J1aK4sfan wrote:Lots of good ideas already here, but in addition to Burt Lancaster in "The Train", (which is a superior movie regardless of the trains) how about:"It happened to Jane" with Ernie Kovacs, Doris Day and Jack Lemmon"The Professionals" with Woody Strode, Lee Marvin, Burt Lancaster and Robert Ryan"Bite the Bullet" with Gene Hackman, Candace Bergen and James CoburnNone of these three are "Oscar material" but all are great entertainment and feature lots of train shots. Each featured great Hollywood stars playing character types that they are frequently identified with and had nice direction and editing. (Bite the Bullet builds slowly than the other two and is a bit more subtle -- yet has a sort of sappy ending that conflicts with the basic theme of the story)I strongly recommend all four above movies.
You've got great taste in movies, there. I love the scene in IT HAPPENED TO JANE where that cute little New Haven Pacific driven by Doris Day and Jack Lemmon holds up the 'Limited', which I believe is the original "Yankee Flyer". Cute plot and really nifty train sequences.
And THE PROFESSIONALS is simply one of my all-time favorite westerns (with a GREAT last line from Lee Marvin after Ralph Bellamy calls him a "B---ard"). You're right, it's got spot-on train sequences, especially that ex-Great Western 2-8-0 that does double duty, as an American and then a Mexican locomotive. I think the director, Richard Brooks was pretty much of a railroad fan, it sure shows in both this and his other BITE THE BULLET, which I also like a lot.
As to THE TRAIN--it's just SUPERB! PERIOD! On the DVD, director John Frankenhiemer is quoted as saying about the final confrontation, "I decided to let Paul Schofield just TALK himself to death." Boy, DID he!
On another note: The train-robbery sequence in Sam Peckinpah's brilliant THE WILD BUNCH where William Holden and Ernest Borgnine steal the Army ammunition to run it into Mexico is one of the best sequences of its type I've ever seen. Jaw-dropping and knuckle-biting.
Tom
Tom View my layout photos! http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm310/TWhite-014/Rio%20Grande%20Yuba%20River%20Sub One can NEVER have too many Articulateds!
trainfan1221 wrote:I don't recall Supertrain being very popular, might be why nobody has mentioned it.
Yeah, I think there was only about a half a dozen or so episodes and the story lines were nothing to write home about.
I watched it for the models which were pretty darned impressive.
-George
"And the sons of Pullman porters and the sons of engineers ride their father's magic carpet made of steel..."
I faintly remember a rail theme film made in India ( probably an English production ) with the story line about an escape from a rebel up-rising ( seems a trifle familiar ) using an ancient train to move an important family to safety...
Was it called ' Norhwest frontier', or similar?
Maybe slightly 'off topic', but someone may recall the film. Had some great shots of buzzards/blood/trains....
Cheers, Paul.
lvanhen wrote:George, where did you get the pic of the Supertrain model? Neat!!
http://nbc_supertrain.tripod.com
Or just google "Supertrain" - it will be the first response.
It has an episode guide series history and behind the scenes photos and an entire section devoted to the models.
classic57 wrote: I faintly remember a rail theme film made in India ( probably an English production ) with the story line about an escape from a rebel up-rising ( seems a trifle familiar ) using an ancient train to move an important family to safety...Was it called ' Norhwest frontier', or similar? Maybe slightly 'off topic', but someone may recall the film. Had some great shots of buzzards/blood/trains....Cheers, Paul.
Paul--
That was a British film called FLAME OVER INDIA here in the US, and NORTHWEST FRONTIER in Britain. Starred Kenneth More and Lauren Bacall, with a nifty British and Indian supporting cast (oddly enough, the movie was filmed in Spain, standing in for Northwest India). You're right, it is a really exciting movie, with a delightfully quirky little train. The plot is a re-working of "Stagecoach", but it's jam-packed with excitement, plus a REALLY suspenseful scene of the train being slowly worked over a blown-up high bridge. I've got a copy on VCR and I like it a lot.
