"The Man Who watched Trains Go By" (1951) Claufe Rains - Marta Toren

                                       

Claude Raines plays a man who has been the head clerk/bookkeeper for 18 years at a firm in Holland. He lives by the sound of the train whistling to and from Paris his whole life, while he remains where he is.

A scandal at a rival firm leaves that firm bankrupt. But, though it has been proven the bookkeeper was innocent of any wrongdoing or knowledge of the crime by his boss, his life and career are ruined anyway. Even Claude cannot help him find a job.

Through a set of circumstances a police detective arrives from Paris tracing some Dutch currency which has been circulating in Paris on the black market. He comes to Claude's firm. The boss is most cooperative. Too cooperative.

Out walking one night, Claude finds his boss burning the books and running away with the firm's money. They struggle and the boss falls in the canal and drowns. The firm's money is strewn on the ground where it fell, along with a train ticket to Paris. What should he do about that? There are no more books, but keeping the money will make him guilty of embezzlement.  And leaving his family behind is not an option he really cares for. But this is an extraordinary situation.

What should he do? Tell the authorities the truth and risk disbelief and ruin? Or is there another way? And does that train whistle to Paris have an influence? Who can say?

Will he go to Paris so that it looks like his boss stole the money? Is it morally okay? After all, the boss was going to leave him holding the bag.....

Wonderfully adapted from the novel, and filmed in beautiful, almost muted color. This 1952 film stands the test. Also released as "The Paris Express".

"The Thin Man" with William Powell and Myrna Loy (1936)

Looking for a good New Year’s Day with a little bit of a twist? Look no further than this one. "The Thin Man" is the type of "whodunits" that seldom get made these days. William Powell; impeccably dressed, as always; plays Nick Charles, a former playboy-detective who marries Myrna Loy, who plays Nora Charles; his wife. He has retired from the "detecting" business in order to "keep an eye on my wife's money."

When Mr. and Mrs. Charles arrive in New York just in time for the holidays, the last thing on their minds is to become involved in solving the murder of an old friend, Professor Wynatt. But with the press hounding him, and a wife who wants to see her famous husband in action, there is not much hope in evading the inevitable, as Mr. Charles drinks his way to solving the crime.

Loaded with character actors, the faces of whom you will instantly recognize the film is fast paced and the dialogue witty. Nick and Nora are perfect as they romp their way through the holidays, culminating their investigation with an elegant dinner party, during which the killer is finally exposed. With the case wrapped up in time for New Year’s Eve, the couple happily boards the train for the return trip to San Francisco, and their next escapade.

Long the most admired of the many duos that have played the part of Nick and Nora, both in Hollywood and on TV, William Powell and Myrna Loy have that certain screen chemistry that will make you think they are really married. And with a script based on the novel by Dashiell Hammett, what more could you ask for.

“Water for Elephants” with Reese Witherspoon and Christoph Waltz (2011)

Beautiful cinematography and a wonderful screenplay make this film a sensual experience to watch. The film begins with Hal Holbrook; who plays the main character of Jacob as an old man; talking to a younger man who runs a circus. He is obviously “missing” from his nursing home and has a tale to tell. The younger man decides to listen and the film dissolves into a flashback, where it will remain for the entire film.

The young Jacob; played by Robert Pattinson; is unable to complete his education at Cornell, where he was studying to be a veterinarian. While riding the railroads during the early days of the Great Depression he meets some men who introduce him to life working odd jobs at a circus. The star attraction of this circus is a beautiful woman named Marlena; played by Reese Witherspoon; who rides an equally beautiful white stallion. Jacob is taken with both the woman and the animal.

Marlena is married to the owner of the struggling circus, a man named August; played by Christoph Waltz; who is always looking for another way to make his circus unique; and profitable. His relationship with his wife is odd and he seems to be lost in his own dreams and fantasies. Marlena is clearly unhappy.

When Jacob notices that the horse is not well he finds himself at odds with Marlena; who thinks she knows more than he does about her horse; and August, who is insanely jealous and controlling. When Jacob tells them that he is a veterinarian he is given the job of taking care of the horse and restoring it to health.

