What is your favorite train movie?

.

this movie shows the drama, the human side of railroading as well as the equipment used during what i consider one of the most interesting decades,timewise.[1930s]. cant believe only 3or 4 guys mentioned this movie. to me,Emperor of theNorth far surpasses any movie made so far.-jim

forgot about another favervite-"Tough Guys" -has southern pacific daylight4-8-4 in the last part of the movie .i cannot find this on dvd.-jim

Charles Bronson in BreakHeart Pass.

 

It has it all...

 

 

 

My faves in no particular order:

 

Danger Lights, Broadway Limited (in spite of what the reviewers say, a MUCH better movie than the overwrought "20th Century Limited"), Tough Guys, and another sleeper: "Human Desire" starring Glenn Ford. 

 

Great train scenes in that one!

 

Jon

Toccata for Toy Trains

I'm with both of you.

 

And in addition to Danger Lights, I recommend Silver Streak.  NOT the 1976 film with Gene Wilder, but the 1934 picture of the same name,  starring the Burlington Zephyr.

If you remember b-westerns, Tex Ritter used trains in quite a few of his movie plots.

 

I have that one as well.

Unstoppable

The Train, Silver Streak (1976), North by Northwest, Runaway Train...all good

also Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid 

and a couple off beat...The Lady Vanishes & The Station Agent

 

A couple favorite train related movies or train scenes...

Stand by Me & Unforgiven

The General with Buster Keaton.

The Grey Fox, "true" story about Gearge Minor who gets out of prison for robbing stage coaches and turns to robbing trains when stage coaches are in the past.  Minor is credited for the term "Hands Up"   Great train shots and Canadian scenery.

The late Richard Farnsworth stars in it

Just saw that Turner Classics ran "Canadian Pacific " (1949) earlier today. Starring Randolph Scott and Jane Wyatt.

 

I missed it and have never seen it before. Looks interesting. Wiki says it was filmed on location in the Canadian Rockies at Banff.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C...n_Pacific_%28film%29

 

"The Lady Vanishes" by Alfred Hitchcok is an interesting movie classic.

No, fave, I like most of them. Here's 2 that I like not mentioned. Nice topic.

Under Siege 2: Dark Territory  1995 (Train is the movie)

 

The Professionals 1996   (Train in it)

 

Let's not forget the sleeper car in Some Like Hot (1959)

Guys,

 

Thanks for all of your responses but after viewing quite a number on Netflix the standout versions I would pick are agreeing with AMCDave and his choices and his response on May 9.

 

I have viewed 163 movies and those are my top picks just as AMCDave selected. If Hollywood would like to crank out a few more, I am sure that we would like to watch.

 

As you can see by watching trains in different movies not all scenes can necessarily be filmed in the same way, when taking into account time of day, camera angle, actors flubs, train #'s and era justifications. A tremendous amount of research goes into making a film historically accurate. Some films simply don't have the technical know how that we train geeks seem to have and some film companies are content to gloss over certain details. I know from personal experience, my sister made a short film about trains and a love story between two passengers! It takes forever and a day to get those camera angles and shadows right!

 

What should matter most to us is that with so many subjects to cover in such a diverse world that real trains (those that we love) still are making it! I personally am thrilled about that!

 

Mike Maurice

"Danger Lights"

"How the West Was Won" ficticious but alot of background history.

When this was asked over 10 years ago, the overwhelming majority said "Danger Lights" with "The Train" a respectable 2nd.  About 4-5 years ago, it was a virtual tie between the 2.  Now "Danger Lights" has a very small number of proponents.  Guess it just goes to show the Forum readerships' changing tastes.

 

Bill

 

Oh yeah, "Danger Lights" & "The Train" are on my heavy play rotation as to favorite "train" movie.  But one perhaps some of you have never seen is a good one: "Other Men's Women" directed by William Wellman.

- Unstoppable

- Under Siege 2: Dark Territory: action film set on board a train traveling through the Rocky Mountains from Denver to Los Angeles, with Steven Seagal . . . great train scenes.

I'd be interested in hearing Eddie g's perspective in this regard.

Moonson

My kids used to like these two:

587: The Great Train Robbery (2004)

It Happened To Jane (1959)

 

When I was a kid there was a made for TV movie with Ben Johnson about an out of control train.

Runaway!  (1973)   The ending was suspenseful for an 11 year old

He was also jhon ritter dad god rest both their souls.Can,t tell which railroad this is but that locomotive looks like a 4-6-0.Hey a freight train with out a cabosse.And all this time I thought that got started in the 80s

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1858481/

 

just saw an early release of Last Passenger (due out August 13).

unless you're compiling a 'worst train movie' list, save your money.

I personally liked the "Hurricane Express" from 1932 starring John Wayne.   Some great vintage railroad action in that one especially if you keep in mind it was made in 1932.

 

--Greg

North West Frontier is a magnificent train movie from the past. Made in 1959, shot in Cinemascope, starring Lauren Bacall, Kenneth More, Herbert Lom etc.

Do yourself a favor and find this movie if you have never seen it before.

