Saturday, May 10 is National Train Day. To celebrate, naturally you could take a trip on a train. But if an actual trip isn’t possible at the moment, you can take a virtual trip by watching one of the great films that are set on or around trains. No matter what kind of film you’re in the mood for – mystery, wartime intrigue, thriller, romance, murder, even musical – there’s a train film for you.
Here are some of my favorites among the many terrific films featuring trains.
The closed, somewhat claustrophobic world of train compartments is the perfect setting for mysteries, which is no doubt why Alfred Hitchcock set some of his best films on trains -- Strangers on a Train, The Lady Vanishes, and North by Northwest among them.
For sunny view of life along the tracks, see The Harvey Girls. A singing dancing film about Fred Harvey’s railway restaurants and the girls who made them famous, it stars Judy Garland and features Angela Lansbury.
Danger, deceit and drugs are on track in Transsiberian, a chilling film featuring Woody Harrelson, Emily Mortimer, and Ben Kingsley.
Burt Lancaster is wonderful in The Train, a gritty WWII movie about art looted by the Nazis, a topic that’s still in the news.
Brief Encounter, directed by David Lean and starring Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard, is one of the most romantic train, or more accurately, train station films.
Caught on a Train stars a young Michael Kitchen and the formidable Peggy Ashcroft in a less than romantic view of European train travel and what used to be called a generation gap.
In Murder, She Said Agatha Christie’s seemingly dotty mastermind, Miss Marple, solves a murder mystery in spite of the skeptical authorities. Marple is perfectly played by Margaret Rutherford.
Then there’s Murder on the Orient Express. Agatha Christie’s most famous book has been filmed a few times. Albert Finney, Alfred Molina, and David Suchet have all played the remarkable Hercule Poirot, with his mustaches, his little grey cells, and his skill at solving the most confounding mysteries. Suchet is my favorite.
Watching train movies is the next best thing to taking a train trip and a great way to celebrate National Train Day.