This is to announce our celebration next week of National Train Day, Saturday, May 7th.
Not an official holiday, you say? Only because I am not running the world, my friends.
You can kiss somebody in the corridor.
You can eat some more.
You can view this magnificent country in a way you just can’t by plane or on the interstate. To celebrate our movie connections with trains, we’ll have a look at “Union Pacific” (1939) on Monday, and “The Narrow Margin” (1952) on Thursday. The first film takes us to the beginning of the transcontinental railroad when the country was united, east and west. The second film takes us to the final years of the glamorous heyday of rail travel, in one of the most suspenseful cops and robbers movies you’ll ever see.
Have a look at this website for more information on National Train Day, and join us, all, aboa…rr…rr…dd.
11 comments:
Sounds wonderful! I love train movies. :) Has been a long time since I saw UNION PACIFIC, look forward to revisiting it in your post. Loved THE NARROW MARGIN!
Best wishes,
Laura
Welcome aboard, Laura. Keep your ticket handy so I can punch it with my little punchy thing.
Oh, love, love, LOVE this post! I love movies AND books that take place on trains! I'm going to celebrate next Saturday too! (If I remember.Ha!) I was watching UNION STATION just the other day, maybe I'll write about it on Tuesday. Although the film takes place mostly at the station, there's still lots of train action outside and inside. The king, queen and prince of train movies of course, is MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS. :)
Welcome aboard, Yvette. I'd love it if you could celebrate National Train Day with a post on "Union Station". An impromtu blogathon, for anyone who wants to join in.
By the way, I'm going to have to check your steamer trunk full of books in the baggage car. You'll get a receipt.
Great post. Brings to mind so many favorites with train scenes - wonderful insanity in Preston Sturges's "The Palm Beach Story" on a train bound for Florida...all that on board romance and intrigue in "North by Northwest." I've always wished I'd been around in the era of train travel. Would love to have made my way across the continent in the Wendy Hiller compartment of "Murder on the Orient Express." Or to have had a berth in the vicinity of the (mostly) all-girl band in "Some Like it Hot." Looking forward to your posts on "Union Pacific" and "The Narrow Margin."
Lady Eve, those are great train scenes. I was actually thinking of covering "The Palm Beach Story" this time around, but I misplaced my copy. Some other time. Trains certainly have a special place in movie history.
I think it's great that there is a "National Train Day." It's kind of timely that I saw your post on this now. I just did a post on Ralph Bellamy arriving in Hollywood. I don't mention in it in my post, but Bellamy, in his autobiography says the trip east to west on the train was a great experience. To quote Bellamy, it was "three and a half days of anonymity, Fred Harvey food, good books, the hypnotic clickety-clack of the rails and the rolling panorama out the window." Los Angeles is hosting an event at Union Station that I'm looking forward to. Now I'm in the mood for a train ride. Choo, Choo.
Welcome aboard, Robby. I love your blog, "Dear Old Hollywood". Thanks for that bit about Ralph Bellamy's train experience. So many stars started their Hollywood careers with a long train ride, but we hear little about it. I'd love to hear about the Los Angeles Union Station event in celebration of National Train Day. Thanks for stopping by.
Let's not forget that ride on the "Twentieth Century" with Oscar Jaffe and Lily Garland (nee Mildred Plotka).
So many great train movies - you could do several weeks' worth of posts! And so many comics used trains for gags: Buster Keaton, the Marx Bros, Laurel & Hardy, W.C. Fields (remember his train ride w/Mae West in My Little Chickadee?) - I'm also a Doris Day fan, and one of my favorites of hers is It Happened to Jane ('59), which I don't think is as well-known as some of her other films, but it's a very funny movie that involves a train and a race to deliver lobsters! It also has Jack Lemmon & Ernie Kovacs, so you can't go wrong--
Some great train films mentioned. I'm going to particularly catch up with "It Happened to Jane" one of these days. Thanks.
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