Realizing that the horse is in great pain and will never recover, Jacob puts him down with Marlena’s consent. This infuriates August who tries to kill Jacob over the incident. But soon he has his sights set on an elephant named Rosie as a way to make his show turn a profit. Accordingly he places Jacob in charge of the animal.

When the elephant seems not to be able to learn any tricks August becomes enraged, beating the elephant within an inch of its life. The carny’s and roustabouts all pitch in and help Jacob bring the elephant back to health. But they must come up with a way to keep August from hurting Rosie again.  During this time Jacob and Marlena become very close; verging on the edge of a romantic relationship. August senses this and takes his rage out on Rosie as well as Jacob.

While tending to Rosie Jacob discovers that the elephant used to belong to a Hungarian circus and has been trained in that language. With the help of his fellow workers he is able to turn Rosie back into the class act she once was. This further fuels August’s anger and sets up a confrontation with Marlena.

To find out what happens you’ll have to see the film. Suffice to say the film ends with Hal Holbrook finishing the tale he began, leaving his one man audience flabbergasted enough to offer the old man a job in the circus.

Based on Sara Gruen’s bestselling book of the same name, this film with keep you in your seat waiting to see how it all turns out for Rosie, Jacob and Marlena as they navigate the three rivers of life, love and loyalty. Beautifully directed and filmed this is a movie you will want to watch more than once.

"The Race Underground" by Doug Most (2014)

On March 24, 1900 there was a ceremony held in New York City which marked the beginning of digging the subway, which we all take for granted today. But the story didn't start there. It began in the first half of the nineteenth century, when city streets were becoming too crowded and unmanageable for people to move around efficiently. There was also the weather to consider, and the Blizzard of 1888 was a perfect example of how the city could be crippled for days by the weather. While everyone agreed that something needed to be done, agreeing on just what, was another matter entirely.

Most people would point to the pneumatic tube built by Alfred Beach as the first subway in New York City, and they would be right. His “tube” ran from Murray Street to Warren, across from City Hall and it was the first transit system to operate underground. There was already a subway system in London, begun in 1861, but it was plagued with problems. There was no efficient air handling system and the steam locomotives were wholly unsuited for an underground enclosed area. But they already had a pneumatic tube for moving the mail, and this system was of great interest to Alfred Beach.

The story of Mr. Beach and how he had to construct his tunnel in secret, at night, using the basement of Devlin’s department store as a base, is amazing. Although the secret was exposed when a portion of Broadway inexplicably “sunk” one night, he was able to continue with the work by promising to repair the damage when he was done.

On February 26, 1870 he opened the station at Warren Street to a select group of politicians and news reporters for the one block ride to Murray Street. The tunnel was just 312 feet long. It was accomplished at the rate of about 6 feet per night over a period of 58 days, during which time they ran into one major difficulty. That was when they ran into the foundation of an old Dutch fortress, which they were able to take apart piece by piece, hoping that the street above would not collapse upon them as they worked.

The public’s reception to the new tunnel was one of wonderment. They envisioned a day when the streets would be more manageable and cleaner as millions of their fellow New Yorkers were whisked about below ground. And it looked like that was going to happen until Mayor “Boss” Tweedy stepped in. He had the Governor of the state in his pocket, and it was rumored that he would set Governor Hoffman on the road to the White House if he would just play ball with the Mayor.

Accordingly, when 2 proposals were laid before him; one for an extension of the pneumatic tube; the other one for an elevated steam railroad; the choice as clear and the elevated railway won out. Of course Tweed had an interest financially in the project, and when done the elevated railways blocked sunlight and rained soot and smoke on the city’s poor for the next 60 years or so.

It’s so easy to get lost in any one part of this book. The story of what preceded the pneumatic tube is every bit as interesting as what came after it. At first a man named Brower had a coach maker make him a coach that held 12 people and hauled them around town for a shilling; or about 12 and a half cents. This same idea was being used in Boston and would be the first of many competitions between the two in an effort to move the masses about, resulting in the final race between the 2 to build an actual subway.

