The “wife’ is having second thoughts

After The General kills who he thought was the target but was not in actuality (the man he pushed off the mountain) – her conscience is getting to her, and even Ashenden (Brodie) wants out. Elsa tells Ashenden that she fell in love with him. They both are annoyed with murder. Marvin is still talking with Elsa flirtatiously.

The General does not like them wanting to quit. He says something to the effect that “R” does not accept your resignation, “ much like we will see in Licence to Kill (1989) at Hemingway House, when Bond tries to resign, and M says to him, “this is not a country club 007” and revokes his license to kill. “I’m finished,” says Ashenden.

But The General wants to talk to Ashenden in his private room, about a private secretary he had met the night before who has a fiancé working in a “chocolate factory” – which is, in reality, a big German spy post office and her boyfriend knows this. And as a message had come through the day before for the spy they are after, the boyfriend knows who the German spy is. Ashenden is now intrigued, telling Elsa he will be gone for a couple of hours – so he has not resigned! He leaves with The General.

The last 13 minutes

Elsa thinks Marvin was so kind, and she sees him on the train and tells him she is alone. She looks worried and goes to a berth (1A) with Marvin, who says to her: “I don’t trust you – you’re in the spy racket too. The lovely neglected wife and I fell for it.” He pulls a gun on her and asks if the other two are on the train. If so, he says, they are dead. Elsa is trying to play her role. Marvin was going to have the train searched when she tells Marvin she knows who he is and loves him. Chaos outside as the air force is shooting at the train. He kisses her. We see Ashenden (Brodie) and The General go into the same car with Elsa and Marvin. Marvin quips, “I congratulate you all – especially Madam. When does the shooting begin?” Ashenden tells Elsa to wait outside, as The General says, “It is my job.”

In a surprise move, Elsa pulls a gun on Ashenden (Brodie) and The General, as a flashback to what she told Brodie earlier – “I’d rather see you dead than go through with this.”

Elsa is with Marvin when the planes start bombing the train – he whispers in her ear: “Chivalrous German spy saves British lady from British bombs. “

Just then, bombs wreck the tracks just ahead of the train, and it derails, before The General can take care of Marvin. In the ensuing wreckage, Marvin shoots The General, then both die. Elsa and Brodie survive. The General at the beginning of the movie who got Elsa and Brodie to agree gets a note (a lot of notes in this movie): “ Home safely but never again. Mr. and Mrs. Ashenden”
The scene shifts to newspaper headlines with the successes of the Allies!

Again, following Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps the year before (where we saw the first train scene in a spy movie), we see additional train scenes in this movie, and of course in many spy movies to follow like From Russia With Love (Bond and Red Grant, and Tee Hee), Mission Impossible– 1996 (Hunt vs. Phelps, and the helicopter chase), Bourne Ultimatum (Waterloo station and Russian railway station), The Spy Who Loved Me (Bond and Jaws), SPECTRE (Bond and Mr. Hinx), Skyfall, Octopussy and many more.

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