Skunkyrate Gripping story with well-crafted characters

TaryBiggBall It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Robert Joyner The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Melanie Bouvet The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

mark.waltz Poverty row studios are known best for their cheap westerns, murder mysteries and espionage thrillers. What they were not experts at were comedies, although there are a few good ones among them. This is the little engine that could, a nice bit of screwball comedy obviously influenced by the 1934 John Barrymore/Carole Lombard version of the Broadway play "Twentieth Century". While the stars of this film were not huge box office draws like Barrymore and Lombard, they were well known enough as either A list character actors or B stars at the major studios, and add a nice touch of class to this. Evelyn Venable is a leading lady on a Broadway play who walks out on the rehearsals for her latest show to go out west to get married, and is followed by agent Victor Jory who pretends to be a valet in order to get aboard the train and convince her to fulfill her contract. Also aboard is a newly divorced man (Clay Clement) and his fiancee (Esther Ralston), followed by his ex-wife (Erin O'Brien-Moore). Confusion ensues regarding a stolen necklace which somehow Jory ends up with. A drunk (Ralph Forbes) and a father-to-be (Vince Barnett) add some dry humor as they interject themselves with the other characters.At 70 minutes, this sophisticated looking screwball comedy doesn't appear to come from a studio on poverty row like Mascot. The train they are on is lavishly made up, and the costumes for the women are pretty glamorous as well. Jory's character gets some good laughs, but one sequence where he pulls on the ear of Venable's black maid (Libby Taylor), in order to get him to tell her where Venable is, is a bit disturbing. But there are some nice twists and turns, and a sequence where each of the passengers is searched for the missing piece of jewelry is cleverly staged. Barnett, a whispy looking man whose unseen wife is having the baby, looks unlike any father to be I've ever seen, and his plot device (his wife must give birth in California so he can receive an inheritance) is amusing with a clever twist at the end. All in all, not bad for a low budget poverty row comedy, reminding film historians that just because something didn't come with the benefits of a big studio behind it doesn't mean that it isn't worth looking at over 80 years later.

Cristi_Ciopron 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.

MartinHafer 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.

cbonaire 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.