This horse carriage business was fraught with danger as the competing companies in New York strove to outrace the other in an effort to pick up more fares. The sheer recklessness with which they operated quickly dissuaded most of their prospective customers from using the service. Once again, clearly, something needed to be done.

Then there came the Omnibus; an even larger coach which was being introduced on the streets of London and Paris. The system was adopted in New York and Boston with similar results; once again the drivers were beating their horses to get them to pull harder and faster. The effect of these large vehicles only added to the problem of overcrowded streets and quickly fell from popular favor. While a large wagon might be useful in crossing the continent, it was clearly not suited to an urban setting.

By this time railroads were coming into wide use and the idea of laying tracks in the streets for local transportation came into favor. Accordingly, rails were laid between the Harlem River and 23^rd Street. There tracks were for the use of even larger omnibuses and drawn by horses. Without the need, or ability, to make turns it was thought that with this system congestion could be eased in the streets. But the problem of the horses and their waste; coupled with the smell in the summer months; made this system unfeasible as well.

It was now time to turn to a newer technology, and the pneumatic tube carrying mail in London seemed to hold promise in the mind of Alfred Beach. And if it were not for the interference of Mayor Tweed, that technology just may have been the direction the future of transportation would have taken. That station is still there today. Incidentally, Mr. beach also published the Scientific American, which first featured his story about a subway in 1849. That magazine is also still with us.

But this book is more than just the story of the parallel projects taking place in New York and Boston. It is the story of an age of discovery, when new technologies were being invented in rapid succession. Electricity, steam power, the telegraph and telephone were all coming into play at the time. And all would have an influence on the direction which mass transportation would take.

New motors, designed to work on electricity, would be needed to power the trains underground. Ventilation systems would have to be designed; lighting problems had to be overcome. In short, this endeavor was; for the time in which in occurred; very much like going to the moon.

In the end a new list of heroes, and villains, would come out of the story. Men like Marc Brunel, who pioneered the London underground; along with others like Frank Sprague, a colleague of Edison's, who developed and tested his electric motor in an alleyway in New York City. His design is what enabled the whole project to become feasible, and his ideas are even incorporated into the engines which are in use today. The dispute between Thomas Edison and Frank Sprague over credit for the technology would last their entire lives.

Along with others such as William Parsons, the engineer that began the final push to design the system in New York; John MacDonald, the contractor who built it; August Belmont, who put up the money and founded the IRT to run the finished project; and the Whitley Brothers, Henry and William, who would each make a mark on their respective cities in the race to transport people safely beneath the streets. Together they would build and operate the subway, which was finally completed in 1904. In the decades that followed the system would expand to an astonishing 800 miles of track with hundreds of stations.

Then there were the politicians, such as the infamous politician Boss Tweed, and the visionary Mayor Hewitt who was in office when the Blizzard of 1888 struck. He was correct in everything he believed was right for the city, but had angered too many of his colleagues with his Reform Movement. And, of course there was also Governor Hoffman, whose ambitions outweighed his commitment to the public.

Along the way there are explosions, flooding, technical problems, inventions and everything else involved in an effort to change the world about us for the better. With a deft hand Mr. Most has given us a book which is part adventure, part politics, part history; and in the end, just plain fun to read. 

If you are a fan of the subways; and I think many folks are; then this book is one which you will enjoy from the first page until the very last. Illustrated and backed up by Chapter Notes, this book is also a wonderful reference tool.

    

The Grand Old Opry - April 28, 1956

Whenever I walk along the streets in Mooresville, N.C., which is about 18 minutes from my house, I think of what the town must have been like before Interstate 77 came through several miles to the west of town, in the early 1960’s, when Duke Power created Lake Norman to serve it’s dam on the Catawba River, which in turn would become part of the nuclear power plant that sits adjacent to it. That dam is located about 11 miles to the South, in Huntersville.

Mooresville has had a renaissance in the past decade or so, with new boutiques and shops opening on Main Street, revitalizing the area. Mooresville was primarily an agricultural town, growing corn, cotton and other crops which were shipped by the railroad which bisects the town from North to South. So, naturally, when I think of Mooresville in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, I see a vibrant town with dances on Saturday nights, and train whistles cutting through the sound of the music and laughter.

