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Trains in old movies but not necessarily train movies

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Posted by 54light15 on Thursday, April 16, 2020 10:38 PM

Octopussy was filmed on the Nene Valley Railway in England. I've been there, it's about 9 miles long and there is a lot to see. But still, I'm not that crazy about the Bond films with Roger Moore. There is only one Bond and we all know who that is. 

https://www.nvr.org.uk/ 

Another one is "Strangers On A Train" that is not really a train movie, but a train is the motivator of the plot. Some scenes were filmed at Danbury, Connecticut. The creepiest was the tennis game, with Robert Walker looking straight at Farley Granger while everyone else's heads were swinging back and forth. Eesh! 

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Posted by York1 on Thursday, April 16, 2020 9:21 PM

Earlier we talked about North by Northwest.

Turner Classic Movies is showing it on Friday afternoon.  If you've never seen it, or like me, want to see it again, it's worth the time.  A lot of classic movie scenes.

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Posted by Penny Trains on Thursday, April 16, 2020 8:50 PM

Trains, trains, wonderful trains.  The more you get, the more you toot!  Big Smile

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Thursday, April 16, 2020 8:43 PM

Convicted One

"Hour of the Gun" with James Garner (1967) is  fairly train intensive, also

 

A very good, very grim, and under-rated Western.  

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Posted by Convicted One on Thursday, April 16, 2020 8:09 PM

"Hour of the Gun" with James Garner (1967) is  fairly train intensive, also

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Posted by Convicted One on Thursday, April 16, 2020 3:05 PM

54light15
An underground lair? Or a model of Fort Knox? Funny how he had that model made, then killed all the guys he showed it to. Well, he went to great expense and had to show it to somebody, right?

That's kinda my point I was getting at earlier. Hollywood tends to cook a certain recipe when presenting their perpetrators to us, depicting them as some malevolent being who gets up out of bed in the morning with their first thought being "Okay I'm the bad guy, so what rotten thing can I do today?"

I suspect that it has to do with the need to portray their demise as having a redeeming social value.

I think there was a line in the movie "True Lies" that explains rather nicely that there are no "good guys" or "bad guys"...... just differences in perspective.

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Posted by 54light15 on Thursday, April 16, 2020 2:47 PM

Convicted One- yes, From Russia With Love well qualifies. All of the exterior train shots were done in England. Note in one scene how the train carriages all have doors down the side? That's Southern Railway equipment and not exactly the Orient Express. I've ridden on them once or twice but they have all been retired. I think the whole point of that movie is the fight on the train just like the whole point of Dr. No was Ursula Andress coming out of the water in that tan bikini. Yow! 

And what's the point of being a bad guy if you can't have a cool hideout? An underground lair? Or a model of Fort Knox? Funny how he had that model made, then killed all the guys he showed it to. Well, he went to great expense and had to show it to somebody, right?

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Posted by Convicted One on Thursday, April 16, 2020 2:32 PM

Miningman
So why not just enjoy it all and cease being a bad guy? 

Mostly, I don't think they see themselves as a "bad guy".  They just have selfish priorities and an agenda for personal gain that places them (to their own view) above the rules that apply to the unwashed masses.

They likely see jail as a place where only stupid people go.

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Posted by Miningman on Thursday, April 16, 2020 1:50 PM

The Mastermind bad guys always have really cool places to live and apparently limitless money. So why not just enjoy it all and cease being a bad guy? 

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Posted by York1 on Thursday, April 16, 2020 1:15 PM

Deggesty
I have always wondered how Eva Marie Saint managed to get the porter's tool needed to open and close the upper berth. Aside from that, I thought the railroad part was well done.

 

One of my favorite movies.

Of course, you can't pay much attention to details like the porter's tool, or that movie would drive you crazy.

How did Vandamm ever build a house on top of Mt. Rushmore?  

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Posted by Convicted One on Thursday, April 16, 2020 12:57 PM

Would the fight scenes between Robert Shaw and Sean Connery in Ian Flemming's "From Russia with Love" qualify here?

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Posted by Deggesty on Thursday, April 16, 2020 10:51 AM

Wayne, you may have something there.

Many years ago, Greyhound buses had a crank (carried inside, by the door,) for opening the baggage bins. Once, when I rode from home with a driver who knew me, I reached in, took the crank, stowed my suitcase,, and put the crank back. When we came to the Charlotte station, I took my suitcase out before the station porter arrived.

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Thursday, April 16, 2020 8:38 AM

Deggesty

 

 
saguaro

One of my favorite old movies with a train is Alfred Hitchcock's "North by Northwest." There are great scenes inside Grand Central Station, boarding the 20th Century Limited (with the red carpet rolled out), and then aboard the 20th Century Limited. Cary Grant and Eva St. Marie -- one of the best movies ever.

 

 

 

I have always wondered how Eva Marie Saint managed to get the porter's tool needed to open and close the upper berth. Aside from that, I thought the railroad part was well done.

 

 

Eva Marie Saint was such a hottie I don't think anyone could have refused her anything, up to and including porter's tools.

