The whole movie is free now and on YouTube. Most of these Scenes were filmed on CP in Alberta.
One of “THOSE” Movies!.. [yeah] [swg]
Keeps poppin up on the laate nite “movies” … [tup]
A 1970’s ‘remake’ of a previous ‘one’['30s or so?]… A draw to ‘rail-fans’ with a somewhat techincal, but somewhat of a sense of humor, IMHO…
Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor, with a checkquered cast of characters, get together; a sort of Alfred Hitchcock meets Inspector Cleauseauesque cross-country, train ride [8-|]
Lots of gags, some meldrama, and the best line of the movie [IMHO] delivered by Scatman Crouthers, standing in the open door of whats remains of the’train’ as it heads into the station
“…HELLLLOOO CHICAGO!..” [swg]
All one needs is that bag of popcorn!!! [(-D][(-D][(-D]
The 'Tube has been more generous with “free with ads” feature movies over the past 3 years or so. I recall it seemed to start with a release of James Bond films (all films pre 2000 were “Free with Ads”, the Bond films afterward (Die Another Die and later) were “Buy or Rent”.
I’ve tried to take advantage of the “free with ads” ones whenever I can (presuming its a movie I’d like to watch - e.g. Ground Hog Day, War Games, Glengarry Ross, Sum of All Fears, Splash, etc. - and a few months back I did watch Silver Streak - OTOH, for example I noped right out of Robocop 3 after about 5 minutes (the original Robocop, on the other hand, was a fun rewatch). Sometimes the “Free with Ads” films revert back to “Buy or Rent”, so be aware of that. “Unstoppable” has been floating around for a bit, probably should get around to watching that soon…
“It almost looks like it’s smiling…”
Except for the title, I don’t think the 1930s “Silver Streak” has anything in common with the Wilder-Pryor one from the 70s. The old B&W movie is about a guy trying to get his idea for a new streamlined diesel train (played by the Burlington’s new Zephyr) built and accepted by railroads. In the key scene, the railroad owner’s son is injured working on Hoover Dam, and he has to be rushed to a hospital in (IIRC) Chicago. Only the Silver Streak can run without stopping all the way, so it’s used as a last resort by the railroad to try to save the owner’s son.
There’s a Silver Streak movie from the 30s with the Zephyr? Sounds awesome- I love that thing!
“Silver Streak” is the 70’s movie. “The Silver Streak” is the 30’s movie.
Rick
Sounds like the plot for the latter half of “Danger Lights”, where the protagonist has to be rushed to a hospital in Chicago from Miles City (though Miles City is not mentioned in the film). The ludicrous part of the dash is showing the train racing westward through Lombard. N.B. Danger Lights was filmed in 1930.
IIRC, the “iron lung” was also showcased in “The Silver Streak”.
Since I last posted, I have watched ‘Runaway Train’ (escaped prisoners on a freight train in Alaska - the power consist includes a Chekhov’s F-unit) and ‘Unstoppable’ (with the train 2 wheeling (well, I guess 12 wheeling) on the curved trestle thru Staton with nothing derailing…that was based on a true story, eh?
The CSX run-away in Ohio several years back. Obviously “spruced up for the box office” a bit.
Since I was already familiar with the real world events the movie was based upon, I enjoyed watching it, despite the departures from reality.
Although I have this movie on DVD (or videocassette?) it’s been a long time since I watched it. I forgot it gave the train a credit: “Burlington Zephyr as ‘The Silver Streak’”!!
I believe some of the hurried race to Chicago at the end was actual footage of the famous Denver-Chicago ‘nonstop’ trip the Zephyr made in 1934.
Also, a key supporting role is played by Arthur Lake, who some of us older folks will recall as Dagwood in the “Blondie” series of movies.
Well, you did get Chicago and the Hoover dam right, but the rest, no.
2000 miles in 19 hours???
As Bugs said: “nyaaaaaaaah… could be”
There ought to be a trope for this, ‘gotta get the serum to Nome’.
After the Dawn-To-Dusk run, the Zephyr made a tour around the US. My father grew up in Towanda, PA and the entire school went to the station to see and tour it. That must have been something!
And the copycat -
2000 mi. in 19 hrs would be 105 MPH. It’s fast but plausible. Track was in better shape back then; a lot of Amtrak trains take longer to make their run than their steam era counterparts did.
I don’t think the real Zephyr had the fuel capacity to run 2K miles non-stop; as well as the HOS law was in effect at the time limiting the engineer and engineer pilot to 16 working hours. But why let reality interrupt a good story.