the narrative are illustrated with
imaginative touches that draw upon a variety of European cinematic influences
such as German Expressionism and Soviet Montage. The sharp angles and dramatic
interplay between light and shadow outside Kate's (Nora Baring) room are
indebted to expressionist techniques, and create a visually striking scene while
conveying something of the young woman's confused mental state.
Asquith also admired E.A. Dupont's use of the camera to create a subjective
viewpoint, in films such as Varieté (1925). Asquith utilises this approach
during the pub fight between Bert and Bill (Brian Aherne), with Bill launching
his fist directly at the camera as he strikes his final blow. As Bert retreats
home the punch is replayed over and over in his mind, the editing of the
sequence building to an emotional crescendo as he resolves to take revenge.
Asquith continued to explore the potential of film to create mood and to
convey emotional states, which arguably reached a high point in the experimental
shot juxtapositions and rapid editing of his final silent film, the celebrated A
Cottage on Dartmoor (1929).
Nathalie Morris
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1. Meeting on the train (3:37)
