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Trains in old movies but not necessarily train movies

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Posted by York1 on Tuesday, April 21, 2020 7:32 PM

Convicted One
Speaking of that movie....there was a chase scene where they are  racing down a road that follows the coast. To the side of the road opposite the ocean is a cliff, maybe 20-30 feet high. they pass under a pedestrian bridge that spans from the top of the cliff to a stairway on the ocean side of the road. Basically "beach access" is what comes to mind when looking at it.

 

Not sure if this is it, but it is listed as a filming scene for the movie:

 

 

 

This is the new bridge:

 

York1 John       

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Posted by Convicted One on Tuesday, April 21, 2020 8:53 PM

York1
Not sure if this is it, but it is listed as a filming scene for the movie

BowBowBow That's gotta be it!!  Finding that has been a thorn in my side since first seeing that movie. You have unburdened me, thank you!!

 

Oddly enough, I have driven right through there a good half dozen times, but all before I ever saw the movie, so it never registered with me back in the day. But I'm sure you've nailed it, the view up the incline reminds me of the movie in a big way.

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Posted by Penny Trains on Tuesday, April 21, 2020 8:57 PM

54light15
Dammit- I can't see whatever was posted above.

Let's try this instead:

It's pretty high on my list of best films ever made.

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

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Tuesday, April 21, 2020 9:31 PM

Well I saw it just fine!

That trailer's a little different from the one I remember.  Pretty close, but I remember a line that went:

"The 'Good' kill because they have  to.  The 'Bad' kill, because they want  to.  The 'Ugly' kill, because THEY LIKE TO!"   Maybe it was from a radio commercial, it has been a while.  Great Western, that's for sure!

'54, "Kelly's Heroes" was filmed in the former Yugoslavia, that particular area's Croatia now. At the time the Yugoslav army was still using a lot of WW2 vintage equipment, Sherman tanks and assorted American and left behind German motor vehicles.  They also had T-34 Russian made tanks that had been modified to look like Tigers for a Yugoslav movie produced several years earlier, so the "Kelly's Heroes" production team found everything they needed there.

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Posted by 54light15 on Tuesday, April 21, 2020 10:28 PM

Thanks for that info, Flintlock- good stuff! I always thought that in the GB & U, that the "Ugly" referred to Eli Wallach and not Lee Van Cleef. In any event, there is a scene in the "Naked City" television show where Eli shoots an unbilled Peter Falk. Naked City was awesome! 

I like how movies such as Leone made use obvously European railroad equipment yet still expect us to believe it's in the American West. Wasn't it made by an Italian production company some years earlier? Clint was in that one I recall. Spaghetti Westerns- gotta love 'em! Hell, I love all Westerns. Especially those done by Sean Aloysius O'Feeney. 

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Posted by nhrand on Wednesday, April 22, 2020 10:33 AM

"Living It Up" starring Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis is a 1954 film which begins with Lewis playing Homer Flagg, a station agent in the small town of Dessert Hole, New Mexico who has always wanted to visit New York.  The opening scenes introducing Lewis as a railroad man were filmed at Summit depot at Cajon Pass and there are some shots of Santa Fe steam helpers turning on the wye which fascinated me since I was fifteen and living along the dieselized New Haven.

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Posted by York1 on Wednesday, April 22, 2020 10:45 AM

How about, "It Happened to Jane", starring Doris Day, Jack Lemmon, and Ernie Kovacs?  Not necessarily a great movie, but had interesting train scenes.

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Wednesday, April 22, 2020 1:48 PM

Just an add-on to the "Kelly's Heroes" post.

If you've seen "Saving Private Ryan" you've seen those "Kelly's Heroes" Tigers making another screen appearance.  I believe the three of them are in Britain now.

The Tiger in "Fury" on the other hand was the real thing!  Loaned to the film-makers from the tank museum in Bovington, UK.

What amazes me about the "Spagetti Westerns" is that there's enough interest in Europe about the American West that they'd make such films to begin with.  

