Tag Archives: Gyralite

The Tattered Dress 1957

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Universal-International

Let’s take a ride on the Southern Pacific. Many thanks to reader Tony Roberts for sending me an extra Blu-Ray disc of this movie to watch. Today’s feature is a late 1950’s film noir courtroom drama with about six minutes of railroad footage at the beginning. Apologies for the poor quality of the screen caps in this review. I plead extenuating circumstances.

The Espee was quite cooperative, renting a set of passenger train equipment, a pair of diesel locomotives and two, separate passenger stations for filmmakers to use. Not to mention “track and time”. ;p It looks like most on-board footage was on actual passenger cars with rear screen projection out the windows.

Actress Elaine Stewart, (seen above playing trophy wife Charleen Reston), provides the cheesecake in her “tattered dress” and although she doesn’t appear in any train scenes, she’s bound to show up somewhere in this review. What a Lark!

Hotshot New York lawyer Jim Blane (played by Jeff Chandler) has arrived in town to get a local crook off the murder charge. The townsfolk are not pleased. Note the Southern Pacific sleeping car in the background.

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Wrongfully Accused 1998

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Warner Brothers Pictures

Just three minutes of train action , but it’s a jim-dandy. And it is referenced on the cover of the DVD, for Pete’s sake.

Leslie Neilsen mercilessly parodies the famous train wreck scene from The Fugitive 1993. Filmed mostly in British Columbia along the old Pacific Great Eastern (later renamed British Columbia Railway or BC Rail), our film features one of that line’s locomotives: a General Electric B36-7 #3607.

The movie also parodies Charlie’s Angels, North by Northwest, and Lords of the Dance to name a few. If you just want to sit down with a nice adult beverage and be entertained, this is the picture for you. (The Fugitive itself ain’t too bad, either.)

Trying to keep up with all the guest star cameos is a hoot as well, with such notables as Kelly LeBrock, Michael York, Sandra Bernhard and John Walsh.

Curiously, the DVD cover appears to show a Union Pacific EMD SD60M #6408 with a 3-piece windshield. The make/model is correct; the locomotive number is incorrect. This engine is not seen anywhere in the movie.

The TWO sets of ditch lights are a BCOL-standard, but the crazy Gyralite box on the nose is Hollywood, pure and simple. A good, British Columbia-soaking of liquid sunshine completes this picture.

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