I'm back from Chicago and I already miss it. It doesn't help that Los Angeles is an oppressive, thoroughly obnoxious 95 degrees right now. And it wasn't exactly charming when, upon arriving home and stepping off the train, I was greeted by a dead body lying in the middle of the road. I believe an arm was lying next to him. But then I realized, hey this is my home and I've seen quite a few dead bodies around here and according to my appearance on Ebert & Roeper (watch it here), I think severed heads are "beautiful" (thanks to whoever posted this clip on YouTube). So, the dead bodies I can handle, but this heat! Give me the bitter cold of Chicago any day.
But to backtrack. In case you were wondering, I did indeed travel to Chicago by train. And it was one of the greatest trips of my life. I hate flying. Hate it. And not because I'm afraid of flying, I'm afraid of being stuck in a cramped tube whilst enduring one of my very special level 10 panic attacks.
But enough of my neuroses. The train! I loved winding through the Red Cliffs of New Mexico, The Rocky Mountains and stopping off in Kansas City. I had a sleeper car, with windows on each side, which I now believe is the only way to travel (that's me with a conducter bear looking a little bleary eyed). I read, I slept, I looked out the window, I wrote and I met all kinds of people, some absolutely crazy. The best being a train fanatic who talked about trains non stop...every train in the Amtrak line, train movies, model trains, train photographers and on and on and on. It would take too much time to discuss.
So traveling by train got me thinking of some of my favorite train movies. There's, of course, Strangers on a Train but also The Narrow Margin (the original), The General, The Great Train Robbery, The Train, Closely Watched Trains, Runaway Train and more. I also thought of some of my favorite train sequences like in Billy Wilder's sexy, Lolita-esque The Major and the Minor in which a comely Ginger Rogers pretends to be 12-years-old for cheap train fare. In a funny, sexy and subversive twist, she ends up sleeping in Ray Milland's roomette. He thinks she's 12 and he's looking out for her but he's also...looking at her.
And then there's Bette Davis' obsession with the train in the supremely underrated Beyond the Forest in which the narrator states that every time Davis' unhappy wife hears it chug through her tiny, boring town, all she can hear is "Chicago, Chicago, Chicago." That's the city where she cheats on her husband and thinks her life will change, but instead gets knocked up and throws herself down the side of a mountain to get rid of the sin baby. Even worse (spoiler alert) she dies right next to the train when, riddled with peritonitis, she stumbles through the town towards the lure of "Chicago, Chicago, Chicago." Brilliant.
But on the more romantic side, there's North By Northwest, which boasts one of the hottest train sequences ever put to celluloid. A cool Eva Marie Saint stashes Cary Grant in her car, hides him from the police and promptly seduces him. While in her sleeper, she asks Grant: "Maybe you're planning to murder me right here tonight?" And he answers, "Shall I?" "Please do," she says before a passionate kiss. He tops the steamy moment with, "It sure beats flying."
Sadly, I did not experience such a scenario on the train but I will say this, the rumbling sound as you sleep, the exploring (I sneaked into the kitchen one night after missing dinner in the dining car) and walking through those loud connection doors is, well, as sexy as hell. No wonder so many songs glorify trains ("Mystery Train," "Orange Blossom Special," "Night Train," "Love in Vain" and Johnny Burnette's wonderful ode to screwing his girlfriend all night with "Train Kept a Rolling" as well as John Lee Hooker's ). As the glorious Theresa Russell pouts in Nicolas Roeg's misunderstood Track 29: "Chugga-Chugga-Choo! Choo!"
well kim, you said a now classic line. why can't the studio put your quote in the newspaper/tv ads for 300? again, a great job!
Posted by: hiram a. | March 12, 2007 at 03:53 PM
You forgot a great train sequence: the end of From Russia with Love -- James Bond (back before the series became a comic book), a train, a beautiful exotic woman, spies, what's not to love.
Luckily I grew up in Berlin, and any time my family took a vacation we went by train. There's nothing like going through East Germany at night (complete with jack-booted soldiers coming through and demanding, "Papers, please"), arriving a giant, gothic 19th Century station, and then taking a day-long ride down to Bavaria. Amtrak just can't compare.
Posted by: Sean O'Hara | March 12, 2007 at 04:40 PM
European train travel is the best I hear...I'm still in my American Boxcar Willie phase but I'll be sure to check that out.
And nice call on "From Russia With Love..."
