In the news...

[Vecchiolarry]

Hi Joe,

Bravo, Zsa Zsa..... I'd love to see those photographs and I hope they made them 'look pretty' as Mae Murray once instructed a photographer...

As for Zsa Zsa not liking women: well, her best friend since 1952 is Kathryn Grayson. And, she was very intimate with Ann Miller, busom buddies; and she still sees Elaine Stewart...
I've never heard a bad thing about her from any of them.

Ann Miller once told me that Zsa Zsa asked her how many husbands she had had and Ann announced - 3. And, Zsa Zsa laughed and said, "No dahling!.. I mean how many have I had?".... She'd lost count...
Now, that's a dame with a sense of humour!!!!

Larry

[Moraldo Rubini]

In a publicity ploy to bring the new movie The Darjeeling Express into the press, MTV has named their top ten favorite cinematic train rides. They are:

10. Silver Streak
9. Von Ryan's Express
8. Back to the Future Part III
7. Some Like It Hot
6. Mission: Impossible
5. The Lady Vanishes
4. Murder on the Orient Express
3. From Russia With Love
2. North by Northwest
1. Hard Day's Night

Not a bad list, considering it's MTV. I'd change No. 8 to Twentieth Century, and No. 6 to Brief Encounter, but overall... Even they admit they're only scratching the surface, going on to mention The Manchurian Candidate, 8 1/2, The Cassandra Crossing, Superman, The Grifters, A Passage to India, Terror Train, The Polar Express, and the Hogwarts Express from the Harry Potter series. Polar Express should definitely be up there. The sleeper that Barbra Streisand and James Caan shared in Funny Lady was one of the most impressive I've seen on screen. All that mahogany! And Since You Went Away's Hilton family, whose heartbreaking train attempt to meet the patriarch in D.C., while constantly being delayed to give right of way to freight trains of supplies to the war front. "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe"?!

Do think there's something more deserving?

[mongoII]

Aired on TCM yesterday, "The Narrow Margin" should be added to the list.
A taut film-noir, it took place on a train throughout most of the movie.

[knitwit45]

Moraldo, you named it! "The Harvey Girls" opens and closes with a great train ride.

[movieman1957]

Palm Beach Story has a great train sequence as "The Ale and Quail" club make their way to Florida. Target practice in a club car makes for an interesting ride.

[SSO Admins]

In a publicity ploy to bring the new movie The Darjeeling Express into the press, MTV has named their top ten favorite cinematic train rides. They are:
*snip*
Do think there's something more deserving?

I missed this when it was originally posted, but the answer is yes. Any list of great cinematic train rides, even if it's a list of one, that doesn't mention The General is to be immediately discounted.

[SSO Admins]

In a publicity ploy to bring the new movie The Darjeeling Express into the press, MTV has named their top ten favorite cinematic train rides. They are:
*snip*
Do think there's something more deserving?

The answer is yes. Any list of great cinematic train rides, even if it's a list of one, that doesn't mention The General is to be immediately discounted.

[Hollis]

Good afternoon all,

What about Mr Hitchcock's "Strangers on a Train?" That was an interesting premise and Robert Walker was definitely playing against type, wouldn't you think? And in a much lighter vein, and a lot more recently, "Throw Momma From the Train." Well, that's my two cents worth!

As always,

Hollis

p.s. and lest we forget, Burt Lancaster and Paul Scofield in "The Train." Granted, riding on the train wasn't the main point, but it was to the hostages the Germans had riding tied to the locomotive!

[feaito]

If you talk about about favorite cinematic train rides, the comedy "Without Reservations", with Claudette Colbert, John Wayne, Don DeFore and Anne Triola, among the passangers, is one of my top-five.

Another "train ride" film I discovered recently was the Pre-Code "By Whose Hand" with Ben Lyon.

"Vivacious Lady" is another film that comes to my mind, as towards the end of the movie, Jimmy Stewart and Charles Coburn try to recover on-board a train, their respective wives (Ginger Rogers and Beulah Bondi).

[benwhowell]

"Double Indemnity"
"Abe Lincoln In Illinois" has a magnificent ending involving a train.
"The Taking Of Pelham One Two Three"

[klondike]

On the subject of train movies: for nerve-jangling, heart-racing suspense, and some grisly, red-herring twists, I'd suggest the greatly overlooked Dennis Quaid thriller Switchback.
A real departure of a role for Danny Glover, and a solid pay-off thereby, to boot!

[mrsl]

Klondike:

You are so right about Switchback. The first time I saw it, I came in about half way so I really only watched with half a mind, I was probably killing time until the next movie came on. But I found myself wondering what was actually happening, and didn't realize what kind of twist was going on at the end. The next time it was scheduled, I was sitting there waiting for the first minutes and that movie never failed to entertain. For anyone who hasn't seen it, It's really a good movie when you're in the mood for action.

While we're on the subject of trains, I just want to mention that as for The Narrow Margin, this is one of the times when I prefer the re-make to the original. Gene Hackman and Anne Archer far improve on the characters over Charles McGraw and Marie Windsor. Also the plot lines are changed just enough to actually enhance the story, IMHO.

Anne

[Moraldo Rubini]

To Larry (and others of course!), I found a better picture of Elizabeth Taylor and her "beau" from the evening previously mentioned here.
~~~~~~~~~~
In the meantime, did everyone see the Time magazine story regarding the state of the Western?

'There's an assumption in Hollywood that the western is a homeless genre,' says [director James] Mangold, 'that it doesn't have a built-in audience. The adults who might want to go don't go to the movies, and the young ones are locked into the superhero world.' Mangold also sees 'a Hollywood bias against the America between New York and L.A. The movie industry is basically built serving 14-year-old males, and they aren't interested in rural America.'

It's an interesting piece, that brings up many issues that greet today's Westerns, and gives us a world view of the genre. Check it out.

[Vecchiolarry]

Hi Marco,

Thanks so much for the great picture of Elizabeth and beau....
She is looking better and I'm glad she got rid of that blonde look.......
And, who else wears her diamonds so well now-a-days??

The "Jesse James" movie was filmed in and around Calgary and many people went 'nuts' over Brad and trying to find out where he was staying.
A lot of actors here got extra rolls in the movie and the prairies east of here and the mountains west of here are all featured for background scenes.
I'm not interested in Brad Pitt at all, but I may go to see this just for the scenery - - like "Brokeback Mountain". The background was great but the movie stunk, in my opinion (boring!!)....

Larry

[MikeBSG]

One of my favorite cinematic train rides is in "The Lady Eve," when Barbara Stanwyck "confesses" to Henry Fonda about her life before she married him. That is one of the funniest things I've ever seen.