The Five Best Train Movies

With the recent release of director Kenneth Branagh's adaption of Agatha Christie's novel Murder on the Orient Express, a few venues have compiled their list of the greatest train movies ever made. I have found myself disagreeing with some of these lists, as they often include movies with a few scenes set on trains while excluding movies that are set almost entirely on trains. I then thought I would come up with my own list of the five greatest movies set on trains ever made. My criterion for choosing the films was very simple. A significant amount of the movie had to be set on a train. It is for this reason that such films as Some Like It Hot (1959) and North by Northwest (1959) did not make the list. While both number among my favourite movies of all time, the amount of time spent on a train in either of them is not significant enough. In fact, my favourite scenes from both movies take place away from trains!

Without further ado, here are my top five best train movies.

1. The General (1926): To give you an idea of just how much of a role trains play in Buster Keaton's classic The General, the movie takes its name from a locomotive--the Western & Atlantic Railroad train for which Johnnie Gray (played by Buster Keaton) is the engineer. When Union spies commandeer The General, Johnnie gives chase, using any means of transportation he can to get his train back. Although The General received poor reviews and did badly at the box office upon its initial release, it is now regarded as one of the greatest silent movies ever made. It has also proven very influential. Indeed, a very good argument can be made that The General was one of the earliest blockbuster, action comedies ever made.

2. The Lady Vanishes (1938): I have to admit that it was very hard for to decide whether The General or The Lady Vanishes would occupy the number one spot, as they both number among my favourite movies of all time. I ultimately decided upon The General as I think it was a bit more revolutionary for its time. Of course, I have to admit to some bias where The Lady Vanishes is concerned, as it was the first film in which I ever saw Margaret Lockwood, who numbers among my favourite actresses of all time. And Margaret is certainly fantastic here, playing socialite Iris Henderson. When an elderly, fellow Englishwoman disappears from a train going through Europe, it is up to Iris and musician Gilbert Redman (played by the great Sir Michael Redgrave) to find out what happened to her. Except for the first several minutes, The Lady Vanishes it is set almost entirely upon the train. The film also marks the first appearance of  Charters and Caldicott (played by Naunton Wayne and Basil Radford), two Englishmen who are absolutely obsessed with cricket and would go onto appear in several more films over the years. The Lady Vanishes was directed by Alfred Hitchcock and remains one of his best films.

 

3. Twentieth Century (1934): Alongside the Orient Express, the 20th Century Limited is one of the most famous trains of all time. For those unfamiliar with it, the 20th Century Limited was a passenger train that ran on the New York Central Railroad from New York City to Chicago in the years between 1902 and 1967. A good portion of Twentieth Century is set aboard the 20th Century Limited, which  Broadway impresario Oscar Jaffe (played by John Barrymore) boards in disguise in order to escape his debtors. Unfortunately for Oscar, his former protegée Lily Garland (played by Carole Lombard) also boards the train. Twentieth Century is one of the best pre-Code comedies, featuring an excellent cast that includes Roscoe Karns, Charles Lane, and Edgar Kennedy. It also happens to be extremely funny.

4. The Train (1964): If there was a Golden Age for World War II movies, it was probably the Sixties. Among the very best of the movies about the Second World War released during the decade was John Frankenheimer's The Train. In The Train, art masterpieces stolen by the Nazis are being shipped by rail to Germany. After the Nazis remove works of art from the Jeu de Paume Museum, its curator turned to the French Resistance to somehow stop the train without damaging the precious works of art it carries. The movie was loosely based on an actual incident that occurred in August 1944 that was detailed in the 1961 book Le front de l'art by Rose Valland. Where the movie departed from history is that in reality the French Resistance managed to delay the train through paperwork, giving the Allies time to immediately seize the train when it was only a few miles away from Paris. While The Train may not be historically accurate, it is among the most exciting action movies to involve a train.

5. Night Train to Munich (1940): British star Margaret Lockwood had the rare, good fortune to star in two of the greatest movies involving trains ever made. In 1938 she appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes (discussed above). In 1940 she appeared in Carol Reed's Night Train to Munich. The casting of Margaret Lockwood in Night Train to Munich would seem to be more than coincidence, as it seems likely 20th Century Fox hoped to repeat Gainsborough's success with The Lady Vanishes. Indeed, not only did Miss Lockwood appear in both films, but the screenplays for both films were written by Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder and both feature the characters of Charters and Caldicott. Of course, both films involve trains. That having been said, Night Train to Munich was not a mere imitator of The Lady Vanishes, as in many ways it was a very different movie. In Night Train to Munich Margaret Lockwood plays the daughter of Czechoslovakian scientist who is developing a new type of armour plating. Arrested by the Nazis and sent to a concentration camp, she and another prisoner escape in an attempt to make their way to London and her father (who had escaped there). Night Train to Munich is filled with plenty of twists and turns, as well as some of Carol Reed's best direction.