Posted by: Kim | March 12, 2007 at 05:08 PM
some great scenes on a train in Horror Express..how can you beat Telly Savalas roaming the cars with whited out eyes or the zombified Knights Templar happily munching on horrified train passengers at the end of Tombs Of The Blind Dead?
Glad you enjoyed Chicago but ill take that 95 degress any day over the weather here
Posted by: | March 12, 2007 at 05:08 PM
Let's not forget A HARD DAY'S NIGHT. The sexiness factor can be determined by picking your favorite Beatle and taking it from there.
THE TRAIN, by the way, happens to be my favorite movie. Great write up!
Posted by: HQ10 | March 12, 2007 at 06:15 PM
It's good to know I'm not the only one who enjoys a good train ride. You gotta check out Boston to New York (en route to Chicago) in the fall. The tree foliage is beautiful! It's like a sunset, but with leaves.
Good job on Ebert and Roeper!
Posted by: SolShine7 | March 12, 2007 at 08:15 PM
I love the train sequence in "A Hard Day's Night." The deadpan expressions to the old man commanding the cart was funny, and his line:
"I'm going to call the guard."
"Ah, but what? They don't take kindly to insults."
And don't forget the train sequences in "Some Like It Hot."
Oh, and how dare you forget the infamous "Snakes on a Train." No wait, forget the movie. Don't even watch it.
Posted by: Felix | March 12, 2007 at 10:55 PM
There's a powerful sequence in Ken Loache's Wind That Shakes The Barley set in a 1920s Railway Station, where a gang of thuggish British soldiers assault a train conductor who tries to stop them from commandeering a train.
Trains and Stations have traditionally been seen as metaphors for death or separation, especially in the Delta Blues - like Son House's Empire State Express (which namechecks the route to Chicago), or Rev Gary Davis' Meet Me At The Station. The most mournful would be Bukka White's Panama Limited, which contains the glorious line "I'm a man who's tired and a long ways from my home"
Congratulations on the Ebert & Roper appearance, by the way.
Posted by: nothing upstairs | March 13, 2007 at 04:40 AM
What, no Terror Train?!
Bah...it's a crappy, crappy movie, but that Gene Shalit mask the killer sports makes it all worthwhile.
I've always wanted to take a cross-country train journey. So bloody romantic, and I don't mean in a 'heart with an arrow through it' kind of way.
Posted by: Stacie | March 13, 2007 at 07:59 AM
"The Station Agent" anyone?
Or the Frank Sinatra/Janet Leigh "not-quite-sure-what's-going-on-here" train sequence in the 1962 "Manchurian Candidate"?
Posted by: theron | March 13, 2007 at 08:17 AM
Kim:
First time on your site. Sorry to say it but, I never heard of you before your appearence on Ebert & Roeper. I enjoyed your appearence and plan to check out the rest of your site. Other great train movies which you failed to mention are Silver Streak with Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor. It has many types of genres such as comedy, drama, spy/action movies, and romance yet it manages to work together with all these diverse elements. Patrick McGoohan is especially sosphisticatedly(don't know if that's a word) evil. I also believe it is the first of the Wilder/Pryor collaberations.
Other great train movies include: Plains, Trains and Automobiles, Mission: Impossible,
and there is also a great scene from The Dresser with Albert Finney. This is not a train movie but, it's one scene at the train station where Albert Finney's character shouts at a departing train "STOP THAT TRAIN"
so loud and clear that the conducter stops the train is priceless. That's all for now.
Ted.
P.S. If you wish to use this email for your website you have my permission to do so.
Theodore Prager
Posted by: Theodore | March 13, 2007 at 09:15 AM
The greatest train movie of all time is "Under Seige 2: Dark Territory," with the inimitable Steven Seagal.
(I'm kidding.)
Great job on Ebert and Roeper.
Posted by: Michael | March 13, 2007 at 10:07 AM
I don't know about "greatest," but I'd go to bat for UNDER SIEGE 2! (Maybe even TERROR TRAIN...) How about Carole Lombard and John Barrymore on the TWENTIETH CENTURY?
I've always wanted to travel cross country on a train. How long did it take?
Again, way to represent the thinking man/woman Sunday, Kim!
Posted by: Dennis Cozzalio | March 13, 2007 at 02:23 PM
Great job with Roeper!
As for train films, I was about to say TWENTIETH CENTURY as well. Great film.
But, at the other end of the cinematic spectrum, how about Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas and Dana Carvey hijacking a train to Mexico (even though the tracks don't go that far) in the 80's classic TOUGH GUYS?
