Trains in movies

just caught "2 Guns" in which the opening scene is shot looking through a grade crossing as a freight train zips by.  ...the rest of the movie is so-so.

 

here's another scene i keep forgetting to mention when this topic comes up.

Robert De Niro & Charles Grodin hop a freight in "Midnight Run"...

 

Anatomy of a Murder is a great movie - we love it.  There is also a train, of course, in Double Indemnity, a truly epic film noir - some say the film noir.

 

But my favorite "train scene" is much more recent - the one in the series Breaking Bad where Walt and Jessie hijack the materials for their meth manufacture right off a train they have stopped in the middle of the desert.  A very good, long, and tense scene, with a few detailed looks at the loco and inside the cab.

Here's an obscure one:  Human Desire (1954) starring Glenn Ford and Broderick Crawford.

 

Ford stars as a Korean War vet returning to his job as engineer on the railroad and gets involved with Broderick's wife.

 

A paint-modified Rock Island FA stars in the close ups as Northern Central #315,(shot in Denver, looks like.)   Cab interiors are of an F-unit!  Most of the other railroad scenes are stock railroad footage from the Santa Fe, SP, B&O and others.

 

Rusty

Last night we watched the 1930s movie "Danger Lights" and were greatly impressed by the great shots of not only locomotives, but roundhouse exterior and interior shots. Also steam shovel at work, and great shots of coming into Chicago. If you haven't seen it, catch the movie on youtube. Oh, there a great sequence of a pushing contest between 2 steam locomotives included.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpa5BPRdgkk

josef,

You're right, great shots and RR scenes in that movie.

I watched it just a couple of days ago.

The movie also portrays the dangers and hard work of RR workers.

Shot on actual RR properties.

Ralph

As soon as I saw the title of this thread I tought of "Danger Lights". I have it on video, and think it is the best train movie, by far.

Von Ryan's Express 1965 many great actors.

My favourite is still 'The Titfield Thunderbolt.' 

 

That was a great movie, Nicole.  I loved those old J Arthur Rank films.

I love Murder on the Orient Express - there are good train scenes in both the Albert Finney and David Suchet versions.  And some good train, station, and passenger car scenes in various episodes of Jeremy Brett's Sherlock Holmes series.   The crime in Double Indemnity takes place in the observation car.  And of course, the Orient Express again in From Russia With Love . . .

 

Less famous, but one of my favorite cute little movies from way back when is It Happens Every Spring with Ray Milland.  There are some good scenes at train stations and in trains as the baseball team travels from one town to another by train.

Burt Lancaster in "The Train" not only has great steam engine action but is also a great WWII movie.

Ladies & Gentlemen,

    My favorite train movie is Breakheart Pass with Charles Bronson, Ben Johnson & Richard Crenna, good old western movie, with great train shots, also the Train Robbers, John Wayne & Ann Margrett & Ben Johnson has some real great train scenes in it also.  Both western movies well worth watching.  Von Ryans Express is also a great WWII train move, Frank Sanatra at his best.

PCRR/Dave

 

 

The Lone Ranger movie is out on DVD and has lots of neat train action. It is not historically accurate but I enjoyed it. Great stunts, and they are not CGI.

 

I had the chance to work in the controversial 80s Lone Ranger movie, which also had train and a model train used for Butch Cavendish set-up raid to capture Grant. At the time of release, I also wasn't sure if I liked it or not. Looking back, it got a lot of bad reviews and critism because of the Clayton Moore mask thing. Having worked with Klinton Spillsbury, the critism was warranted in some way, but also over blown. If someone had been there to help and guide him, things may have been different. Looking/watching the same movie today, I look at it in a different light.

There are good train movies, and then there are GREAT train movies.  This is one of them! Kick back, full-screen it and enjoy.  Shot mostly on what is today the Valley Railroad in Connecticut.

 

Jon

The Flim Flam Man

 

So many to mention, as this thread pops up from time to time. I myself, like Narrow Margin with Gene Hackman.

 

So many good ones but have to agree "It Happened to Jane" Is a great movie. Kovacs was great!

Released in 1934, "The Silver Streak" featured CB&Q's Pioneer Zephyr (renamed for the movie of course): 

 

Bob

Nicole - Truly you are a treasure.  If counter feets didn't prove it The Titfield Thunderbolt does.  What a great movie!  What a woman!  Lucky for you I'm happily married and an ocean away.

 

Pete

Jon -

 

Thanks for posting "It Happened To Jane".  I have never seen it before, and just finished watching it.  Storyline typical of that era (1959), but still very entertaining.  Thanks again.

 

Mike

Bet most of you have never seen the short "The Railrodder". Great color shots of railroads in the 60's. Well worth taking a look at. Don

When posting on another thread, I mentioned another of my favourite train movies. I think that thread is probably more applicable though.

The movie is 'North West Frontier'. It's got a great cast, great train action, and I have always thoroughly enjoyed watching it. If you are looking for a train movie with a difference, then I heartily recommend it. 

 

Here is the trailer.

 

It happened to Jane is one of the best for a ton of reasons...last J1 Mike on the road, and a not so subtle swipe at Patrick B !!   New Haven Lives !

Emperor of the North and North by Norhtwest have a lot of train action, but the stores make these movies very enteratining. I can and do watch them frequently.

 

As for the best film of trains, it has to be the 1934 version of The Silver Streak, but then I am prestigious - I'm a die hard CB&Q fan, modeler and collector! Nothing like seeing a lot of Q steam and the famous Pioneer Zephyr. 

Ladies & Gentlemen,

    I do believe Doris Day's 90th birthday was just a few days ago, what a beautiful lady. It happened to Jane was just one of many movies she starred in, with or without a train, she is a class act, and very hard to follow.

 

Narrow Margin with Hackman is one of my favorites also, lots of great train scenes, with big time action and mystery, no doubt about it.

 

North by Northwest - Indiana Pa's Icon & legend Jimmy Stewart, at his best, one of the top movies ever made.

 

PCRR/Dave

 

  

"The Bête Humaine" French film noir from 1938. This is the movie that "Human Desire" is based on.  Black and white with beautiful shots of steam engines, cabs, and one shot from the cab of the fireman lowering the water scoop and watering on the fly. Love triangle set over a background of French steam railroads.  Good plot, good story. TCM runs it every once in a while. 

Man... I like that Put Put. It can go across the country on 1 tank of gas. AND the orange box can haul as much as a 10 car freight train.

 

Great video and I like the others also.

Here's a video that goes into how they did the train scenes. Very cool stuff!

 

Fred

 

 

You'd be surprised how many movies have trains in them.   My son, 12, who is not into trains at all, and I have a little game in that whenever I see a train in a movie I say "train movie" and write it down in a list we keep. To date we have 387 movies in the list.  We watched Grudge Match tonight which was # 387.

- Greg