John Wayne train movie "Hurricane Express"

[Anonymous]

I saw this in a railroad catalog a ways back. I have always wondered if it is any good. I never thought to ask you guys until all the stuff about the Sci-Fi movie came out. Has anyone seen this movie, the John Wayne one, how was it? The catalog wasn't very good in it's description of the movie. Something about John Wayne being the son of a murdered engineer and having to fini***he run. I am a big John Wayne fan (where do you think the cowboy smilie came from) and a big rail fan, is this the best of both worlds?
James[C):-)]

[twhite]

"Hurricane Express" is a 90 minute version of what was originally a 'serial' in about 11 chapters or so. Wayne plays a young man trying to clear his father of murder in a train collision. There are plenty of shots of 1930's Southern Pacific locomotives and equipment (including some rare footage of a 4-10-2). There's lots of cliff-hanging action and excitement, though the train wrecks are kind of hokey (obvious models). But it's a lot of fun if you just sit back and enjoy it and don't expect too much. This was made in the early '30's, before Wayne became a big star, and was working at a lot of 'B' picture studios.
Tom [^]

[Anonymous]

I saw the back of the cover of this one on E-bay img=http://images.auctionworks.com/hi/59/58850/the_hurricane_express_1_cent_dvd.jpg
Why does it show that kind of train? Isn't that loco British?

[IRONROOSTER]

I have it and I enjoyed it. As twhite said, it's fun to watch if you don't expect too much. Worth your time if you like trains and John Wayne.
Enjoy
Paul

[twhite]

Yup, that's British all right. A lot of times, Video and DVD's will have any old picture on them as long as they think it's generally about the subject. Check out the cover of the DVD for Jimmy Stewart's railroad western NIGHT PASSAGE. It's a Shay in the background, the movie was made on the Silverton Branch and used ex-Rio Grande narrow-gauge Mikados. If it looks good and will help sell the product, authenticity doesn't matter a bit.
Tom [:O]

[Anonymous]

Did John Wayne play the part of an airplane pilot in this movie? It sure sounds familiar to me, but I don't remember it by this name (maybe it's just that I can't remember the names of all the John Wayne movies that I've seen). Was it possibly released under a different name?

[Anonymous]

Yes he did.

[IRONROOSTER]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jdavid93225

Did John Wayne play the part of an airplane pilot in this movie? It sure sounds familiar to me, but I don't remember it by this name (maybe it's just that I can't remember the names of all the John Wayne movies that I've seen). Was it possibly released under a different name?

This wasn't a regular movie, it was serial where the theater showed one episode each week to keep you coming back.
Enjoy
Paul

[Texas Zepher]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Lotus098
I saw this in a railroad catalog a ways back. I have always wondered if it is any good. Something about John Wayne being the son of a murdered engineer and having to fini***he run. I am a big John Wayne fan ... and a big rail fan, is this the best of both worlds?

I would say it is not the best of both worlds, but I do have it in my collection. The basic premis is a bit contrived but pretty good and kept me guessing "who-dun-it" until the end. The other posters description of the serial aspect explains a lot of the chop/break action. I didn't know that before and I so assume they had to have a "climax" for each of the serials.

This seems to be before John Wayne was a big star. As such I think he was really better at playing the roll given him in this movie instead of like later when he was just playing John Wayne in what ever setting they put him in.

Almost all the train shots look speed up. I assume they wanted to make it more exciting by making the trains go faster. There are a few shots with trains in the back ground that are going realistic speeds.

Oh yeah, this is one of those movies where they get a zillion shots out of a six shooter.

[trainguy111]

Does anyone know what locomotives were used in the movie and what whistles they used?

[wjstix]

Texas Zepher

Almost all the train shots look speed up. I assume they wanted to make it more exciting by making the trains go faster. There are a few shots with trains in the back ground that are going realistic speeds.

If I recall - I have the movie on VHS tape, but haven't watched it like 20 years - a lot of the train scenes are night scenes, which might mean they had to "undercrank" the camera (run it at a slightly slower frame-per-second rate) to compensate for the darkness, which would cause things to look speeded up when run at normal speed.

Hard to realize now, but at that time "Railroad Film" was kind of a genre, like "Western Movies" or "Musicals". There were a lot of railroad movies made back then, most lower budget B-movies pr serials shot on the local LA area railroads like SP or ATSF.

p.s. Yes it's before John Wayne was a star. It was made in the early 1930's, it wasn't until 1939's "Stagecoach" that Duke became a top-rank star.