Have any forum members ever watched the classic movie ‘Picnic’ that was filmed in 1955 @ Hutchinson & Halstead,KS? After the Cowboys-Packers game tonight I’m getting a video of it out and going to watch it. Even though its a romance flick, it does have many interesting train scenes starring Missouri Pacific. The interesting part of this is somehow Santa Fe allowed the MP equipment to be used in the train scenes in Halstead and Mopac did not go through there. The very last shot of the flick is a MP train on 2nd st in Halstead next to the COOP elevator. If any of you are looking to watch a old school classic movie w/train scenes, I would recommend Picnic (William Holden & Kim Novak). Turner Classic runs it every so often.
Most scenes were filmed in Nickerson, which is 6 or 8 miles west of Hutch. The house where Kim Novak lived in the movie is still there, and if you’re going to Hutch from Sterling you go right by it. They were going to tear it down several years ago, but better sense prevailed and they left it. They say William Holden was a cool guy and would associate with the townfolks, usually at one of the beer joints at night. I didn’t realize that the train in the end of the movie was going to Halstead. If you think about it, for it’s day, it was a pretty racy movie.
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…I watched the movie when it {then}, was in the theaters. At that time, I thought it was good and well done. So was Kim Novak.
Kim Novak was a babe. Is she still with us?
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…Info I checked indicates she is still with us. 74 years old.
Probably still a babe.
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…Yep, I’d bet she is.
Did a google search. Found a picture of her in 2003. Yep, she’s still a babe.
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This clears up some confusion and thanks for the info. It now makes sense. The park scenes in the movie were shot @ Halstead. In fact this filming had to be shutdown for a couple days account of a major tornado outbreak in KS on May 25 & 26,1955. Udall was hit by a late night storm on the 25th that killed 89 people–to this day the most deadly tornado in state history. I did not know that the MP train scenes were from Nickerson, but now I see why. I wasn’t even close to being born when the movie was made ,but it has become a big part of local history around the Newton-Halstead-Hutchinson and Nickerson area.
For your next classic film watch Anatomy of a Murder … for the C&NW scenes. It is often described as Jimmie Stewart’s finest performance. It was written by a judge and the scenes of witness coaching are shown to law students and lawyers as clear violations of all ethics codes. Lee Remick is the female lead and is likely to appeal to Kim Novak fans. The score is by Duke Ellington and his orchestra.
Dave Nelson
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My all-time favorite movie! Probably saw it 10-12 times in the theaters. I have it around here somewhere on tape, but I put the DVD on my Christmas list.
I always wanted to hop a freight, but never dared.
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The scenes of the 20th Century Limited in another good classic, North By Northwest, was not a bad production either.
[(-D] (Shakes head) I laugh every time I read this. I don’t know if it’s the wording, or just the way that Kim Novak popped into a train thread![tup]