Train Scenes in Movies

March 1, 2005 4:58 PM

I'm completing a lighting design for a play called "Last Train to Nibroc". The play's first scene takes place on a train heading east across the United States, just before dawn on December 28, 1940. In doing my research, I'm looking for movies that include interior scenes on trains of around this period.

I'll take any train movie scenes, but here are my ideal criteria:

# Set on an American train
# During the 1940s
# At night
# The film should be in colour--a modern movie depicting that period.
# Ideally, a non-sleeping and non-dining compartment. What do you call those? A regular compartment where people sit.

I immediately thought of Trading Places ("help me with my rucksack"), but too modern. My closest bet has been Biloxi Blues, but I don't think it features scenes at night. Any suggestions?

posted by dbarefoot to Media & Arts (11 answers total)

I don't remember the exact parts of the train that it shows, but Preston Sturges' The Palm Beach Story (1942) would probably be good viewing for your research.
posted by bibliowench at 5:52 PM on March 1, 2005

Well, for one, Hitchcock LOVED trains. His 40s movies are oretty much all in black and white, though they might give you ideas:

There's a section of Suspicion (1941) on a train, including a train compartment bit. That's not at night, I don't think, but I remember they were sitting across from each other.
I know Strangers on a Train (1951) has train scenes. Later than your period, but it still looks like a 40s movie in a lot of respects. And I'm sure there are scenes at night in a car where people neither ate nor slept.
Also, Shadow of a Doubt has its climax is on a train (1943). I can't really remember what parts of it though.
posted by SoftRain at 6:30 PM on March 1, 2005

Boy, there should be dozens of movies with some scene of the soldiers returning to their hometown on a cheapo train ticket. Ditto for musicals featuring the gang all singing merrily together. Movies about internment of Japanese-Americans would likely have a train scene in whatever that general seating compartment is called. Not that I can think of a single contemporary title that fits one of these categories, but maybe this can jog someone else's memory.

Some more non-contemporary examples:

The Major & the Minor. I think there's a sleeper car scene, but there should be some hallway or general seating shots as well. B/W, though.

White Christmas Dining car and made in the 50s, but color and set in the 40s.
posted by nakedcodemonkey at 6:36 PM on March 1, 2005

A few more - Some Like it Hot has a train scene set in the main seating car. It's a 1959 movie set in 1929, so I don't know if the dates work for you. Also, the latter episodes (if I remember correctly) of Dennis Potter's 1986 The Singing Detective have train interiors, and I believe some of them are at night, albeit in England.
posted by bibliowench at 7:13 PM on March 1, 2005

Courtesy the goodness that is Google: hundreds of train movies (some with descriptions and reviews). Cross out the ones that aren't of contemporary viintage, then show the list to your local video store clerk. He/she will be able to narrow it down a lot more. ("Nah, that one's set in Europe." etc.)
posted by nakedcodemonkey at 7:45 PM on March 1, 2005

Response by poster: Thanks for all the suggestions. I tried the Google method, but figured the data set would turn out to be too large. Thanks for narrowing it down.
posted by dbarefoot at 9:11 PM on March 1, 2005

The first Bond flick, From Russia With Love, has that great fight scene in a regular train cabin at night between a young Robert Shaw (Quint, from Jaws) and Bond where Shaw ultimately gets thrown out of the train window. It's from the early 60's, but might be worth a look.
posted by wsg at 10:22 PM on March 1, 2005

The Hitchcock film: The Lady Vanishes takes place almost entirely on a train, and happens in the 1940s. Fair warning: The film is in black and white.
posted by geryon at 10:44 PM on March 1, 2005

There was a movie called The Twentieth Century after the eponymous transcontinental train. Googleing it revealed that the film was made in 1934.
During World War II, anything with wheels would have been pressed into service.
I asked Google for Zephyr trains - there were pictures which I leave you to explore. They were probably postwar and I think were diesels instead of coal burning choochoos. They were Burlington; Union Pacific had at least one train named the Eagle.
posted by Cranberry at 11:54 PM on March 1, 2005

Sorry, I forgot that you had a specific 1940 date. I really do not know when the diesels were introduced, but the Zephyr pictures have dates.
posted by Cranberry at 11:56 PM on March 1, 2005

My favorite from this era, although released in 1952 (and later remade in 1990) is Narrow Margin, a noir classic. Takes place almost entirely on a train.
posted by Duck_Lips at 10:07 AM on March 2, 2005