LA BETE HUMAINE (1938: Dir. Jean Renoir)
As far as I'm concerned, if there is a film that takes place on a train I am hooked. The movies, of course began with trains. The Lumiere Brothers shot one of the earliest documentary short subjects Arrival of a Train (1895), and later Edwin S. Porter made the groundbreaking narrative drama The Great Train Robbery (1903). These films glorified the dynamism of trains, forever linking the motion of their linked cars with the 24 frames of celluloid that sped through the projector each second to form a moving image. My love of trains comes from long trips across all the regions of Canada where I grew to love the rocking motion of my cabin, the civilized formality of the dining car, and the spectacular views from the observation car. My ten favourite train films are not definitive but they are all compelling for their own reasons.
I start not with Buster Keaton's The General or Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes, but Jean Renoir who brilliantly visualized the hulking steel metaphor of a train to represent the lurking violence within train engineer Jean Gabin. The source of his turmoil is an unhealthy obsession for the wife of his co-worker, alluringly embodied by Simone Simon. Staged and shot by Renoir with a you-are-there type vigor, the scenes with Gabin performing actual duties on the rails are a thrilling example of the screen presence of locomotives and the men who work on them. DVD REGION 1 & 2
A snappy low-budget B-film from noir auteur Anthony Mann, The Tall Target, chronicles a political assassination attempt aboard a pre-Civil War train and the lone police sergeant who foils it. The shock for contemporary audiences is when the names of the characters are revealed. The target is Abraham Lincoln, on the way to his inauguration, and the policeman protecting him, is named John Kennedy!! As the tense journey progresses, the lamp lit darkness of the train comes to represent the potential dangers in a country soon to tear itself apart. A stalwart Dick Powell anchors the action as Kennedy, valiantly negotiating his way through shadowy train compartments infested with deadly conspirators as Mann amps up the jittery paranoia. DVD REGION 1
NORTHWEST FRONTIER a.k.a. FLAME OVER INDIA (1959: Dir. J. Lee Thompson)
India is one place where train travel is an entirely different experience for those used to rolling luxury. Often the roofs of the cars are crowded with people and this British production doesn't shy away from presenting these stifling primitive conditions as it details the dangerous escape by rail, of a young Hindu prince from India's volatile northern frontier. A sweeping epic, where a single train compartment manifests all the aspects of an imperialist power including its courage, politics, war, and racism. This microcosm includes memorable star turns from intrepid soldier Kenneth More, smoldering American governess Lauren Bacall, genial bureaucrat Wilfred Hyde White and glowering Dutch reporter Herbert Lom. Director J. Lee Thompson demonstrates a superb eye for orchestrating large scale action and it was this film that became his calling card to Hollywood, resulting in the last minute assignment to take over direction of The Guns of Navarone from Alexander Mackendrick. DVD & BLU-RAY
THE TRAIN (1964: Dir. John Frankenheimer)
During WWII , the most crucial form of transport was the railway. It provided vital weapons, food, and medical supplies to both sides. The Germans also used trains for the more nefarious purposes of forcibly transporting people and treasure. John Frankenheimer's The Train is the story of a train filled with stolen French art being evacuated by the Nazis in advance of the fall of Paris. Always striving for period realism, Frankenheimer shot the film in black and white, making it the last big scale war/action film of its type to be made in that format. It also would be Frankenheimer's first film shot on location in France, a country where he would make six more films and also call home. His affinity for the French culture is already in evidence, especially in his authentic use of character faces rather than matinee idol-types. The exceptions are star Burt Lancaster, whose emotional intensity and physical grace command the screen, and Jeanne Moreau as the personification of the resolute women who gallantly toiled for the French resistance. Loaded with memorable scenes of destruction, including the astounding crash of two full size train engines and the eye-popping detonation of an actual railway yard, requiring over 5000 pounds of explosives. All aboard for excitement!! DVD & BLU-RAY
EMPEROR OF THE NORTH POLE (1973: Dir. Robert Aldrich)
The Vietnam era had seen great social upheaval in America. Nixon's silent majority fought against the hippie call for peace and free love. Iconoclastic Liberal filmmaker Robert Aldrich wanted to make a statement about this volatile political generation. He chose a film set during the Depression when disenfranchised drifters rode the rails living their own individualistic existence. Stealing free rides could be dangerous, and Aldrich in his typical anti-authoritarian style makes the train conductor the fanatical villain. Lee Marvin, who excelled at representing the renegade on film, stars as A No. 1, a defiant tramp who is determined to ride the train overseen by Shack (Ernest Borgnine), a sadistic and lethal conductor with a pathological hatred of hobos. The third spoke of the wheel is the character Cigaret, a wide-eyed, seemingly harmless vagrant played by a 23 year old Keith Carradine. These three men are the world according to Aldrich and when Marvin finally confronts Borgnine, in one of the most visceral and violent man to man fights ever put on screen, the audience immediately senses that there is more at stake here than a simple train ride. For Aldrich these two opposing ideals will always be at odds no matter who wins, the tragedy comes from the spirit of youthful opportunism that takes advantage of such ideological intransigence. The film's notorious failure at the box-office provided further evidence of a blinkered society with no interest in an angry lament for its future. DVD & BLU-RAY