Hey, they re-enact the American Civil War in Germany!  Talk about amazing!   If you know your Civil War history it shouldn't surprise you to find Union Army outfits where German is spoken, but it's a mind-blower to find Confederate outfits doing the same!

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Posted by 54light15 on Wednesday, April 22, 2020 1:59 PM

When I was in Germany on vacation on a heritage rail tour, we passed by what looked like Fort Courage from "F Troop." People pointed it out to me, being the only North American on the tour. Most of us grew up reading the Hardy Boys and Mark Twain; Germans all seem to have grown up on tales of the old West written by Karl May who never left Germany. Those rootin' tootin' teutons! 

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Posted by 54light15 on Wednesday, April 22, 2020 4:17 PM

A friend lent me a Thin Man movie collection. The one I watched last night, "The Thin Man Goes Home" from 1944 shows Nick and Nora travelling by train. The train was packed to the rafters with people. 3 people in seats made for two, the aisle of a a sleeping car jammed with people standing. Is that what wartime train travel was like? 

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Posted by York1 on Wednesday, April 22, 2020 4:22 PM

54light15
The one I watched last night, "The Thin Man Goes Home" from 1944 shows Nick and Nora travelling by train.

That's a good one, with Nora trying to smuggle Asta in the coach car.

I don't know how accurate that was.  I've got to believe that while trains were crowded, the movie exagerated it a little.  I could be wrong.

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Posted by Deggesty on Wednesday, April 22, 2020 4:38 PM

54light15

A friend lent me a Thin Man movie collection. The one I watched last night, "The Thin Man Goes Home" from 1944 shows Nick and Nora travelling by train. The train was packed to the rafters with people. 3 people in seats made for two, the aisle of a a sleeping car jammed with people standing. Is that what wartime train travel was like? 

 

From what one man told me about getting off an ACL train at Jesup, Georgia, such was not uncommon--he had to struggle to get to a vestibule so he could get off.

How old was the coach Nick and Nora were on? Did it have reclining seats, or did the seat backs extend from the outside wall to the aisle?

Johnny

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Posted by 54light15 on Wednesday, April 22, 2020 6:02 PM

There's not a lot of external views but what I could see, they were heavyweights. The seats came out from the wall, benches like in a school bus. Flipover seats? But you really could not get a clear view due to all the people in the scene. 

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Wednesday, April 22, 2020 9:39 PM

I haven't seen the film but there's a better than good possibility the car interiors are part of a set and not a real railcar, so trying to get what kind of car it is might do you no good.

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Posted by Leo_Ames on Thursday, April 23, 2020 1:19 AM

My cable box essentially never leaves Turner Classic Movies. 

I would watch MeTV if I didn't already own everything of interest that they air on DVD or Blu-Ray. I'd much rather just put in a disc for something like Green Acres and watch it uncut and commercial free. 

The goodbye scene in Since You Went Away is a classic. And while I can't remember any specific examples off the top of my head, it's been often imitated. One of my favorite movies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLV_WK_z1t0

The train scene at the end of The Trouble With Angels is another good one. Was so pleased when Sony finally brought this Columbia classic out on Blu-Ray a year ago. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EM7-J7XH6tc

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Posted by M636C on Thursday, April 23, 2020 7:54 AM

Last night I watched a TV version of Agatha Christie's 4:50 from Paddington, which is not really a "train movie" although the plot is dependent on the particular features of British trains which allow one person to see an event in another similar train.

The version I saw was later than the one I have linked but the critical early scenes are very similar and probably reflect the original book.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esw1FreaFbE

The B&W movie with Margaret Rutherford is, however my favourite.

The trains shown in this clip are convincingly Great Western at least, thanks to Britain's heritage railways, which are having a hard time right now.

Peter

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Posted by Overmod on Thursday, April 23, 2020 10:55 AM

M636C
Last night I watched a TV version of Agatha Christie's 4:50 from Paddington

I never think of this without in the next moment recalling Neville Shunt.

