Thursday, September 10, 2015

Thursday Movie Picks - Train Movies

Written as part of the weekly blogathon hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves. Please join us by picking three movies that fit the week's theme and telling people about them!

Ever since the dawn of film, with the Lumière brothers' "L'arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat" in 1896, the cinema has been in love with trains. It's hard to deny they make for pretty arresting viewing on their own, not really needing anything else to give them interest. As someone who commuted via train from Connecticut to New York City for work for seven years, I can say that the trains of today are not quite what they were: The modern sleekness has stripped away a lot of their grandeur. At any rate, these films inspired by trains are pretty great, and capture a lot (if not all) of what makes them so fascinating.

The General (Clyde Bruckman and Buster Keaton, 1926) Buster Keaton is a genius. A goddamn genius. The physical stunts he did are pure madness to even attempt, but he executes them with such flawless ease that it makes me jealous. And to top it all off, "The Great Stone-Face" has no flair whatsoever. He just tosses off every single death-defying stunt like it's nothing. Like he's bored. Oh, a house just fell down around me. Whatever. Oh, I just narrowly avoided getting shot by a canon which I loaded after running along a moving train, that's all. No big whoop, just another day on the job, wasn't even any fun. It's sick. The General, perhaps his finest hour, he gets the girl by rescuing both her and his beloved train in the midst of the Civil War. Shockingly, it's actually (slightly loosely) based on a true story.

The Lady Vanishes (Alfred Hitchcock, 1938) Hitchcock's British pictures are quite different from his American ones, and I don't think that difference is more apparent than in this film. It's a sly little thriller, yes, but it's also a light comedy, something that, while an element of some of Hitchcock's later pictures, could never really be called a defining trait of any of them. That it works so breezily well is due in part to Hitch, but mostly to his fine, fine cast: Margaret Lockwood as our heroine, Michael Redgrave as her impossibly dashing foil, and of course Dame May Whitty as the titular old lady who may or may not have even existed in the first place. And let's not forget the delightful Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne as Charters & Caldicott, such perfectly British supporting characters that they were drafted to appear in two other completely different films (one of which, Night Train to Munich, not only also takes place on a train, but also co-stars Margaret Lockwood) and had a mini-series all to themselves. The Lady Vanishes is pure pleasure.

20th Century (Howard Hawks, 1934) Okay, yes, this is really only here because I've performed in the musical based on this film and it's so, so bad. But the film is fun. I mean, I ask you: Can you go wrong with a Howard Hawks-directed screwball comedy starring Carole Lombard and John Barrymore as sparring, egotistical theater folk? You cannot, my friends. You truly can NOT.

22 comments:

  1. I haven't seen any of these, though I'm kind of thinking I need to see The General now. Maybe I should put it on my Blind Spot list next year?

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    1. Oh DEFINITELY. The General is all kinds of amazing.

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  2. Oh wow, great picks! I haven't seen any of these, but they sound really interesting :)
    - Allie

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    1. Thanks! They're all good in very different ways.

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  3. I liked the comedy in The Lady Vanishes, the two cricket obsessed fans were very funny. So was the scene where a brain surgeon operated on a cabinet ministers and Michael Redgrave's character asks if he found anything?

    I too picked it with the assumption everyone has already seen Strangers on a Train and North by Northwest

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    1. I picked it too (the Lady Vanishes) assumption everyone has already seen Strangers on a Train and North by Northwest, two Hitchcock films involving trains.

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    2. LOL Charters and Caldicott the cricket-obsessed passengers are two of the best supporting characters in Hitchcock's oeuvre. And his films never wanted for great supporting characters.

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  4. Yay, more love for The General. Such a brilliant piece of cinema. Have to see The Lady Vanishes. Not sure how considering who is involved, but I don't think I've even heard of 20th Century. Great work.

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    1. 20th Century was a flop at the time and not one of the best films anyone involved worked on, which explains its low profile nowadays, but it's very worth seeking out. SO glad for the love for The General today!

      The Lady Vanishes isn't top-tier Hitchcock, but it's definitely one of his more enjoyable films, and a standout in his early filmography.

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  5. LOVE these!

    You did a great job of describing the essence of The General and part of what makes it so engrossing.

    20th Century is such a manic nutcase of a movie and Carole Lombard is so brilliantly unhinged as is Barrymore. I just finished reading "Fireball" about the plane crash that ended Lombard's life. It was fascinating, looking not only at her very big life but at all the others on the plane and the reasons that the accident happened. A terrific read.

    The Lady Vanishes is wonderful and between this and Strangers on a Train Hitchcock covered train travel about as well as can be done. Glad to see the mention of Night Train to Munich that was an enjoyable film as well. My list includes another version of Lady Vanishes but only as a BIG caution.

