Night Mail

Night Mail
The film "starred" Parallel-boilered Royal Scot no 6115 Scots Guardsman.
Directed by	Harry Watt Basil Wright
Produced by	Harry Watt Basil Wright
Written by	W. H. Auden
Narrated by	John Grierson
Music by	Benjamin Britten
Editing by	Basil Wright
Distributed by	Associated British Film Distributors
Release date(s)	1936
Running time	25 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Night Mail is a 1936 documentary film about a London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) mail train from London to Scotland, produced by the GPO Film Unit. A poem by English poet W. H. Auden was written for it, used in the closing few minutes, as was music by Benjamin Britten. The two men also collaborated on a documentary on the line from London to Portsmouth, The Way to the Sea, also in 1936. The film was directed by Harry Watt and Basil Wright, and narrated by John Grierson and Stuart Legg. The Brazilian filmmaker Alberto Cavalcanti was sound director. It starred Royal Scot 6115 Scots Guardsman.^{[citation needed]}

As recited in the film, the poem's rhythm imitates the train's wheels as they clatter over track sections, beginning slowly but picking up speed so that by the time the penultimate verse the narrator is at a breathless pace. As the train slows toward its destination the final verse is more sedate. The opening lines are "This is the Night Mail crossing the border / Bringing the cheque and the postal order". The copyright on the film has expired after 50 years, however some sources assert that the W.H. Auden poem remains protected by copyright as a written piece. The musical score was first published in 2002.

Such is the status of the film, it was used as inspiration for a British Rail advertisement of the 1980s, the "concerto ad".

External links

• Night Mail at the Internet Movie Database
• Britmovie
• Bfi Classics Book on Night Mail
• Bfi's Screenonline entry for Night Mail