I want to narrow the train movie topic down a bit. We’ve talked trains in movies, but I want to know from you all the trains you’ve seen in westerns and which one was your favroite.
I’m trying to compile a list of all the Westerns that have trains in them. I can’t remember all of them and some I haven’t seen yet and that is why I’m asking for your help. Not every western has a train in it like The Searchers or The Far Country for example and many, many others. If you can remember one please let know.
Below is a list of the movies I’ve seen (or at least seen part of, the part with the train of course [;)]). It’s in no particular order and I know it’s not complete. If I’ve already named all the ones you can think of just let me know which was favorite.
High Noon
[:D]Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Joe Kidd
Oklahoma!
Rid River
True Grit
Last Train From Gun Hill
[^]The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
[:D]Jesse James (1939 - is the one with Henry Fonda)
[|)]The Train Robbers
[8D]How The West Was Won
The Horse Soldiers (it’s a civil war film, but somehow this genre gets lumped into Western so I’ll include here anyway. It has John Wayne in it, maybe that’s why.)
KEY:
[^]=my overall favorite (from this list)
[|)]=boring (but hey, it’s John Wayne so it’s not too bad)
[:D]=movie with the most train sequences (yet to be determined, let me know; right now it’s a toss up between Butch and Sundance and Jesse James, may change with expansion of list)
[8D]=movie with the coolest train sequence (in my opinion, from this list, may change with expansion of list)
Blazing Saddles,when the handcar and track sinks into quicksand;In The Good,The Bad and The Ugly were’nt some civil war prisoners being transported by rail ? I remember Spanish steam locomotives in some of the spaghetti westerns.
I’m glad I’m not the only western fan on here. I completely forgot about Blazing Saddles lol! And yes you’re correct on The Good, Bad, Ugly. I also forgot about that until just after I posted my topic. I’ve got about 4 or 5 other movies on my list now but I’ll hold off a couple days to see if anyone can name them.
Whispering Smith
The Professionals
The Wild Bunch
The Long Riders
Virginia City
Big Jake
Heaven’s Gate
The Newton Boys
Rage At Dawn
Joe Kidd
Night Passage
Frank & Jesse
The Missouri Breaks
The Wild, Wild West
When The Daltons Rode
Al Jennings of Oklahoma
Tombstone
Wyatt Earp
The Last Hard Men
Ticket To Tomahawk
Once Upon A Time In The West
Whispering Smith is not such a great movie but has good train scenes (ditto for an even worse movie, Kansas Pacific). If you can ever track down the novel Whispering Smith it is a bit corny, like the film, but you might enjoy its old time railroading atmosphere. It is a railroad detective story.
Dave Nelson
RE: Kansas Pacific-- I didn’t know this was a movie, but I looked it up at www.imdb.com and it’s on there. I have TV on my computer and I have some still pictures saved from something on TV with an old old steam loco and passenger coach that read “KANSAS PACIFIC” in big letters on the side. I never did figure out what movie that was. Maybe that was it. It looks like an obsure movie, might be hard to find at a video store.
How about the movie Judy Garland sang ‘The Aticheson,Topeka and Santa Fe’ as the train pulled out of the station. I forget the name but it was about the Harvey girls.
Once Upon A Time In the West - I can’t believe I left this on MY list. Of all the Sergio Leone westerns this one has to be my favorite, espcially now that they’ve released at 2-disc DVD special edition. It was in the $10 range and I couldn’t resist. It’s in widescreen with clear, sharp image and great sound, better than TV without the commecials.
Among the many extra features there’s a special 6 minute featurette about the role the railroads in the old west - both in movies and real life. And I like this western because it features the train/railroad more prominantly than most other westerns. Now tell me who wouldn’t want their own private plush railcar and train to tour the country in style?
Even though all the train sequences are filmed in Spain and barely resemble American steam and rolling stock it’s still a great train movie.
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Also, on another note, has anyone figured out where that steam engine in “the Magnificent 7” came from? It reminds me of some Rio Grande engines I read about while downloading some train simulator engines. IF I remember right some engines from the Rio Grande and other narrow gauge RRs found their way into Mexico after USA RRs had no more use for them.
In fact, a couple of these old steamers made their way back to the USA for tourism trains. The one in the movie looks like one of my train-sim Sumpter Valley Ry. locos. But that would explain the N (de) M on the cattle cars. Somebody in production was paying attention.
And I’m also wondering, I don’t think in M7 that loco was under real steam, I think they just ‘piped’ it in from somewhere.
Union Pacific,a 1939 Cecil B. DeMille epic has some great train scenes.
In the movie,The Frisco Kid,there no trains,but Gene Wilder is employed for a VERY short time building the transcontinental railroad.
Union Pacific,with alot of V&T rolling stock,i beleive you can still see then General McPherson , the 2-4-0, at the California Rairoad Museum and some others at
The General, Buster keaton found a small loggoing RR in Oregon that was the perfect stand in for the Western & Atlantic, right down to the old 4-4-0 Americans, and the passenger and boxcars, they built on the logging flats!
Denver & Rio Grande, B movie but great train scenes, althought I still scream No when the train wreck happens, Shame to lose those engines that way.
Breakheart Pass is good, but i always thought they should have had dummies and real seats in the passenger cars when they crash. I mean they break up and you can tell their modified flatcars.
How The West Was Won, another incredible action sequesnce that could NEVER be repeated today.
and lastly, all I got to say is the line, you’ll know which movie it is…
Couldn’t figure that trivia out. Only saw the Train Robbers movie once a few years ago. I think the movie title was kind of a joke, not what you would expect. And the movie wasn’t that great anyway. Do you think I would spoil the “surprise” if I gave away what kind of train was being robbed? and where?? [:-,]
That handcar scene was one of the few “clean” gags in “Blazing Saddles”! Then there was Mongo’s speech about “where Choo-choo go”. Now, if I can find the tape, I can look at it before the game! Heddy (THAT’S HEDly!) Lamarr wanted to level poor little Rock Ridge for the railroad he was in the pocket of. Bart and the towns folk out witted him and well… All the best to Mel Brooks!
There are probably a dozen movies with a scene similar to that! [(-D]
It’s probably not what you’re thinking of, but “2 Mules For Sister Sara” come to mind. Clint Eastwood is wounded and Shirley McClaine has to be the one to shoot the dynamite on the trestle to topple the train. I can’t remember what they were after now.
Another movie I happened to think of today was “The Great Race” (Tony Curtis, Jack Lemon). Not comepletly a western. The plot, set around 1900, is an auto race from New York to Paris. They spend quite a bit of time in the wild West. Of course Curtis, whose character is bit of a chauvinist in this picture, objects to Natalie Wood being in the race and tries to send her home, but she tricks his assitant, played by Keenan Wynn, by handcuffing him to the train. Very funny scene, especially later when they argue the trival point of which railroad it was on.
And other Clint Eastwood movie, a modern day western, “Bronco Billy” has a funny train scene in it. The Wild West Show is desperate for cash so they think they can rob a train. 5 people with bows and arrows and pistols vs. a UP excusion train (the classic UP diesel). Guess which side won? It’s hysterical! This has become one of my favorite movies.