From "The Lady Vanishes" to "Murder on the Orient Express", heck even "The Cassandra Crossing". There's something about hearing a train whistle, the sound of the wheels rolling over the track, smoke coming out, and the country side flying by. As long as the train isn't heading to a concentration camp, I am in heaven by the visuals of trains in the movies, even lavish toy train sets.
For this movie, it's basically just an o.k. action film, but for a Charles Bronson movie, it's an above action movie as he's out to find a killer and avoid becoming a victim, after being exposed as a fraud wanted for billing gamblers out of their money by using a crooked deck of cards. Along the way, he meets up with pretty Jill Ireland, a young woman involved with a crooked governor (Richard Crenna), and she agrees to help him when he reveals his real identity, and it's as much a surprise for the audience as it is for her. The conflict erupts between Bronson and marshal Ben Johnson who has some shady activities going on as well.
The scenery and action sequences are fantastic, with a runaway train sliding off the tracks over a huge cliff, and continuously sliding down the embankment as you hear the people inside screaming. A fight between Bronson and another man on top of the train as it passes over a very high snowy train trestle is quite intense. An OK script slugs along here and there, but there are moments of excitement that will have your eyes glued to the screen. I can see young boys fascinated with trains loving this, not for the story by Alistair MacLean, but for everything that happens when those wheels rolling along the tracks take over the screen.
For this movie, it's basically just an o.k. action film, but for a Charles Bronson movie, it's an above action movie as he's out to find a killer and avoid becoming a victim, after being exposed as a fraud wanted for billing gamblers out of their money by using a crooked deck of cards. Along the way, he meets up with pretty Jill Ireland, a young woman involved with a crooked governor (Richard Crenna), and she agrees to help him when he reveals his real identity, and it's as much a surprise for the audience as it is for her. The conflict erupts between Bronson and marshal Ben Johnson who has some shady activities going on as well.
The scenery and action sequences are fantastic, with a runaway train sliding off the tracks over a huge cliff, and continuously sliding down the embankment as you hear the people inside screaming. A fight between Bronson and another man on top of the train as it passes over a very high snowy train trestle is quite intense. An OK script slugs along here and there, but there are moments of excitement that will have your eyes glued to the screen. I can see young boys fascinated with trains loving this, not for the story by Alistair MacLean, but for everything that happens when those wheels rolling along the tracks take over the screen.