Two of my great loves combined! Pre 1970s trains in pre 1970s film. I’m sure I have left off something obvious but here are some of my favorite classic films which feature trains. Curious what others will add to this list.
The General (1926) - classic film with Buster Keaton set during the Civil War. One famous scene after another. Keatons character has “two great loves”: his locomotive, and a girl. In that order lol.
The Narrow Margin (1952) - classic film noir with great exterior and interior shots of a Santa Fe run from Chicago to Los Angeles.
White Heat (1950) - great Jimmy Cagney film with a brief sequence where a steam train (almost certainly a SP or ATSF) is robbed.
North by Northwest (1955) - Hitchcock classic with extended sequences on an ATSF (I believe), and a great scene inside a classic era station’s Great Hall.
The Lady Vanishes (1938) - another great Hitchcock film set almost exclusively on a train. Margaret Lockwood is at her most gorgeous. Plus, you get Caldicott and Charters for laughs!
Night Train to Munich (1940) - wonderful Carol Reed WW2 spy film set on a train - again with Caldicott and Charters - and Lockwood. I say ole chap! Isn’t that Dickey Randle?!?
Emporer of the North Pole was made in 1973, but is set back in the depression on the 1930s. The train is a short local steamer with Ernest Borgnine as the conductor and Lee Marvin as the hobo trying to ride it.
Actually, that would the NYC 20th Limited passenger cars with “window scenes” along the east side of the Hudson, between Harmon and Albany, NY. The “Great Hall” would be the famous NYC Grand Cental Station in downtown Manhattan.
Obviously the NYC didn’t go as far as South Dakota so another appropriate locomotive would have needed to be used for the west of St. Louis shots.
The Out of Towners (1970) - An Ohio sales executive accepts a higher position within the company and travels to New York City with his wife for his job interview but things go wrong from the start. Starring Jack Lemmon and Sandy Dennis.
It Happened to Jane (1959) - Jane Osgood runs a lobster business, which supports her two young children. Railroad staff inattention ruins her shipment, so with her lawyer George, Jane sues Harry Foster Malone, director of the line and the “meanest man in the world”. Starring Doris Day, Jack Lemmon, and Ernie Kovacs.
The silent films of Helen Holmes often featured dangerous stunts involving trains of that era - some priceless views. The Hazards of Helen. I believe she did her own stunts. The Perils of Pauline and some of the Keystone Kops films also have great train sequences. Trains feature in more than one Buster Keaton silent as well.
Will add those to the list. Have not seen either, but always enjoy Jack Lemmon.
The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit (1956) with Gregory Peck has some Long Island RR commuter train action.
Holiday Affair (1949?) with Robert Mitchum (one of my favorites) and Janet Leigh (looking impossibly good), has both model trains and a real train as part of the plot.
Here’s a fun one: The Railrodder. One of Keaton’s last films from the mid-60s shows him cruising around Canada on CN trackage thru the country, city, yards etc on a MoW hand cart of sorts, avoiding F units and switchers in a sequence of typical sight gags. Stumbled on this one this morning (along with “Portable House” from 1920 which has a famous scene of a steam train demolishing his home).
The guy really did seem to have a thing for trains.
“In The Heat of The Night” starring Sidney Poitier, Rod Steiger and GM&O E-7A 103. Rail scenes also include some MOPAC action on the banks of the Mississippi River and a fight in a deserted shop area. Closing credits feature aerial shots of a GM&O short passenger consist leaving “Sparta”.
White Christmas has the stars going from Miami to Vermont first on the Santa Fe to New York and from NewYork to Vermont on the SP showing them arriving at the Dunsmir CA station.
White Christmas is great for its train scenes. Really gives a flavor for railroading in the post WW2 era.
If I remember right, Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) has Cagney’s family either waiting in the depot for a train, or riding a train, or both.
I have added Human Desire to my list. I’m a huge noir fan; can’t believe I haven’t seen that one yet…
In the “short film” category I recommend the classic Twilight Zone episode “Stopover in a Quiet Town” (1964), where a train ride and station play a key role.