"La bete humaine" by Jean Renoir (1938, with Jean Gabin) contains a tremendous opening sequence of the cab of a French steam engine, including shots of taking up water for the tender from a trough between the rails. You can watch it at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7EdZVJ-YQI
Interestingly, the engineer (Gabin) sits on the left-hand side, in agreement with the fact that in France (as in many other European countries) trains use the left track on double-track lines, and all signals are to the left.
JW
Dr. W--
LA BETE HUMAINE is quite a movie! That opening sequence is definitely a stunner. I believe the film was remade by Columbia in the late '40's and 'Americanized' with Glenn Ford and Gloria Grahame. Can't remember the title, but I think it was directed by Fritz Lang. Pretty good railroad shots on the Southern Pacific, as I remember.
Another fine French film about trains--LA BATTAILE DU RAIL, made during the German Occupation (in fact right under their noses) about the French Resistance interrupting rail traffic just prior to the Normandy invasion. A stunning sequence showing the derailment of a train carrying German tanks to the Normandy front appeared in several other films. Good movie, but VERY hard to find. Definitely worth the hunt, though, IMO.
Tom Curtin wrote:Disney's Great Locomotive Chase (1957) has been mentioned here a number of times. This is a reasonably accurate --- I think --- telling of the Andrews raid of 1862, starring the irrepressible Fess Parker as James Andrews. It was shot on the now-abandoned Tallulah Falls Railroad, down in the Carolinas someplace. Although the real General still exists and is even operable (or was then) they used locomotives from the B&O Railroad Museum.
There's a very interesting short movie (40 minutes or so) about the Great Locomotive Chase shown at the theater in the Civil War Museum in Kennesaw, Ga. where the original General resides. The movie was made by volunteers at the museum which includes some movie professionals. The quality of the film is as good as as any you will see, due in part to the fact that Disney loaned a print of its original movie to the museum and allowed the museum to use any scenes they wanted, so long as none of the original actors faces were shown or voices were heard.
Hence, the final product contains such scenes as Fess Parker climbing into the loco (shot from Parker's rear) seamlessly blended into the scene inside the cab where the local actor's face is shown on screen. It is so professionally edited, no one would notice the editing. The entire movie (with the exception of one actor's god awful Southern accent) is first rate. I was absolutely blown away by the film. Of course, when I saw it I had no idea how it was made, and wondered how a small town museum came up with a $20,000,000 +/- in production costs.
Kennesaw is about 40 miles NW of Atlanta and the whole museum is first rate. Highly recommended.
- Harry
So am I just showing my age? I'm surprised no one has mentioned the extended train robbery scene with George Peppard that occures near the end of "HOW THE WEST WAS WON."
And I am really going back in time with this one. How about TRANSATLANTIC TUNNEL? This is a 1935 British science fiction film about an attempt to build a railroad tunnel linking New York and London! I saw it 30 years ago at a college sci-fi film festival.
I have figured out what is wrong with my brain! On the left side nothing works right, and on the right side there is nothing left!
twhite wrote:Another fine French film about trains--LA BATTAILE DU RAIL, made during the German Occupation (in fact right under their noses)...
Another fine French film about trains--LA BATTAILE DU RAIL, made during the German Occupation (in fact right under their noses)...
Wallace & Gromit, "The Wrong Trousers" - That contains the most realistic (and funniest) chase scene of all times. Who says old milk bottles don't serve a purpose anymore...
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
It wasn't. It didn't even last a full season.
Irv
I remember this one. It's as full of train and British Empire cliches as it can get. Still lot's of excitement even tho the plot leaves much to be desired. My favorite scene is of them trying to get across the bridge before it collapses.
They kept showing it on the local PBS stations for what seemed like months.
A bunch of you mentioned It Happened to Jane (1959) but what nobody has said about it (nobody that I noticed) is that this film was the very last use of New Haven Railroad steam. Class J-1 2-8-2 #3016 was pulled off the dead line for this, and the film was shot mostly in and around Chester, CT. This line today is the Valley Railroad Co. museum line. Shooting was done in June-July 1958.
