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The Silver Streak
USA 1934
produced by RKO
directed by Thomas Atkins
starring Sally Blane, Charles Starrett, William Farnum, Hardie Albright, Irving Pichel, Arthur Lake, Theodore von Eltz, Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams, Edgar Kennedy, Doris Dawson, Harry Allen, James Bradbury jr, Lynton Brent, Dick Curtis, John Dilson, Sam Hayes, Robert Homans, Murray Kinnell, Ray Turner, Wilhelm von Brincken, & the Burlington Zephyr as the Silver Streak
story by Roger Whately, screenplay by Roger Whately, H.W. Hanemann, Jack O'Donnell
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
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Young inventor Tom (Charles Starrett) has developed a new,
revolutionary, streamlined Diesel-driven high speed train - but Chicago
railroad owner Dexter (William Farnum), his employer, will have nothing of
it, which leaves Tom shattered. However, his girlfriend Ruth (Sally
Blane), Dexter's daughter incidently, talks train manufacturer Tyler
(Theodore von Eltz) into letting her sweetheart develop her new engine for
his company. Development goes as great as expected, but at its
demonstration run the train totally fails to impress, never making it up
to speed and being overtaken by a steam freight train even. Tyler drops
the project, and it's bound to spend the rest of its life in a museum,
even if Tom soon finds out it was one single misconstructed part that
caused the whole mess. Then theough, Dexter's son Allan (Hardie Albright)
falls sick at Boulder Dam, and he needs an iron lung in less than a day in
order to survive. Sure, Dexter actually has one at his disposal - but how
to get it to Boulder Dam in less than a day? Circumstances force Dexter to
gamble and try Tom's train, the Silver Streak again ... and this time the
train makes it, despite quite a few almost-crashes and even the train's
Diesel expert (Irving Pichel) being replaced by an enemy agent. And in the
end, Tom even gets the girl, naturally. If you're into vintage
train action, then this is definitely your movie: Inspired by the
Burlington Zephyr's (also known as Pioneer Zephyr) record run from Denver,
Colorado to Chicago, Illinois in 13 hours and 5 minutes earlier in 1934,
this film even uses the original Burlington Zephyr for it's original train
shots - and some of the train action is really exciting to say the least.
The drama attached to the train action though is rather routine and seems
to go through the motions without much inventiveness - but also without
too much cheesiness, and the film is paced well enough to avoid too many
slow moments and keep the excitement alive. No classic for sure, but still
great vintage trains that might get an "awww" out of quite a few
viewers.
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review © by Mike Haberfelner
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Robots and rats,
demons and potholes, cuddly toys and shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill Your Bones to is all of that.
Tales to Chill Your Bones to -
a collection of short stories and mini-plays ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle,
all thought up by the twisted mind of screenwriter and film reviewer Michael Haberfelner.
Tales to Chill Your Bones to
the new anthology by Michael Haberfelner
Out now from Amazon!!! |
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