I’ve probably seen this movie about a half dozen times since it came out in the mid 1970s. The first time was at a drive-in. One thing I noticed this latest viewing that I hadn’t given much thought to before is that the three main actors, Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, and Keith Carradine, all seemed to do most of their own stunts while the train as moving. It all looked relatively dangerous so I’m guessing there were some hidden safety straps involved. All three actors were shown moving along the roof tops of a moving train and it seems to me there was no way to fake that. Marvin and Carradine were shown riding underneath a freight car as the train moved. Borgnine was shown hanging onto the ladder between cars. I’m curious as to how much danger the actors were actually in while filming these scenes.
I’ve seen that movie a couple of times. It’s absolutely great, one of my favorites.
My guess is, they used stunt doubles for the motion scenes and recorded duplicate scenes on static railcars with the stars. As an older (gentle)man myself, I recognize and appreciate my frailty, so I suspect age would lead to the realization that discretion is the greater part of valor. The filmmakers are great at hiding the transitions and making us forget we’re watching a movie.
Here’s Ernest Borgnine talking about the making of the movie.
Kevin
There were doubles for the three main actors: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070030/fullcredits. How and when used is not clear? I guess not everyone can be Tom Cruise.
There were a lot of films that had stunt people for the stars but the actors did their own stunts anyway.
Some of the scenes probably were stunt doubles but others had close up camera angles where it was clear it was the actor himself in the scene. The ones where the two hobos were riding under the freight cars seemed to show them on a moving train but it’s possible it could have been a static scene with a movie screen in the background showing the scenery going by. Ditto for the scene with Ernest Borgnine hanging onto the hand holds between freight cars as the train was moving. What couldn’t have been faked because I don’t think they had the technology back then were the scenes where the main actors were running along the roof tops of the cars on a moving train. That had to be the actors doing the scene themselves. Perhaps they had safety nets between the cars in case one of them fell there. Maybe they had similar precautions in case they fell over the side. The scenes where one of them either jumped or was thrown off the train probably were stunt doubles.
The Movie Channel on cable is currently showing Emperor of the North - Jan 10, 2025 525 PM
PSR wasn’t in effect.
Of course it was. But it was Precision Shack Railroading.
Shack lacked 4 letters from 21st Century railroading - SAFE
As demonstrated in the movie - the OP&E was no way to run a railroad.
I reached across from an open platform coach to pull myself up onto the grab irons of a boxcar while rounding the Alausi Loops in Ecuador (it was easier on the inside of a curve). I climbed up onto the roof; it wasn’t that hard. It’s not hard to walk on roof walks, even on rough track, and I doubt the trains in the movie were exceeding 25mph.
That was almost thirty years ago- I’m guessing the risk threshold was pretty low when they made “Emperor of the North.” And Ernest Borgnine wasn’t a shrinking violet (except maybe for that scene in “The Poseidon Adventure,” but chalk that up to acting.
The version that has the cussing is much better and rarely broadcast. Wouldn’t want to offend snowflakes
Ummm… some “snowflakes” aren’t as delicate as you may want to believe.
Penny, I suspect you’re no snowflake!
Regards, Chris