Tom Curtin
Controller, New Haven Railroad Historical & Technical Association Inc.
tstage wrote: Wallace & Gromit, "The Wrong Trousers" - That contains the most realistic (and funniest) chase scene of all times. Who says old milk bottles don't serve a purpose anymore... Tom
CHEESE! Gromit!
marknewton wrote: twhite wrote: Another fine French film about trains--LA BATTAILE DU RAIL, made during the German Occupation (in fact right under their noses)...According to the liner notes on my DVD copy, the film was made in the latter half of 1945, after the liberation of France.Cheers,Mark.
twhite wrote: Another fine French film about trains--LA BATTAILE DU RAIL, made during the German Occupation (in fact right under their noses)...
Mark--
Do you have the Criterion DVD? And if so, where did you find it--I've been looking with no luck. You're right about the date--I got the timing mixed up with L'ENFANTS DU PARADIS which was made during the Occupation. At any rate, I'd be intertested as to where you found the DVD.
marknewton wrote:Tom, I picked it up while I was on holidays, at a video shop in Melbourne that specialises in European movies. Cheers,Mark.
My curiosity was aroused (as usual). Found it at TCM on-line. Just ordered it. Should have it within the week. I'm looking forward, haven't seen it in YEARS, not since a film class in Grad School.
"Keeping my hand on the throttle...and my eyes on rail."
CNE Runner wrote:You seemed to have hit a popular thread here. My "favorite" really isn't a movie; but is a TV series from the late 1950s. I loved Casey Jones (starring Alan Hale Jr.) as a kid and was lucky enough to find a DVD of the first 18 episodes for sale on eBay. The show still holds my interest although there are some very un-prototypical things that seem to creep into the script or scenery. Why don't they still make these shows? Thanks for asking!
Lots of great movies. I do not know if anyone mentioned a favorite of mine
Denver and Rio Grande (1952)
Edmund O'Brien stars in it, also has Paul Fix (Sheriff from the Chuck Connors Rifleman TV show) as the Train Enginneer, the movie is set at the beginning of the start of the DRG (abit fictional) Some great scenes, especially if you like Steam Engines and Western Mountain scenes and Cowboy movies- great movie, at the end they fast forward to modern day 1952 and DRG Diesels racing thru tracks above river gorges
George
Seacoast--
DENVER AND RIO GRANDE is a neat film. That head-on train collision got some aficionados upset, especially the author Lucius Beebe, since the Rio Grande gave Paramount pictures two old 2-8-0's that they were going to scrap, anyway. Funny thing about the collision, after all the smoke and special effects cleared, the two locos were largely unharmed except for crumpled cowcatchers, so Paramount had to go in and bash them up for the closeup sequences.
Nice photography on the Silverton line, though. And I like the later shots of the PA's wheeling THE PROSPECTOR down the Front Range in their not-often-photographed silver with the yellow nose.
Tom Curtin wrote: CNE Runner wrote:You seemed to have hit a popular thread here. My "favorite" really isn't a movie; but is a TV series from the late 1950s. I loved Casey Jones (starring Alan Hale Jr.) as a kid and was lucky enough to find a DVD of the first 18 episodes for sale on eBay. The show still holds my interest although there are some very un-prototypical things that seem to creep into the script or scenery. Why don't they still make these shows? Thanks for asking!Much as I hate to admit this I watched it too. I'm sure the real Casey Jones --- wherever he's spending his afterlife --- either had loads of laughs or wrung his hands in horror over what some fourth rate TV producers did to his life story. Jones (1864-1900) was an Illinois Central engineer based in Memphis,TN; and I seem to recall that this short-lived series was set in "the old west," where it's doubtful that Jones ever set foot. For all that it's been 50 years since I saw it, I think they used the authentic song, with the right melody and lyrics, but I'm not certain about that.
I remember watching this series too. I think the locomotive that was used was the same one that was used in Petticoat Junction. I am sure alot of the people on here remember that one.
No one has mentioned movie serials. Tho I am too young to remember ever going to the movies to see them I did see them on TV. One that sticks in my mind starred a young John Wayne as railroad detective looking for a guy who blew up trains. Anyone remember the name of this one?
Corsair--
You might be thinking of the early 'thirties serial HURRICANE EXPRESS, with a very young John Wayne, before he made big stardom in 1939's STAGECOACH. It had about 16 chapters, and was later condensed into a feature-length film. Some nice shots of 1930's Southern Pacific steam in the film.