I start not with Buster Keaton's The General or Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes, but Jean Renoir who brilliantly visualized the hulking steel metaphor of a train to represent the lurking violence within train engineer Jean Gabin. The source of his turmoil is an unhealthy obsession for the wife of his co-worker, alluringly embodied by Simone Simon. Staged and shot by Renoir with a you-are-there type vigor, the scenes with Gabin performing actual duties on the rails are a thrilling example of the screen presence of locomotives and the men who work on them. DVD REGION 1 & 2
THE TALL TARGET (1951: Dir. Anthony Mann)
A snappy low-budget B-film from noir auteur Anthony Mann, The Tall Target, chronicles a political assassination attempt aboard a pre-Civil War train and the lone police sergeant who foils it. The shock for contemporary audiences is when the names of the characters are revealed. The target is Abraham Lincoln, on the way to his inauguration, and the policeman protecting him, is named John Kennedy!! As the tense journey progresses, the lamp lit darkness of the train comes to represent the potential dangers in a country soon to tear itself apart. A stalwart Dick Powell anchors the action as Kennedy, valiantly negotiating his way through shadowy train compartments infested with deadly conspirators as Mann amps up the jittery paranoia. DVD REGION 1
NORTHWEST FRONTIER a.k.a. FLAME OVER INDIA (1959: Dir. J. Lee Thompson)
India is one place where train travel is an entirely different experience for those used to rolling luxury. Often the roofs of the cars are crowded with people and this British production doesn't shy away from presenting these stifling primitive conditions as it details the dangerous escape by rail, of a young Hindu prince from India's volatile northern frontier. A sweeping epic, where a single train compartment manifests all the aspects of an imperialist power including its courage, politics, war, and racism. This microcosm includes memorable star turns from intrepid soldier Kenneth More, smoldering American governess Lauren Bacall, genial bureaucrat Wilfred Hyde White and glowering Dutch reporter Herbert Lom. Director J. Lee Thompson demonstrates a superb eye for orchestrating large scale action and it was this film that became his calling card to Hollywood, resulting in the last minute assignment to take over direction of The Guns of Navarone from Alexander Mackendrick. DVD & BLU-RAY
THE TRAIN (1964: Dir. John Frankenheimer)
During WWII , the most crucial form of transport was the railway. It provided vital weapons, food, and medical supplies to both sides. The Germans also used trains for the more nefarious purposes of forcibly transporting people and treasure. John Frankenheimer's The Train is the story of a train filled with stolen French art being evacuated by the Nazis in advance of the fall of Paris. Always striving for period realism, Frankenheimer shot the film in black and white, making it the last big scale war/action film of its type to be made in that format. It also would be Frankenheimer's first film shot on location in France, a country where he would make six more films and also call home. His affinity for the French culture is already in evidence, especially in his authentic use of character faces rather than matinee idol-types. The exceptions are star Burt Lancaster, whose emotional intensity and physical grace command the screen, and Jeanne Moreau as the personification of the resolute women who gallantly toiled for the French resistance. Loaded with memorable scenes of destruction, including the astounding crash of two full size train engines and the eye-popping detonation of an actual railway yard, requiring over 5000 pounds of explosives. All aboard for excitement!! DVD & BLU-RAY
EMPEROR OF THE NORTH POLE (1973: Dir. Robert Aldrich)
The Vietnam era had seen great social upheaval in America. Nixon's silent majority fought against the hippie call for peace and free love. Iconoclastic Liberal filmmaker Robert Aldrich wanted to make a statement about this volatile political generation. He chose a film set during the Depression when disenfranchised drifters rode the rails living their own individualistic existence. Stealing free rides could be dangerous, and Aldrich in his typical anti-authoritarian style makes the train conductor the fanatical villain. Lee Marvin, who excelled at representing the renegade on film, stars as A No. 1, a defiant tramp who is determined to ride the train overseen by Shack (Ernest Borgnine), a sadistic and lethal conductor with a pathological hatred of hobos. The third spoke of the wheel is the character Cigaret, a wide-eyed, seemingly harmless vagrant played by a 23 year old Keith Carradine. These three men are the world according to Aldrich and when Marvin finally confronts Borgnine, in one of the most visceral and violent man to man fights ever put on screen, the audience immediately senses that there is more at stake here than a simple train ride. For Aldrich these two opposing ideals will always be at odds no matter who wins, the tragedy comes from the spirit of youthful opportunism that takes advantage of such ideological intransigence. The film's notorious failure at the box-office provided further evidence of a blinkered society with no interest in an angry lament for its future. DVD & BLU-RAY
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