    Here's mine for the week:

    The Lady Vanishes (1979)-An example of all that can go wrong when a classic is inadvisably remade. Peter Bogdanovich recasts the roles so expertly done by Margaret Lockwood and Robert Donat in the Hitchcock original with the totally unsuitable Cybill Shepard and Elliott Gould and proceeds to get everything else wrong that the first did right. The one bright spot-Angela Lansbury taking over the role of Miss Froy that Margaret Rutherford played in the original but she’s in too little of the movie to save it.

    Murder on the Orient Express (1974)-The gold standard for mystery adaptations. Superior version of Agatha Christie’s novel of a snowbound train on which a murder has occurred and which the famous detective Hercule Poirot sets out to solve. Everything is top of the line from the set and costume design to the cast. What a cast! In every role is a recognizable face from either American or international cinema. Everyone does terrific work though Ingrid Bergman’s best supporting actress Oscar is puzzling, even she didn’t think she deserved to win. Betty Bacall is a real standout as the loquacious Mrs. Hubbard and Albert Finney gives a tremendous performance of the fussy Belgian sleuth.

    Lady on a Train (1945)-A lady on a train, Deanna Durbin, witnesses a murder from her window but can only identify the victim not the killer. She goes to the police but when they don’t believe her story she turns to a writer of detective stories for help and together they try to find the killer and solve the case. Light mystery spoof even finds ways to have Deanna sing a few songs, backed up by a great supporting cast including Edward Everett Horton, Dan Duryea, Elizabeth Patterson, George Coulouris, Ralph Bellamy and William Frawley she has rarely looked so beautiful.

    Honorable Mention-Unstoppable (2010)-Because of a stupid mistake a train containing dangerous material has become a runaway. A mismatched pair of train engineers on their first day as partners try and stop it before disaster strikes. Fast paced and exciting with some cool derring-do but nothing that pushes the movie over into ridiculousness. Denzel Washington and Chris Pine make a solid team.

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    1. I don't know where my head was, probably I was dopey from the horror of the remake!, those roles in the original Lady Vanishes were played by Michael Redgrave and Dame May Whitty not Robert Donat & Margaret Rutherford but I can see both in the parts.

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    2. LOL - I was hoping you'd notice and that I wouldn't have to be THAT guy and correct you, Joel! Fun as Robert Donat is in The 39 Steps, he's not in The Lady Vanishes - which I knew there were other versions but somehow forgot that one was directed by Bogdanovich and had Lansbury in the Miss Froy role.

      I've been curious about "Fireball" and whether or not it was worth reading. I recently picked up a copy of the book about the making of Casablanca you recommended a while back and am very excited to read it!

      I very much liked the recent BBC Poirot version of Murder on the Orient Express, but (shamefully) have not seen the Finney version. Lady on a Train sounds good, even if the idea of murder mystery musical has never sat well with me - I'm hoping the songs are more "natural" in the story. I really liked Unstoppable too, and considered it for this but decided to go all classic.

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    3. Being familiar with your tastes I'm sure that the Finney version of Orient Express will blow your socks off. Everything is top of the line, wait until you get a load of Jacqueline Bisset's costumes, everyone else's too but I think hers are the most eye popping. I think this is Vanessa Redgrave's most likable performance, now I love her in everything but here she is frisky, coltish, and loose in a way that wasn't necessarily her usual demeanor.

      Love the idea of a murder mystery musical but that's not Lady on a Train. When Deanna sings there's always a reasoning behind it, she doesn't just burst out into melody. Another charmer from Deanna, frankly it's without question her best movie, is "It Started with Eve" where she co-stars with Charles Laughton. It's another one where she sings for logical reasons throughout the movie but never just because she's walking along and the mood strikes her. if you haven't seen it I can't recommend it enough.

      Hope you enjoy the Casablanca book, I know I did.

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  6. Oh wow The Lady Vanishes is my pick and seems to be a popular one this week. I love your picks. The general is at the top of my list to see and I hang my head low that I have not seen it yet. I have seen 20th Century but so many years ago that I feel i need to see it again before I could pick it. Love the great Carole Lombard

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    1. J'ADORE Carole Lombard. Definitely see The General,especially if you are a fan of silent cinema. It's one of the greats!

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  7. Great picks - some favourites popping up in lots of lists. I do love The Lady Vanishes, great British film and classic Hitchcock.

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    1. Thanks! I think The Lady Vanishes is probably my favorite of Hitch's British pictures.

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  8. I love that you stuck with classics here! Alas, I've seen none of them due to the fact that I've spent far too much time on movies post-1960. I plan to see all of these at some point though. Great picks!

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  9. UGH, I hate that I haven't seen any of these. I even own The General!

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    1. Confession time: I had The General in my collection since the Borders closing sale (2008?) and only just watched it specifically for this. It more than earns its reputation (although Sherlock, Jr. is still my favorite Buster).

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  10. Second mention of The General. Another gif too...and that really looks dangerous.

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    1. Buster Keaton's stunts are all the more impressive since he did them all himself.

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