Great Film overall

Fresh and Exciting

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

A motley assortment of well-to-do people get aboard the Streamline Express, a new luxurious train, New York to California, non-stop in 20 hours. Victor Jory wants to get Evelyn Venable back for his new stage production; she has just walked out on dress rehearsals and is traveling with Ralph Forbes to get married in Santa Barbara. Erin O'Brien-Moore wants to get husband Clay Clement back from Esther Ralston, who is being blackmailed by Sidney Blackmer.And so forth. The actors put in good performances, particularly the first triangle in a comic plot that suggests the previous year's screwball 20TH CENTURY, but the whole movie has a cobbled-together feeling and the interior of the train is oddly commodious for something that has to fit on a rail line. The overall effect is of an ambitious but cheap-and-hasty production that is too erratic to maintain interest.

This jolly farce from '35 is the purest screwball, one of the funniest and most lighthearted, it has even the customary spanking (of Evelyn Venable, by Jory), and a cheerful dynamism; it's neither a Sci Fi Movie, nor a mystery one, although there's a funny futuristic toy and fancy sets (most of the storyline happens on a futuristic train) and a crime subplot (but as part of the farce: a concealed, hidden jewel, in a comedy of remarriage …). Jory has the leading role, and he's stunning and irresistible, Evelyn Venable is his lady, vastly endearing. The story follows three couples, and a delightful drunkard who sips anything. What matters, all the cast seems to enjoy doing this movie.There are some equivocal lines, of adult humor.Fred Arnold plays a character named Forbes, an unfaithful husband won back by his wife. (So, there aren't two Arnolds in the script, a Freddy and a Fred, why should they be, but one character has the name of another character's actor. Honestly.) Moreover, Ralph Forbes plays Freddy Arnold, so the character named after the actor who plays the runaway husband.E. Ralston looked a bit androgynous for the tempting younger woman. But this is in keeping with the farce.Leonard Fields, whom as of yet I know nothing about, directed the thing.Here, Jory rose to humorous heights that will only be available to O'Toole.

This film from tiny Mascot Pictures is very much like a super-low budget variation on "Grand Hotel". It's made up of several stories and many characters who are traveling cross-country on a brand-new super speedy train. The main tale stars Victor Jory and Evelyn Venable and it's a pleasant little story about a Broadway producer following his diva aboard, as she's giving up her career to get married--and he wants to somehow woo her back to the show. In addition, there are various crooks, a nervous man and a story about an affair that round all this out. While none of it is brilliant and it is a bit derivative, it is pleasant and generally well-acted as well as entertaining---provided you like old films. If you don't, then try something a bit better--as old movies are often wonderfully entertaining (such as "Grand Hotel" or "Dinner at Eight"--two of the best of this genre) . Worth seeing but far from a must-see.

Expecting to enjoy a very cool train film, I wound up being greatly disappointed with this movie. For starters, the train in the title turns out to be a most unconvincing model which, after its christening, is little seen the rest of the film, save for brief shots of it speeding along. According to the script, it travels on a special monorail across the country, the construction of which presumably rivaled the laying of the transcontinental railroad tracks back in the day. At any rate, the film is shot in interior sets that could have been in any hotel, and a drab one at that.On to the plot, of which there is little. In fact, I am convinced it is a leftover hash-up from some other project coupled with a super-train angle to give it some box office appeal. Previous reviewers have detailed the story, what there is of it, but there is not one interesting scene in the picture. The characters are cardboard, the dialog stilted and the pace tedious.I give this film my lowest rating. Another record-setting-train film, "The Silver Streak" (1934) is "Citizen Kane" by comparison. I advise anyone who loves trains or good films to avoid this disappointing mess.