Runaway!

When on skiing holiday with the family, what better to watch as evening-entertainment than a disaster movie about a runaway train ... in a ski-resort!

"Runaway!" is one of the more obscure ABC Movies of the Week, I reckon. I never even heard of it when I accidentally stumbled upon it on YouTube (the picture quality is poor but certainly watchable). Nevertheless, it's a very entertaining and exciting thrill-ride that has quite a lot in common with the 2010 blockbuster "Unstoppable". So much even that I wonder if the late Tony Scott perhaps found some inspiration here, like the head-machinist's forced retirement or the attempt of stopping the train by connecting another one at the rear end.

For the rest, it's a typical 70s TV-movie, with typical 70s TV-movie characters. The only difference is that they are rushing down a snowy mountain at 60mph on a train of which the brakes have given up due to the ice and cold. Will the life-threatening ordeal save the marriage of a bickering couple? Shall the young student overcome the forbidden love for her professor? Will the careless and selfish rebel develop some humanity and help the other passengers? Etc. It's incredibly clichéd, but I loved it. And besides, remember the unwritten rule of disaster movies: when there's an exclamation mark in the title (!), the situation is very, very serious!

Channel 5 decided to give this a showing yesterday - I remembered enjoying it as a B Movie in my youth and decided to record it. Ummmmm. Could I really have enjoyed something so corny and predictable. Ben Murphy plays Kid Curry but without the Cowboy Hat. Ben Johnson drives the train and shows absolutely no cause for concern that his train, carry 200+ passengers, is about to leave the rails at Jackson City and cause massive carnage. A completely unrealistic movie albeit with some good scenery. As satisfying as an episode of Love Boat.

A fantastic, pulsating action film that defies belief it was made for TV in 1973. These characters all gathered 'soap' style are almost literally just thrown under the table within 15 minutes of the start. The runaway train is on its way down the tracks and nothing will stop it. This is small scale suspense and humane drama combined at its finest. No silly flashbacks for 20 minutes at a time, this train is on the tracks and there's no stopping the actual action threat. Of course there's silly melodramatics along the way, but this really is a superlative exercise in how to do TV movies. And technically it's incredible how they achieved so many of the shots and effects in 1973 on a TV budget. The obvious back projection is obvious, but there is hardcore stuff here involving train hardware that looks real and dangerous. It was enduring memory for me first seeing it at 5 years old on UK TV in the 1980s, I so wish it would be unvaulted and restored and released in HD.

I fully enjoyed this movie. Having once worked for a railroad I am aware of some technical inaccuracies, but it's worth overlooking to enjoy the premise. I especially love Ben Johnson as the engineer. I used to love the railroad the way his character does and totally relate to him. Some people have said there are no stars in it besides him, but Vera Miles was nice to see. Martin Milner's character is a little annoying to me though. I liked seeing the young boy from "Ben" too. I love those old diesel locomotives too! I have a grainy copy I recorded from TV. I wish they would release this on DVD. And yes, it is short and sweet.

A passenger train in the snow is a runaway.

I am a 1970s disaster movie-lover, my childhood was in that period, and I am now very surprised to find a movie of this genre now today in 2016 (on YouTube)! Why has this movie been kept on the shelf away from TV re-runs and DVD??? How dare they!

Well anyway, the review. This movie is all about interesting people like Vera Miles, Martin Milner and others. Don't expect any lavish special effects or anything like that, in fact some scenes are very obviously filmed in a studio. You will not even get a decent musical score. This is all about people and suspense, and done is a very pleasing way!

Find this TV movie on YouTube, I hope they don't take it down!