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Posted by Deggesty on Thursday, April 16, 2020 8:20 AM

saguaro

One of my favorite old movies with a train is Alfred Hitchcock's "North by Northwest." There are great scenes inside Grand Central Station, boarding the 20th Century Limited (with the red carpet rolled out), and then aboard the 20th Century Limited. Cary Grant and Eva St. Marie -- one of the best movies ever.

 

I have always wondered how Eva Marie Saint managed to get the porter's tool needed to open and close the upper berth. Aside from that, I thought the railroad part was well done.

Johnny

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Posted by saguaro on Wednesday, April 15, 2020 8:21 PM

One of my favorite old movies with a train is Alfred Hitchcock's "North by Northwest." There are great scenes inside Grand Central Station, boarding the 20th Century Limited (with the red carpet rolled out), and then aboard the 20th Century Limited. Cary Grant and Eva St. Marie -- one of the best movies ever.

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Posted by Penny Trains on Wednesday, April 15, 2020 7:51 PM

Trains, trains, wonderful trains.  The more you get, the more you toot!  Big Smile

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Posted by 54light15 on Wednesday, April 15, 2020 2:20 PM

Narrow Margin, now there was a great film with the incomparable Marie Windsor, the best Femme Fatale that was ever on screen! Not taking anything away from Barbara Stanwyck or Lana Turner, but I know what I like. 

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Posted by Convicted One on Tuesday, April 14, 2020 11:29 PM

Speaking of movies that were remade, anyone yet mention "Narrow Margin"?  Good movie using a passenger train as a plot device. 1952 and 1990 versions, the latter staring Gene Hackman.

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Posted by MMLDelete on Tuesday, April 14, 2020 10:18 PM

x

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Posted by M636C on Tuesday, April 14, 2020 8:43 PM

Like the Red Shoes, with Moira Shearer.

I recall seeing a shot of the Blue Train with a 141R running along the rocky cliffs overlooking the Mediterranean presumably shot from a helicopter, possibly on the troupe's arrival in Nice (or Monte Carlo, I forget).

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Posted by Penny Trains on Tuesday, April 14, 2020 8:20 PM

Seeing as it's the evening of April 14th...

Trains, trains, wonderful trains.  The more you get, the more you toot!  Big Smile

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Tuesday, April 14, 2020 3:45 PM

Overmod

 

 
54light15
Of course I know that if ever we English had reason to bless any arm save our mothers, that arm is Brown Bess.

 

I never think of her without thinking of "The moon was a ghostly galleon, sailing on troubled seas"...

 

"The Highwayman."  Chills run down my spine just thinking about it.

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Posted by Overmod on Tuesday, April 14, 2020 3:21 PM

54light15
Of course I know that if ever we English had reason to bless any arm save our mothers, that arm is Brown Bess.

I never think of her without thinking of "The moon was a ghostly galleon, sailing on troubled seas"...

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Posted by 54light15 on Tuesday, April 14, 2020 3:18 PM

Of course I know that if ever we English had reason to bless any arm save our mothers, that arm is Brown Bess. I have the complete verse of Rudyard Kipling sitting on my toilet tank as I write this. I agree also, no one can play those roles except for the guys that played those roles. That includes Clint as Harry Callahan and the Duke in any role he played. 

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Tuesday, April 14, 2020 1:54 PM

" 'Ere's to you Fuzzy-Wuzzy, in your 'ome in the Soodan, 

    You're a poor benighted 'eathan, but a first-class fightin' man!"

Good old Kipling!  Ever read his poem "Brown Bess?"

Good ol' Errol Flynn!  I can't imagine anyone else playing Robin Hood, the role and the actor found each other and became icons.

Kind of like Basil Rathbone as Sherlock, Chuck Heston as Ben-Hur, George C. Scott as Patton, I could go on and on.

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Posted by 54light15 on Tuesday, April 14, 2020 1:14 PM

"The Four Feathers" was like Kipling's poem Fuzzy Wuzzy come to life! Remember the warriors with the "ayrick 'eads of 'air?" And Errol Flynn-he was one of a kind! 

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Tuesday, April 14, 2020 1:06 PM

CSSHEGEWISCH

And just how many versions of "Beau Geste" are out there??

 

I don't know, but if there are any there's only one that matters!

Same with "The Four Feathers."  Or "The Adventures of Robin Hood."

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Posted by CSSHEGEWISCH on Tuesday, April 14, 2020 12:13 PM

And just how many versions of "Beau Geste" are out there??

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Posted by Deggesty on Tuesday, April 14, 2020 11:16 AM

Flintlock76

 

 
JC UPTON
Then there are the several versions of Agatha Christie's "Murder on the Orient Express"
 

 

 

The BEST one is from 1974, don't bother with the more current remake.  Ick!

 

Why do people think that they can improve on such originals? In general, the older movie makers tried to follow the written narrative (I can understand why the makers of Gone with the Wind omitted Scarlett's second marriage; the movie was exceedingly long with what was presented).

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Posted by 54light15 on Tuesday, April 14, 2020 10:13 AM

I agree with you, Wayne- Kenneth Branagh's mustache was ridiculous! 

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