Movie: The Train

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Greg_Lewis
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Post by Greg_Lewis »

Yes, the explosions are real. One Web site about The Train reports that the French national railways had a yard they wanted removed but didn't have the budget for it, so they let the film studio blow it up.

Also, it is reported that Lancaster's wounding and subsequent limp was written into the film after he twisted his knee playing golf.

Here's a link to some trivia about the film:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059825/trivia
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GregE
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Post by GregE »

Great Film!
Made for a perfect Sunday evening.
Thanks for the post.
Greg Easter
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Berne Ketchum
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Post by Berne Ketchum »

Another neat film is "The General" with Buster Keaton, a silent film from 1927 portraying the Andrews Raid of the Civil War in a somewhat comedic fashion. Keaton does some amazing stunts, and my understanding is that the locomotives are the original General and Texas. Film-making was a bit primitive in those days and process shots hadn't been developed to the point where they could fool anyone, so I believe all of the cab shots, etc., are actually done on moving trains. It's available on Netflix.
765nkp
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Post by 765nkp »

Leo Meyers of the St louis Mo area had his engines in the General movie. The General, the Texas and the Yonah he had built all in 1" scale. All three are museum quality. They were shipped over to Spain to be used in the making of the movie. Leo was good friends with my dad as I was growing up. I have alot of the behind the scenes pictures that Leo took while his engines were being used in the movie, pretty neat stuff.
Tim
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Berne Ketchum
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Post by Berne Ketchum »

Tim -- Was that a second re-make of the Andrews Raid story? I was aware of only the 1927 Buster Keaton film and the 1956 Disney movie with Fess Parker. In the 1956 re-make, the William Mason played the part of the General, and the action was filmed on the Tallulah Falls RR in Georgia. There may well have been some model sequences too, for all I know, but I thought it was all filmed in the U.S. -- I haven't seen that film in years.
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steamin10
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Post by steamin10 »

Nah! The Keaton movie was made in the western foothills. At the time there were several logging railroads that were bankrupt, and were abandoned to the elements. The Movie Studio picked up the railroad at recievers price and scrapped it. One engine (an American) was so bad they put a gasoline engine in it, and the exhaust is visible in several close-ups of Mr Keaton in the forground. Having no water and being light, they could start it and spin the wheels, and do many things quickly, that a real engine would be balky at doing. Some of the chase scenes were done with this engine, with sliding to a stop, and quick reversing. Watch for the exhaust pipe between the drivers, and you can see a smoke smudge that locates the pipe.

It was fire season, and one of the working engines set fire to the forest scrub, and many actor-extras used their coats to beat out the small fires. One fire did take off however and forced shooting to stop for days, as the embers and aftermath left so much smoke in the valley that shooting was impossible.

The bridge collapse scene, was a nightmare to produce. It was reported that the tressle bents were removed, making the spindly deck look even lighter. The cameras were set, the engine released, and it rolled right over the sagging structure, and up the other side, requiring someone to run it down and stop it. The deck beams were then sawed, and a brave engineer coaxed the doomed engine out on the deck, and they gauged the sag, to find the point where it would fail. They wanted it to drop, and not nose in. Look at the film and enjoy the horror of a spent engine being destroyed.

I have a copy and still laugh at the deadpan of our hero. Truly a master of Mime, and he did all his own stunts including the flipping of railroad ties, that are reputed to be full weight. Must be Mountain Pine, Heh? Not midwestern oak.
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LVRR2095
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Post by LVRR2095 »

Berne Ketchum wrote:Another neat film is "The General" with Buster Keaton, a silent film from 1927 portraying the Andrews Raid of the Civil War in a somewhat comedic fashion. Keaton does some amazing stunts, and my understanding is that the locomotives are the original General and Texas.
Berne, the General and Texas were not used in the movie. The film was made in Cottage Grove Oregon using locomotives from a logging company. For a number of years, the wrecked and abandoned locomotives, which were left in the woods after filimg, were a tourist attraction. They were finally cut up for the WW-2 scrap drives.
Keith
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Post by Superberky1204 »

When that movie first came out a bunch of us went to see it on the big screen. I watched it about 15 years ago on tv and I enjoyed it today again.

Thanks for putting it up here. Great movie.

Bruce Saylor, in PA.
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Harlock
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Post by Harlock »

steamin10 wrote:The bridge collapse scene, was a nightmare to produce. It was reported that the tressle bents were removed, making the spindly deck look even lighter. The cameras were set, the engine released, and it rolled right over the sagging structure, and up the other side, requiring someone to run it down and stop it. The deck beams were then sawed, and a brave engineer coaxed the doomed engine out on the deck, and they gauged the sag, to find the point where it would fail. They wanted it to drop, and not nose in. Look at the film and enjoy the horror of a spent engine being destroyed.
That sounds like the first attempt at the Bridge on the River Kwai destruction sequence.

From IMDB: "On the first take of the final bridge sequence, the explosions on the bridge didn't detonate. The train crossed over safely, only to crash down a hill on the other side."

I remember hearing same in the commentary as well.

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highiron999
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Post by highiron999 »

Good REAL train scenes in 'Other Man's Woman' 1932 with James Cagney and great sound too! See if you can find 'The Return of Casey Jones' about 1930 also. This includes fixing the air pump out on the running boards at track speed.

Eddie Brandt's Saturday Matinee will rent these and others by mail, if you are really interested in seeing.

I don't work for them or otherwise benefit. Enjoy.

Leonard Evans/highiron999
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Post by Rich_Carlstedt »

Other Mans Woman was good ..and was on Turner classics about 2 months ago.

You fellows must have missed the film they made, about making "The Train"
Yes indeed, the explosions were real, and going off while Burt was running around.
A few comments.
The Dime size coin used to stop the oilers was a real technique used by the underground.
The famous shot of the two locomotives crashing, had that spectacular shot made by a camera buried between the rails.
That was a last minute decision by the Director to do that and they had no way of knowing how it would come out. It was fantastic, after the crash, the wheels are stil spinning..
They said the amount of explosives used were the largest ever for peace time, and equivilent to a real bombing raid in tons of TNT.
When Burt files the babbit rod bearings, his strokes with the file were correct. The back ground noise was superb
it's my all time favorite
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