I've seen "Danger Lights" myself, several times, it's a fun movie, but it struck me as amusing that when the film opens what you see is a steam locomotive running under the wires, and you never see one of the electrics, ever.
I suppose the film-makers thought the steam locomotives were a lot more interesting. No kidding!
54light15 For some reason it didn't occur to me that Goodbye Mr. Chips was filmed in the U.K. I must say that the Austrian equipment did look authentic. Obviously it wasn't filmed after September of 1939. I have a film from 1931, Danger Lights filmed on the Milwakee Road in the northwest as you can see catenary above the tracks in most scenes but it's set in a vague location that's supposed to be about 100 or so miles from Chicago. I loved MST3K- there's a guy in my neighbourhood and that's his cars vanity plate. Cool or what?
For some reason it didn't occur to me that Goodbye Mr. Chips was filmed in the U.K. I must say that the Austrian equipment did look authentic. Obviously it wasn't filmed after September of 1939. I have a film from 1931, Danger Lights filmed on the Milwakee Road in the northwest as you can see catenary above the tracks in most scenes but it's set in a vague location that's supposed to be about 100 or so miles from Chicago.
I loved MST3K- there's a guy in my neighbourhood and that's his cars vanity plate. Cool or what?
Johnny
Leo_Ames One of my favorite movies. I wish I liked the remake, but even Petula Clark can't save it for me.
One of my favorite movies.
I wish I liked the remake, but even Petula Clark can't save it for me.
The remake was lousy, the only part I liked was when Petula Clark gets killed by the V-1, the "buzz bomb."
Wow, I better explain myself! I liked the way the sequence was done from the V-1's point of view, flying over the English countryside with the "throb-throb" of the engine as background noise, then the engine cuts out, the bomb goes into its dive, and as it gets closer and closer to the ground you can hear Pet Clark's voice getting louder and louder as she sings to the troops, and then, BOOM!
It was bone-chilling.
The Basil Rathbone Shelock Holmes films were all shot here in the US, so any actual Brtish train scenes such as run-bys would have been stock footage. Interiors, exteriors in train stations, all would have been props or studio sets.
54light15I loved MST3K- there's a guy in my neighbourhood and that's his cars vanity plate. Cool or what?
"The Rebel Set" - a movie I have only seen on MST3k (where it is given a hilarious riffing treatment, although the movie is not that bad). The movie is set in then contemporary times (1959), and involves an elaborate armored car heist during a station stop in Chicago on a passenger train from Los Angeles to New York (this actually baffled me a bit the first time I saw the movie - there is some question whether it is two different trains or not, but since it's all UP stock doesn't matter) - so basically at the end you have a UP passenger train going thru to New York (Newark).The end of the movie is an extended chase scene clearly filmed in and around one of the UP's LA yards (or maybe the LAUPT yards, not certain), with a decent amount of UP (and SP and ATSF) locomotives (road and switcher), passenger stock, mail express, etc. visible (again, remember that final scene is supposed to be Newark NJ, so west coast power is freely traversing New Jersey in this film universe).The outdoor yard chase fimed real RR equipment, but alas the interior train scenes (sleeper and dining car) as well as the stations are clearly sets.
I asked Lady Firestorm, my resident old movie expert, about "Goodbye Mr. Chips," and it was filmed in England, so you're looking at real English trains in that film. The Austrian trains are dressed-up and altered British trains. The movie dates from 1939 so there's NO WAY they were going to Nazi-occupied Austria for film-making!
"Goodbye Mr. Chips" is actually a British film imported and released by MGM.
The only rail equipment studios owned that I'm aware of would have been 19th Century locomotives and rolling stock, handy for Westerns of course, and more-or-less contemporary passenger cars for on-site studio sets. For anything else it was easier for Hollywood to go local with the Santa Fe or Southern Pacific, or sometimes further afield to places like the Sierra Railroad.
Since I have a lot of time on my hands, I am watching a lot of classic movies on DVD. I just watched the film, "Goodbye Mr. Chips" made by MGM in 1939. There are scenes of English trains and Austrian trains from about 1880. They do not look like sets, they do look real in their details as I am well familiar with vintage European railway equipment. Now, here is my question, did movie studios own such trains? I know that there were and are railroads where westerns were filmed, but what about European trains for films set there? I've read a lot about Hollywood in those days and that MGM was the biggest studio so they must have been able to afford to bring over such equipment. Did they?
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