Classic train movies

[Fading Fast]

"Night Train to Munich", 1940, with Rex Harrison is a terrific thriller that takes place almost entirely on a train.
"Saratoga Trunk", 1945, starring Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman, has a major section that shows a real "war" that took place between two rival railroads in New York State during the 19th century.
"Union Pacific", 1939, with good old Joel McCrea, Barbara Stanwick, and 24 year old Robert Preston as the bad guy.
"The Palm Beach Story", 1942, with Claudette Colbert, Joel McCrea and Rudy Vallee, has a long and hilarious section that takes place on a train.
"Wild Boys of the Road", 1933, depicts the lives of a couple of runaway kids during the Depression, mostly riding the rails.
"Broadway Limited", 1941, with the wonderful Victor McLaglen, is set on the famous Pennsylvania Railroad "Broadway Limited" train, that competed with the NY Central's 20th Century Ltd for the Chicago to New York business.
"Twentieth Century", 1934, screwball comedy with John Barrymore and Carole Lombarde, is set on the 20th Century Ltd.

I've never understood why "Night Train to Munich" doesn't get much attention as, as mentioned, it is a terrific thriller, but also a movie - owing to the quality of the acting and writing, and the wonderful time-travel feel one gets form it today - that can be watch over and over again as one picks up new things in the story line / character development each time while still enjoying the overall sweep of the movie. That said, and I'm doing this from memory as I haven't seen it in a few years, but I think Rex Harrison has one of those magical Hollywood guns that (in the final sequence) shoots 18 or 19 rounds before running out of bullets and, unbelievably, causing him surprise as if he thought he could just shoot forever without reloading.

 

[Blackthorn]

My personal favorite is Shanghai Express. It captures very well what China was like back then, and is also a good pre-code example. It's also the only movie where I truly like Marlene Dietrich.

 

[MikeKardec]

How about The Seven Percent Solution? A movie that makes you think it's all going to be set on stuffy sets and then ... Nicol Williamson and Robert Duval and Holmes and Watson hijack a switching engine to pursue the Orient Express. The first modern Holmes reboot, it a piece of Around the World in Eighty Days craziness after the trains get rolling.

 

[countryclubjoe]

Von Ryans Express

and

Breakheart Pass--- Charles Bronson, Jill Ireland.

CCJ

 

[djd]

Another vote for Night Train to Munich! Almost as good as The Lady Vanishes. North by Northwest too, even if the train time is limited.

Would also add From Russia with Love and a number of Poirot episodes - Murder on the Blue Train, The Plymouth Express, etc

 

[Haversack]

Just about every Preston Sturges written and directed movie has at least one scene that takes place on board a train. In his day, this signature of his was so well known at Paramount that in the 1943 studio satire and wartime booster movie, Star Spangled Rhythm, Preston Sturges, playing himself, is watching dailies of a musical number by the Golden Gate Quartet, Mary Martin and Dick Powell set in a dining car late at night.

Haversack

 

[Bugsy]

Hi all,

Later this month, my father and I will be doing the California Zephyr from Emeryville to Chicago. It's something we've always wanted to do. One thing I thought might be fun was to assemble a collection of classic train-related movies for the trip, but I'm coming up short on ideas.
Any suggestions from the Lounge?

Thanks!
-TS

You're going to love the trip. It's not a fast ride, but it's a beautiful one. I did it two years ago and enjoyed every minute of it.
Here are some suggestions:
The General
The Great Locomotive Chase
20th Century

 

[Bugsy]

You're going to love the trip. It's not a fast ride, but it's a beautiful one. I did it two years ago and enjoyed every minute of it.
Here are some suggestions:
The General
The Great Locomotive Chase
20th Century[/SIZE]

AND the 1975 version of Murder on the Orient Express

 

[Fading Fast]

Not a train movie, but in the second "Thin Man" movie ("After the Thin Man"), it opens with (or happens very early on) Nick and Nora on a train to the west coast and, if memory serves, it's a pretty good train moment - they are in their room packing for when the train arrives at its destination and you see a decent amount of the train's interior.

 

[djd]

The Thin Man Goes Home opens on a packed train too I think? Great films

 

[p51]

'White heat' has great train scenes at the start. "Come see the Paradise" also has some great train scenes, too. Many movies have trains around.
But the best train movies I can think of off the top of my head are:

• Emperor of the North (the 'Citizen Kane' of train movies)
• The Train
• The General
• The Great Locomotive Chase
• Tough Guys
• the Grey Fox
• Voy Ryan's Express
• Union Pacific
• Unstoppable

 

[MillersCrossing]

Heck yeah! One of my personal favourites.

I would also recommend Switchback, a wonderful little crime thriller from 1997 starring Danny Glover, Dennis Quaid and Jared Leto. Although not set on a train, it worked trains into the plot in a most creative way. Danny Glover plays a most unusual role (for him) in it.

The Getaway with Steve McQueen and Ali McGraw has a fantastic train/train station sequence.

Narrow Margin is a must, as several have mentioned.

Does Runaway Train with Jon Voight count?

 

[rjb1]

Saw an obscure train picture last night:
"Prison Train" - 1938. It's about transporting a carload of convicts to Alcatraz, with a lot of sub-plots thrown in. It is about one part gangster picture, one part prison picture, one part train picture, and one part "Cabinet of Dr. Caligari".
It has very strange lighting and camera angles at various parts, hence the "Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" aspect. The rest of it looks ordinary, but more like 1932 than 1938. It's closer in time to "Gone With the Wind" and "Wizard of Oz", but looks and feels a lot more like "Scarface".

It has one really interesting and unusual casting element that would be a major-scale spoiler so I won't describe it.
(Also, "Narrow Margin" stole a number of its plot elements.)

 

[I Adore Film Noir]

The Narrow Margin (already mentioned a couple of times) is a great train film noir.

The Lady Vanishes is perhaps my favorite train film. While I'm not a huge fan, Shanghai Express is also worth seeing.

I second The Lady Vanishes, wonderful film:

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9UKbEErttM[/video]

 

[tealseal]

Wow everyone! Thanks for all the suggestions and recommendations! The trip was wonderful, but we did spend a lot more time looking out the window than watching movies or playing games. That being said, I still am collecting the films everyone recommended and will be watching them (I love train movies in their own right).
Thanks again everyone; proving once again that the Lounge is an amazing place.

Regards to all,
tealseal

 

[Matt Crunk]

The Criterion release of Night Train To Munich is a wonderfully restored/remastered print.

My wife and I are thinking about taking Amtrak to NYC later this year. If we do it will be my first train trip since taking a train ride as a child with my Grandfather, a career locomotive engineer, who insisted that I experience traveling by steam-powered train, which is what he drove for much of his career. We took a retiring steam engine's final run from Muscle Shoals, AL. to Memphis , TN. I still remember standing in an open window of the observation car, smelling the burning coal and watching the burning embers floating by.

 

[Warden]

Rather unusual for me, on a whim I purchased the Hornby limited edition model of the Titfield Thunderbolt which included the DVD. Had some quality father and son time watching this classic British film. ~ Perfect