Sundays were mainly “church” days, with some picnics thrown in and a lot of visiting friends and relatives. Contrasted with Brooklyn, New York where I was raised, I find myself often wishing I could go back for just one night to those years and experience the flavor of the town as it once was.

But, for better or for worse, my memories are all based in the city, so I can only imagine what I missed. They say “even a fool can despise what he cannot get”, but I don’t despise what I missed at all. I hunger for it. And that hunger; as it often does; takes me to You Tube where I can get a glimpse of what life was like outside of New York City and the Ed Sullivan Show.

The Grand Old Opry is still alive and kicking today, pumping out so called country music, which is really just a blend of 1960’s rock/pop music. The acts you see here from the Grand Old Opry in April, 1956, represent the real American entertainment of the time. This show, and others like it, were what the rest of the country were watching while we were watching the more “sophisticated” variety shows which aired from New York and even the stuff coming out of Los Angeles at the time. They are also emblematic of all the good things I missed. Chet Atkins and June Carter both perform, and the commercials are live, touting the benefits of farm products rather than aftershave lotions. Man, I wish I could back for just one night...

Railroad Coins

When I was a kid we used to put coins on the railroad tracks and retrieve them after the trains had passed. We did this at the elevated section of the BMT in Brooklyn, Actually it was on the Avenue S trestle at East 16th Street, next to Kelley Park and the Public Health Building. I still have one of the coins; a nickle with the year of my birth showing. The rest have all been scattered to the ages, lost years ago. And, I miss them. 

So, taking myself over to the freight tracks which run along Route 115 in Cornelius, I decided to relive a bit of  my youth, placing several coins on the rails, intending to retrieve them in a day or two.

Upon my return, I was rewarded with the most perfectly flattened and oval shaped remains of the two coins. Art is all around us in various forms. The quarter even has all the ridges on the rim intact, making it perfect material for a pendant. 

Art is all around us. We can ignore it, appreciate it, and sometimes even create it. The quarter which was crushed will be turned into a beautifully engraved pendant for my wife. And she loves me enough to wear it! I know because I asked her.

"The Palm Beach Story" with Joel McCrea, Claudette Colbert and Rudy Vallee (1942)

One of the scenes shown in yesterday's Valentine's Day post depicted a woman’s toes curling. It was one of the ones I guessed correctly. Coincidentally, it is also one of the newer selections just purchased for the Classics Collection at the Mooresville Public Library. So, naturally I had to take it home. And I'm so glad that I did. It has been awhile since I have seen this quirky, off-beat comedy by Preston Sturges, and in this case, absence makes the heart grow fonder, both for the principal characters, as well as the viewer.

Tom Jeffers, played by Joel McCrea and his wife Gerry, played by Claudette Colbert are broke. He is a struggling architect and the bills have mounted up. They are being evicted from their Manhattan luxury apartment when J.D. Hackensacker III, played by screen legend Rudy Vallee enters their lives as the meddling old millionaire "Sausage king." With a self-deprecating wit and charm, he pays off the couples debts. This causes some friction between the two, and Gerry decides that she can serve her husband best by getting a quick divorce. He is in complete disagreement.

After a night on the town, Gerry leaves Tom, bound for Palm Beach by train. (There are some great scenes of the old Pennsylvania Station in this part of the movie.) Without any money for a ticket, she vies for the attention of a group of old millionaires who are all members of the "Quail and Ale" club. This group is composed of some of Hollywood’s finest character actors, including William Demarest and Chester Conklin, along with Fred "Snowflake" Toones as the beleaguered black bartender, "Snowflake", in what would today be considered a "politically incorrect" role. They are on their annual outing to go hunting, drinking and singing. They quickly vote to adopt her as a member and pay for her ticket. Tom arrives at the station just in time to see his wife leaving.

In despair, he heads home, only to discover that J.D. Hackensacker, III is now his neighbor. The old gent is irritated that Tom is not chasing his wife in order to get her back. So, he finances Tom's train ticket to go and chase her down. On the way he discovers that Hackensacker's sister, the Princess Centimillia, played by Mary Astor, is after him. With the plot all set, it only remains to be seen what happens next in this typically fast paced and funny production, written and directed by the master of the ridiculous, Preston Sturges.

