Favorite Train/Transportation Movies

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North by Northwest is a great mystery, Silver Streak is fun too.

Have any of you watched Horror Express? That one is not bad either.

I'm surprised this one is in Non-Rail Transportation.
 
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jis said:
A few others that are worthy of a mention are:

  • Murder on the Orient Express
  • Von Ryan's Express
Not a train movie per se, but some of the sequences involving trains in Doctor Zhivago are classic.

And then there is of course the Taking of Pelham 123.

There are some very nice and authentic train scenes in The Jewel in the Crown and Gandhi too.

The rail sequences in Gandhi were filmed on the Garhi Harsaru - Farrukhnagar (then) Metre Gauge branch off of my old stomping grounds - the Delhi Jn. - Bikaner route via Rewari and Loharu. Loharu was my home station.
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I was thinking about Murder on the Orient Express today and I must agree. I love cozy mysteries and Agatha Christie was a master at them. A classic story on a famous train. An e-book I might actually download for my upcoming trip or perhaps even the movie.
 
jimhudson said:
GG-1 said:
Aloha

Even among train fans,no mention of Supper Train :lol:
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I remember that one Eric, it was Awful! and a True Fantasy for Sure!!! (And some of the Commercials and Movies through the Years have used this Theme by showing Trains with Huge Spaces and Rooms that look like the Playboy Mansion!
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Awful is a nice :giggle: word! :lol: That movie is my favorite bad movie. :lol:

Aloha
 
Did anyone mention Frank Capra's "It Happened One Night"? Released in 1934 by Columbia, starred Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert. It walked away with Best Picture, Actor, Actress, and Director Oscar's. It was filmed extensively on an Atlantic Greyhound Lines Yellow Coach. It also had a brief scene of hoboes riding freight trains.

One of the best films of all times.

There are lots more films to add to this thread, but IIRC, we have done similar threads a few times already.......
 
railiner said:
Did anyone mention Frank Capra's "It Happened One Night"? Released in 1934 by Columbia, starred Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert. It walked away with Best Picture, Actor, Actress, and Director Oscar's. It was filmed extensively on an Atlantic Greyhound Lines Yellow Coach. It also had a brief scene of hoboes riding freight trains.

One of the best films of all times.

There are lots more films to add to this thread, but IIRC, we have done similar threads a few times already.......
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TCM showed this again a couple of weeks ago, it really is a Classic! :wub: There's a Basic Reason there are So Many Movies and Songs about Travel, Especially Trains! They can Cure the Soul and make it Whole! ;)
 
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An old black and white [1945] British film called "Brief Encounter" starring Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson revolves around a couple who meet at a railway station cafe at frequent intervals, fall in love, but are married to other people. They always take trains home in opposite directions from the station. Lots of drama and tears throughout, all to the soundtrack of Rachmaninoff's 2nd piano concerto. Really sad ending, but as one would expect in 1945 - they both choose to go back to their mundane, boring lives in order to avoid scandal. One review says of this movie "It created the archetype for the romantic farewell on a station platform, with steam hissing from trains, and an orchestra playing in the background. "

PS [sarahZ, I like your signature pic so much that I downloaded a similar one for myself]
 
Okay....so we will continue this?

Another great film, was "The Harvey Girls", released by MGM in 1946, starred Judy Garland, John Hodiak, Ray Bolger,and a young Angela Lansbury. It was a musical that told briefly of the way The Fred Harvey Company 'tamed the West', and its relationship with the AT&SF.

It featured the Oscar winning song by Harry Warren and Johnny Mercer--'On The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe'....
 
There was a "young" version of Angela Lansbury?

You learn something new everyday.

I've been wondering whatever happened to "Airplane III" that was teased at the end of Airplane II.

As for more suggestions how about this...

Lost in Translation is one of those movies that uses distant travel as a primary theme without moving the movie itself much at all. The themes are interesting, at least if you're into topics like culture shock and introspection, but the plot moves rather slowly and the dialog can be a bit too simplistic at times. Some themes are rather obvious while some scenes are so subtle it's not entirely clear what you're supposed to be picking up on. Despite taking place thousands of miles away from "home" the movie itself doesn't move around much at all. I think the age, personality, and previous experiences of the viewer probably have a lot to do with who will enjoy this movie and who will not. If you're into cultural confusion and the human condition from the view of the recently married or the thoroughly middle aged then why not give it a try?
 
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Devil's Advocate said:
There was a "young" version of Angela Lansbury?

You learn something new everyday.
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I said that because I figure many know her more for her television series 'Murder, She Wrote'......She was quite attractive in her youth.....but then, hey....weren't we all? :)
 
railiner said:
Devil's Advocate said:
There was a "young" version of Angela Lansbury?

You learn something new everyday.
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I said that because I figure many know her more for her television series 'Murder, She Wrote'......She was quite attractive in her youth.....but then, hey....weren't we all? :)
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She was known for Playing "Mothers" even when she was Young! (ie She played Elvis Preselys Mother in "Blue Hawaii" and in "The Manchurian Cantidate" Played Lawrence Harvey's Evil Mother (Meryl Streep played this Part in the Remake) even though she was Younger than him! She was quite a "Looker" Back in the Day" and Played many "Best Friends/Face in the Crowd etc. in her Early Days in the Movies!
 
Has anyone mentioned "The Out of Towners" - the 1970 version with Jack Lemmon and Sandy Dennis? Great scenes on a packed New Haven train between Boston and New York after George's (Lemmon) flight to New York was diverted.
 
PRR 60 said:
Has anyone mentioned "The Out of Towners" - the 1970 version with Jack Lemmon and Sandy Dennis? Great scenes on a packed New Haven train between Boston and New York after George's (Lemmon) flight to New York was diverted.
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Yeah, I remember that one....they really showed the essence of what Penn Central 'service' was at that time (New Haven was just absorbed by PC in 1969)....down to grumpy crew, and food car running out of food.... ;)
 
Though not about trains or transportation (it's a horror film), 1982's remake version of 'Cat People' deserves mention. Played by actress Nastassja Kinski, her character discovers her, shall we say, dual nature, and to escape from it, purchases an Amtrak ticket in what's supposed to be the New Orleans rail terminal. Full shots of the name and inverted arrow are behind the male ticket agent attired in a bright red blazer. Later, a shot of two F40's with strobe lights flashing, and pulling a solid Heritage single level consist that she is supposed to be on, crosses a drawbridge over an unidentified body of water. At the time in 1982, both the Crescent and City of New Orleans operated with this equipment, though in the terminal we briefly see Amfleet cars parked at the end of stub-ended tracks.

Aaaaaannndd: it was in PHASE 3! How cool is that!!
 
NE933 said:
Though not about trains or transportation (it's a horror film), 1982's remake version of 'Cat People' deserves mention. Played by actress Nastassja Kinski, her character discovers her, shall we say, dual nature, and to escape from it, purchases an Amtrak ticket in what's supposed to be the New Orleans rail terminal.
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I assume a scene where she gets thrown off the train for violating the "no pets" rule was left on the cutting-room floor.

The Harrison Ford movie "Witness," from about the same time, also has a fair number of Amtrak scenes, including at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia.
 
Well, she hadn't transformed yet (thank God, as the curse that is the movie's title, had them change not to house cats but panthers! The other passengers would have been mortally wounded). Also, I looked at the scene a 2nd time and it is indeed New Orleans, the Astro Dome that was infamously damaged during Hurricane Katrina is apparently nearby, the terminal in its shadow.
 

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