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Posted by Deggesty on Thursday, April 23, 2020 11:43 AM

Overmod

 

 
M636C
Last night I watched a TV version of Agatha Christie's 4:50 from Paddington

 

I never think of this without in the next moment recalling Neville Shunt.

 

Did Neville Shunt work in a marshalling yard?Mischief

Johnny

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Posted by York1 on Thursday, April 23, 2020 6:24 PM

Leo_Ames
My cable box essentially never leaves Turner Classic Movies.  I would watch MeTV if I didn't already own everything of interest

 

You and me both. 

I would be completely happy with a cable system that offered four channels -- TCM, MeTV, HGTV, & DIY.

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Posted by Penny Trains on Thursday, April 23, 2020 7:34 PM

54light15
I always thought that in the GB & U, that the "Ugly" referred to Eli Wallach and not Lee Van Cleef.

It did.  That trailer is an early version before they realized who the B and U ought to be.

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

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Thursday, April 23, 2020 9:16 PM

Penny Trains

 

 
54light15
I always thought that in the GB & U, that the "Ugly" referred to Eli Wallach and not Lee Van Cleef.

 

It did.  That trailer is an early version before they realized who the B and U ought to be.

 

Well sure, because Lee van Cleef's character killed because he liked to! 

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Posted by 54light15 on Thursday, April 23, 2020 10:53 PM

Lee Van Cleef was the living embodiment of a cobra. What a guy! 

Another that features a train as a key part of the plot is one of the best westerns ever made, "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance." Remember the immortal line, "When legend becomes fact, print the legend." 

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Posted by Overmod on Friday, April 24, 2020 7:16 AM

54light15
Remember the immortal line, "When legend becomes fact, print the legend." 

"Bury your memories, bury your friends

Leave it alone for a year or two

'Til the stories grow hazy and the legends come true

Then do it again. Some things never end..."

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Posted by York1 on Friday, April 24, 2020 7:08 PM

TCM is just about to start the great movie, "Double Indemnity".

Trains?  The whole plot involves a dead body and jumping off the rear platform of a moving train.

Film noir at it's best.

York1 John       

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Posted by Miningman on Saturday, April 25, 2020 12:29 AM

York1 -- thank you for the tip... switched over and DVD'd it .. just finished watching. Seen it before but a long long time ago. 

Luv Film Noir, watch Eddie Muller's presentation every Sat. night. 

See ya in the shadows! 

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Posted by ORNHOO on Sunday, April 26, 2020 4:35 PM

Flintlock76
Flintlock76 wrote the following post 4 days ago: Well I saw it just fine! That trailer's a little different from the one I remember.  Pretty close, but I remember a line that went: "The 'Good' kill because they have  to.  The 'Bad' kill, because they want  to.  The 'Ugly' kill, because THEY LIKE TO!"   Maybe it was from a radio commercial, it has been a while.  Great Western, that's for sure!

 

BTW (and off topic), but have any of you watched the you tube video of the Danish National Symphony and and Danish National Concert Choir doing a live performance of the Ennio Morricone music from this movie?

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Sunday, April 26, 2020 4:50 PM

I have!  And they make a fine job of it too!

Have you heard them do the "Star Trek Themes" medley?  Just wonderful!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bfwiy9JQ-PI  

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Posted by 54light15 on Sunday, April 26, 2020 5:29 PM

That Star Trek theme was amazing! thanks so much for posting that. Now to look for the theme to GB & U. Do you suppose they've ever done the theme to Hawaii Five-0? 

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Posted by Convicted One on Sunday, April 26, 2020 5:48 PM

How about "Once upon a time in the West"?

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Sunday, April 26, 2020 6:34 PM

No good on "Hawaii 5-0," but here's the Danes doing "Once Upon A Time In The West," an eight-and-one-half minute suite no less!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efdswXXjnBA  

For "Hawaii Five-O" I'm just going to have to call up Steve McGarrett and the crew.

"Book 'im, Danno!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AepyGm9Me6w  

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