Greatest Train Movie

The Titfield Thunderbolt with its archetype English countryside and village complete with cricket match.

Our Hospitality, the 1923 Silent w/ Buster Keaton of course

OK, OK, I kid, but it did have a great replica of Stephenson's Rocket in it, and the train travel segment was a significant portion of the film, during which various amusing events occur, like the crew moving the track to avoid a stubborn mule, the engine leaving the tracks and continuing along a dirt road untill the passengers wake up the engineer, a large log being used as a tie and the engine having to climb over it, and among the most absurd to me, this incredibly long for the time (1830s) rail route running directly from New York (probably New Jersey since they don't seem to cross the Hudson..or the Delaware, or the Susquehanna, or Potomac for that matter) to a small town in Kentucky - apparently no other stops, as no passengers get on or off at intermediate stops; oh yes, a dog chases the train from New York, and arrives at the terminus before the train, waiting at the general store porch for Buster to show up.

Actually, Buster Keaton had a lot of railroading in his films as he was a proto-railfan (he also had a lot of Baseball scenes too, being a big baseball fan). Besides 'The General' (of course), he had scenes like the water-tower escape in Sherlock Jr, and the Junkyard bride-chase scene in Seven Chances, as well as short but key plot points like the Train NOT smashing into his 'custom-u-build' house in 'One Week' (or maybe it did)...and, well, although railroads did play a much larger role in everyday life then, he still fit in more railroads scenes then expected.

OK, here's a somewhat lesser known Buster Keaton short that fits the OP's request better - the 1965 Silent (but in Color) Keaton comedy short 'The Railrodder' for the Film Board of Canada

It's available on YouTube (Legally!), and pretty much consists of a cross country trip across mid-1960s Canada in a Canadian National Speeder (think the CN Noodles are on the cart)

On 08/11/2011 05:37 PM, Sir Ray wrote [...]

Not "for" the National Film Board, but _by_ the NFB, which was and is one of the great documentary producers of all time. You can view pretty wel everything they made online, and download a whack of it, too. They excelled at animation, Norman McLaren in particular pioneered many techniques which have now become commonplace, see Syrinx, for example.

I like The Cat Came back, it ven has some railroading in it:

Wolf K.

The Train ,the 1964 one starring Burt Lancaster set in Wartime France. Shows a lot of the old style infrastructure of The SNCF like grade crossing barriers that are closed by running parallel with the tracks ,the old French style of naming towns on buildings like water towers etc. Then there are the old Locos some of which are wrecked for the film, as is a freight yard because the SNCF needed to redevelop it and didn't mind it being blown up with real explosives. The final scene ends on a track constructed with chairs and Bullhead rail a rare thing outside the UK and probably extremely rare in France now. G.Harman

\> The Train ,the 1964 one starring Burt Lancaster set in Wartime France.

And Lancaster drove the locomotives several times in the movie. None the train crashes were models, all done with withdrawn locomotives and cars. Excellent movie.

For my money, the best train movie ever is "Danger Lights", followed closely by Buster Keaton's "The General".

etc..:-

Don't forget The Titfield Thunderbolt.

Voting for the same thing twice doesn't get you anywhere......unless you're a Chicago politician.

As this list is Americentic, meant in the nicest way, I'm going to guess the most popular movie will be probably American or at least North American.

etc..:-

>

Let us not forget 'Emperor Of The North' or 'Heartbreak Pass'.

Fred Ellis

etc..:-

>>

Two more European contenders: La Bête Humaine (The Human Beast) and Closely Observed Trains

Or Silver Streak, or Union Pacific, or The Lady Vanishes, or Muder on the Orient Express, or ....

I like any movie with a train it. ;-)

Wolf K.

Von Ryan's Express with Frank Sinatra

Fred Ellis wrote: : : Let us not forget 'Emperor Of The North' or 'Heartbreak Pass'. : Do you mean "Breakheart Pass", with Bronson?

Bruce

Yes, don't tell me I got the name wrong. Great movie.

Fred Ellis

There have been some Stinkers. Under Siege: Dark Territory comes to mind. As does that bio hazard thing with Gina Lolabrigida. Phew!

Mmmm.... Gina Whatalotofher.

Snip list of movies.

I've stuck the two in before any notices. I'm fairly sure that the Movie when shown in the UK still retains the Dark Territory line in the Title. It's a reasonable assumption that hardly anyone outside North America realises what it refers to and just accept the term as a wacky way of making the title longer.

G.Harman

We could go on and on about the bloopers that have appeared in films because of ignorance, cheapness, or lack of correct available prototypes. Example: In "White Christmas" the 4 leads are on their way by train from Florida to New England. As part of the scene to show the passage of time they show a train run by a camera. Unfortunately the train is a Santa Fe streamliner on the surf line in San Clemente, Ca.