Hiya gang from captain video aka rixflix
I’ve been filling in my railroad vhs collection lately and it’s been an adventure!!! Having
good luck with Amazon new/used and Railroad Video Productions. Amazon is pretty
crazy though. My last order of 13 films came from 11 different sellers, cost mostly between 2 and 10 dollars each and total freight was about 45 dollars.
Some of these flicks give good movie but bad or minimal train.
Some give bad movie with good train.
Some are beginning to end awful.
Some are plain marvelous.
I think you will like a couple of these, though.
LA BETE HUMAINE (The Human Beast) directed by the legendary Jean Renoir is a
beautifully shot, disturbing story of a French engineman’s life on and off the rails. Can a
violent temperament be inherited?
I am here to tell you that the French can railroad!!! The opening sequence shot from the steam locomotive’s cab of the LeHavre express, at speed, over impeccable right-of way
will put mist in your eyes. Very atmospheric railroad scenery features LeHavre (ocean pier?) terminal,
engine and coach yards, yard office, dormitory and of course STEAM.
This one has joined the films I’m wearing out, like “The Train”, “Emperor of the North”, and
“Danger Lights”. [tup]
OUR HOSPITALITY usually comes with “Sherlock Jr.” in VHS. This Buster Keaton film is
sooooo funny!!! Buster heads south from New York in 1830 to claim his inheritance but
doesn’t know he is the last member of a family nearly extinguished by another in a feud
Well the pretty passenger he’s falling for is from that other family and complications
ensue.
The “steam cars” is a train with those old stagecoach on flanged wheels affairs that goes so slow that Buster’s dog follows him all the way to Tennesee or wherever by
running along under the last coach. In one scene: (a)hillbilly throws rocks at engineer
(b)engineer throws firewood at hillbill
Has anyone seen “Derailed”? We saw it the other day. [tdn]
Granted the name of the movie is “Derailed”; it has trains and plenty of violence.
Now tell me why the movie was called “derailed”[?] Or was it the plot[?]
This isn’t a railroad movie but it did have a crash scene in it- The Fugitive, starring Harrison Ford. The railroad scene was filmed near Dillsboro, North Carolina on The Great Smokey Mountain Railroad, a tourist railroad that also does some switching chores for a couple of small industries on the former Murphy Branch of the Southern Railroad. The movie set ( two locomotives and a bus ) is still there.
WOW, it’s up to 7 pages now. Did anybody mention yet “The Greatest Show on Earth,” 1952, Charlton Hesston? It’s the movie about the Ringling Bros and their circus train and stuff. Never saw the whole thing, but seen parts of it. I was reminded of it when I read the article in the March 2004 issue of trains.
I enjoyed the train scenes in “Greatest Show on Earth.” Not mentioned yet was another non-train movie with a great movie scene: “Dr. Zhivago” I understand the train scene were filmed in Northern Finland.
If you want a railroad movie that will have you rolling on the floor watch Buster Keaton " The Railrodder". Buster is standing on the London Bridge reading a paper about the opportunities avaiable “out west” ( Canada) casually folds the paper stands up on the railing and jumps in the river and starts swimming…next scene he is climbing out of the Atlantic ocean and walks up to an active single track RR (CNRR I think) and climbs aboard an idling Fairmont putt-putt inspection car and takes off on his way to the west coast. It’s B&W but worth every penny. There is also a documentary of how the made The Railrodder called “Buster Keaton Ride’s Again”, that’s just as hilarious as the main film.
Yep, Zhivago is a great film in many respects and it’s train scenes are pretty unforgetable. Strelnikov’s armored train roaring past, flags flying, on some ominous mission is cool!
So is the scene when the passengers open the door to reveal a solid sheet of ice which
they then have to break with a shovel to throw their own manure out. . Did a whistle ever sound so shrill or did steam ever look so good as they do here in the thin, frigid air of the vast steppes? (actually Finland)
Wow!!! [tup]
I HAVE ALWAYS THOUGHT “THE TRAIN”, “EMPEROR OF THE NORTH”, AND “BREAKHART PASS” ARE ALL VERY GOOD RAILROAD MOVIES. MY NEIGHBOR LIKES “VON RYANS EXPRESS” WHICH I FIND A LITTLE OVER ACTED AND EXTRA CAMPIE.
Just acquired “The 39 Steps” by Alfred Hitchcock (pssst…Hitch loved trains!!!), one of his classic mistaken identity thrillers. Thrilling for train fans is the express train to Scotland shrieking through the night and making an emergency stop on the Forth Bridge where the hero / victim climbs off the train to make his escape.
Some Hitchcock films with railroad action:
THE 39 STEPS (1935)[tup]
NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959)[tup]
STRANGERS ON A TRAIN (1951)[tup]
NO. 17 (1932) thank you vsmith
There are at least two more. I’ve seen short clips of them in one of those “collect them all” things that they put in front of vhs features. Because of the way they fla***he clips and titles, it’s hard to correlate the two.
“The Bridge on the River Kwai” is one of my all-time favorites. The construction and destruction of the bridge and it’s conflict of wills between Niven, Holden and Jack Hawkins is gripping. You’ll feel the tug-of-war too when the bridge and the locomotive are destroyed and the doctor character exclaims, “Madness!!!”[tup]
“East of Eden” is a Cain and Abel story featuring James Dean. He gets to hitch a freight train ride from Monterey to Salinas (?) and tries to implement his scheme to refrigerate
produce during shipment on what else but the Espy. All he wants is his father’s love and dad is kinda stingy with that commodity.[tup]
“Stand by Me”, even without the “all-time train dodge” is a wonderful film about four boys in their last days of boyhood. Men will be powerfully reminded of that time in their own lives. Beautifully shot against big Oregon scenery. The “Barf-a-rama” story will stick in your minds if not on everything else within hurl-shot. Buy this and you’ll watch it many times.[tup]
I think the boss would like me to work now. Bon matin, kids.
Blessed be Jean Shepard in all His works.
Captain Video aka Rixflix
you need to get Hitchcocks “Number 17” also done about the same time as The 39 Steps. It has a great chase at the end where the bad guys are on a train and the cops are chasing them in a bus, its done with models but its impressive none the less. BTW the inevitable traincrash at the end is very well done.
]Although this movie isn’t about trains, train wreck at the beginning of the Fugitive was pretty intense. Those two Illinois Southern units crashing into the bus makes you want to watch the scene over and over again. Then the freight cars fly everywhere. It is awesome![:D]
If you are seriously interested in (not only railroad) movies, “Videohound’s Golden Movie Retriever (fill in the year)” is the book for you. It is published by Visible Ink Press and is available from Barnes & Noble, Amazon, etc. and now has a companion DVD book. It’s paperback, 1700 pages long and crammed with information on every movie ever sold on VHS tape. It’s reviews give info on date, rating, format, actors, directors, writers, and music for each flick. Reviews themselves are pithy and often funny. Other sections include: alternate titles, categories (“trains” is one), series, awards, cast (with each actor’s movies listed), directors (ditto), writers (ditto), cinematographers (ditto), and composers (ditto); also video sources (sellers), websites of actors, directors, studios, etc. In short, this is the video bible. Say you can remember the actors but not the title, with this book you’ll be able to find it, read the review and maybe buy or rent it.
The films are rated “woof” (as in dog), 1, 1-1/2, 2,…4 bones. I give it [tup][tup][tup][tup]
(no bones in the smilies)
Must leave now, adios
Blessed be Jean Shepard in all His works
including “A Christmas Story” and “My Summer Story” on VHS
Captain Video aka Rixflix
Over and Out