Posted by: Talking Moviezzz | March 13, 2007 at 06:33 PM
I just caught your appearance on Ebert & Roeper and was suitably impressed by your grasp of the layers in "The Host." Roeper ought to be ashamed for his casual dismissal of your observations - the director was so, err... direct that it should have been impossible to miss.
FWIW, the scene with the formaldehyde was taken straight from local headlines -- since the incident occurred on a US military base, the US insisted the American responsible be tried in an American court where he received a fairly minor slap on the wrist, which didn't play well in the local press.
If you have not already seen it, I suggest you check out "Save the Green Planet" another South Korean film that wildly mixes genres. Koch Lorber has a decent release in the USA, although if you are an audio/visual junkie the Korean release is a step up.
Posted by: Jerry W | March 13, 2007 at 08:40 PM
The Rod and Gun Club's private car in Palm Beach Story - a panoply of great character actors including google-eyed terrified Negro porter.
Posted by: M. Peachbush | March 14, 2007 at 11:56 AM
Murder on the Orient Express is a pretty decent train movie
Posted by: Nathan | March 14, 2007 at 04:10 PM
Kim, great fun to meet you in Chicago, the railroad capital of America.
What, no Von Ryan's Express on the list of train films? Hehe.
Another rail-oriented film a lot of people will enjoy but may not have heard of is "The Titfield Thunderbolt."
This is a 1953 English comedy from the famed Ealing Studios. The government wishes to abandon service on the branch line to Titfield so the villagers decide to take it over themselves much to the consternation of scheming motorbus operators.
Very funny in the droll Ealing way and the English countryside has never looked more charming than it does here in gorgeous 3-strip Technicolor.
Best of all it has Stanley Holloway who sees great advantage in financing the rail line if it means he can begin imbibing aboard a lounge car well before a regular bar can legally open.
A total delight!
Posted by: Steve Kraus | March 15, 2007 at 05:34 PM
I live in Kansas City. Funny, I didn't see you.
Nice work on Ebert and Roeper.
Seeing 300 tomorrow.
Posted by: Piper | March 15, 2007 at 06:42 PM
Kim,
As an Amtrak employee, first let me say "Thanks" for traveling with us and relating your experience.
As for train movies, you have named several great films, but I think you have to include a couple of selections in which trains play significant supporting roles: "In The Heat Of The Night", where it seems a train whistle is (hauntingly) in the background of nearly every scene; "Fools Parade" with Jimmy Stewart and a nod to the train scenes in "The Out-Of-Towners".
Honorable mention (for railroad content only, not necessarily as fine cinema) to "Emporer Of The North" and the campy "It Happened To Jane".
I also have a soft spot for "Flags Of Our Fathers", as I took part in the filming of the train scenes in Chicago.
You acquitted yourself most admirably on "Ebert and Roeper"...now if only we could get you on there with Ebert instead of Roeper!
Harold
Posted by: Harold Krewer | March 15, 2007 at 08:50 PM
What a great story here. Glad to see you had a good time on the Southwest Chief. I failed to catch your "Ebert and Roper" appearance, but will definitely follow whatever you're up to now. I and others I am sure, would like to hear you tell more about your trip.
Posted by: Dean | March 15, 2007 at 10:34 PM
I too use the train a lot for business travel. It worked out that I had to be in LA last weekend which worked perfect for a Chicago to LA train trip. The trip was amazing, New Mexico is amazing. Now the flight home, a different story....I sat next to a lady who not only had chain smoked her entire life and was obviously suffering from it, but must have owned 80 cats! I sneazed the whole flight....I am not afraid of flying, just people and airports :)
Posted by: Adam Auxier | March 16, 2007 at 06:38 AM
I just discovered you through a link on one of my train geek websites. I was on the Southwest Chief about the time you were. What a dinner conversation we could have had, since my two favorite character actors are Warren Oates and Dan Duryea. I am hereby addicted to Sunset Gun.
Posted by: Jerry Peterson | March 20, 2007 at 04:14 PM
I recently took the Amtrak to Chicago from Kansas City (my home), and had a blast. Being able to get up, move around and explore definitely makes it a superior mode of travel. And yes, talking to more people than the one stuck right next to you is a bonus. Just found your blog, and am really enjoying your taste in film. Keep up the good work! If you ever stop through KC again, give a holla and I'll buy you a drink at Pierpont's, the excellent restaurant at Union Station.
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Posted by: Bogumil | June 29, 2007 at 04:41 PM