Greg

that is a 12 chapter serial.

 

Wayne starred in his first b-western movie, Ride him cowboy in 1932.

But was in some romance and adventure movies prior to that.

 

 

In order of release :

North by Northwest
Silver Streak (1976)
Runaway Train
Narrow Margin remake from " 1952 The Narrow Margin"
Under Siege 2: Dark Territory

The Polar Express
Unstoppable

OK, here's one no one has mentioned. Cinerama Holiday. It had a great section with Western Pacific's CZ. It will be released this Oct. in BluRay for the first time ever and be shown in the Cinerama Dome the same day in Los Angeles. Don

Take a look. http://youtu.be/eWeZ0qYGVP4

Completely forgot about Narrow Margin, 1952 version.  This is a pretty good one, too.

 

The Thin Man Goes Home has some neat train action is the beginning.  First the typical station footage, than the business of riding a train in wartime and the inherent crowding.   Thin Man movies are some of my favorites.

Scale Rail:  Already have mine ordered (along with "South Seas Adventure"). Flicker Alley says they're putting ALL the Cinerama films on BluRay - I'm going in for all. Wouldn't you like to see cinerama make a comeback? Say, on an IMAX-sized curved screen?

Yes, Cinerama. Years after its original screening my father took us to a theatre in Providence Rhode Island. It was the early 1970's & it still had the cinerama screen and was showing the orginal movie, it was amazing technology for the 1970's and it was  nearly 20 years old at that point...

I am going to limit this post to some favorite movies that have not yet been mentioned. COMEDIES: "The Palm Beach Story" (Claudette Colbert meets the Ale & Quail Club), "Our Hospitality" (Buster Keaton prior to "The General") and "People Will Talk" (Cary Grant Lionel train scenes).

 

DRAMA: "The Railway Children" (1970 version), "El Ultimo Tren" (beautifully filmed in Uruguay with English subtitles, great story), "Fried Green Tomatoes" (same steam train appears throughout the movie), Iron Will (sled dog race is good viewing for a hot summer day), "The Journey of Natty Gann" (filmed with British Columbia steam), "Bad Day at Black Rock" (great SP Black Widow and Daylight scenes at opening and closing, no trains in between) and "End of the Line" (along with "Unstoppable" are among the few movies filmed with second generation diesels).

 

LOGGING DRAMAS: "The Big Trees" and "God's Country and the Woman" share some stock footage and themes, but both include good logging camp and woods scenes.

 

TRAIN WRECKS: "Ring of Fire" and "The Cassandra Crossing" (along with the previously-mentioned "Bridge on the River Kwai") have a violent climax with graphic scenes of trains falling through collapsing bridges. "Mrs. Winterbourne" and "My House in Umbria", by contrast, both have rail disasters early in the story, skip the expense of actually destroying passenger coaches, and continue with the stories of survivors. All are interesting stories.

 

WESTERNS: Too many building the railroad stories with 4-4-0's tend to run together and look alike. My favorite is "Once Upon a Time in the West" because the railhead or end-of-track realistically moves during the epic story. Also, the opening scene calls for trains running two and four hours late, unlike "High Noon" and "3:10 to Yuma" with their right on time trains.  

There have been several lists of railroad-related movies on the internet. Amtrak's home page once had a link to a rather brief list, and the Trains Magazine forums also invited member-submitted posts of their favorite train movies. But one that groups and rates movies and can introduce you to films you may be unfamiliar with is hosted by California's South Coast Railroad Museum. To access it, visit the SCRM home page, click on the "Trains and Railroads" button, and then on the "In the Movies" tab.

Berth Marks is one of my favorites , especially the open sequences.

In no order

 

Unstoppable

Emperor of the North

Danger Lights

Great Locomotive Chase

Von Ryan's Express

Despite my age, love of trains and movies, I've not seen all the ones listed in the thread.  But of those I have seen, hands down favorite for me is Runaway Train.  Once those escaped prisoners walk into that rail yard, nearly the rest of the movie is done on the train in that brutally cold Alaska atmosphere.  Silver Streak would be next.  There was also a lesser known flick (and remake), 'Narrow Margin', with Gene Hackman and Anne Archer.  Similar plot to Silver Streak but a more serious crime drama.

Between 1930 and 1954 there were about 2500 b-western movies produced.

Many incorporated railroading into the plot.

For some reason the Southern Pacific seemed to be the favorite of these low budjet films, most being made by the poverty row sudioes.

One Roy Rogers movie had the rustlers loading cars that had a cabforward articulated for steam power.

There were several stations that were frequently filmed. Chatsworth station and the tunnel north of town, that could be seen from the lone ranger rock [Iverson Ranch] were in many films and serials. Others included Kernville and Lone Pine station that was in a number of Gene Autry  and Hopalong Cassidy films.

Just saw "Jesse James" last night on Turner Classic Movies from 1939.  Tyrone Power was Jesse and Henry Fonda was Frank James.  There were some great scenes of an 1870's 4-4-0 loco and three passenger cars, and Jesse on horseback chasing the train (to rob it).

          paul m.