Trains

Trains, they've always been there, on the periphery of my life, whistling in the night, chugging through my past and present, fueling my imagination. I've watched them, and counted the cars as they lumbered past, some over a mile long! I've never minded waiting for a freight train to pass. It's an opportunity to let my imagination go.

Ever since I was a kid, I've walked the tracks, flattened coins on the rails, collected spikes, felt the rush of the air as the train passed within inches of me, rattling the earth beneath my feet as they did. My reaction has always been the same, I stand silently, wrapped in the fading sound, lost in the vibrations emanating from the rails, and up through my body, like some surreal electrical charge.

What is this fascination with trains? I'm not the only one. There are museums, train rides, songs about great train wrecks, and the stories of the hobo's who rode the rails during the Great Depression. These two photos are of some trains a few miles from our house. The Caboose is my favorite.

This is a typical caboose, an icon of American railroads. It's a home on wheels, wheels that are bound to the tracks, making them seem permanent, a fixture in our collective minds. This is home to the signalman as he travels at the rear of the train, the last person to see where the train has been. It's a backwards journey, you can't see anything in front of you. Just a fading landscape, growing smaller and smaller as the wheels go clickity clack, clickity clack, on their journey across America.

And sometimes, when I'm waiting for the train to pass, I find myself wishing I were a bit younger. I just might hop on board...

"FDR's Funeral Train" by Robert Klara

Sharing the spotlight in history today with the beginning of the Civil War (see next post down) is the death of FDR in 1945. Like him or not, he was one of the most influential, and controversial, of President's in our nations history.

My mother used to tell me about the day that FDR died. She said that the whole sky went black, just like it does on a summer's day before a storm. But this was early April, though it had been unusually balmy for the last week or so. It was late afternoon before she recalled hearing the news on radio that the President had died earlier.

As preparations were being made for his funeral in Washington, DC and, his later internment at his home in Hyde Park, NY, a drama was being played out that would remain largely unwritten about for several decades.

The President had been at his usual retreat in Warm Springs, Georgia when he was fatally stricken with a heart attack. This was not unexpected, as he had been in poor health for many years. Along with his paralysis, his blood pressure at the BEGINNING of the War was 250/140. There were no drugs available for the doctors to counter this pressure, which surely built up over 3 full terms as President. He was literally a ticking time bomb.

Where the drama begins is the fact that The President's long time lady freind, Lucy Mercer Rutherford, was with him at the time he passed. And the drama continues as the First Lady seeks to uncover the truth about who was with her husband at the time of his death. With her detective skills in sharp order due to having served as her husbands legs and ears on several cross country trips, she soon cracks the mystery. But the story continues on from there.

The President had a specially designed train for protection. The Presidential Pullman Car was named "The Ferdinand Magellan" and Roosevelt made regular trips on it. Mostly to his home in Hyde Park, and sometimes out West. The car was 142 tons in weight. There was no precaution too great to take in protecting the President. These things are all well known.

What is less known are the special trips he made to side spurs along the way. There the President would remain for almost 12 hours at a time dallying with Ms. Rutherford. This was all about to become known to Mrs. Roosevelt as the train crossed the country, first from Washington to Warm Springs, then back to Washington for the State Funeral. From there the train would be loaded up again for the final journey to bury the President at Hyde Park, NY.

The trip was filled with even more high drama as the newly sworn President Truman tries to figure out the secret everyone is trying to keep from him. He needed to be told about the A-bomb but no-one wanted to be the one to breach security and tell him first. At the same time there is a suspected Soviet Agent on board, trying to find out what everyone else is whispering about. That all this occurs as the nation mourns the loss of the President while the country is still at war really ups the stakes.

Well researched by the author, Robert Klara has given us a slice of history that has been denied us until now. Using recently released documents and old diaries and letters, he has pieced together a story that would be the envy of any author of fiction. That it is real makes it all the better. It is also reminiscent of an Agatha Christie novel, from the setting on the train to the wild cast of characters, who are, in this case real.