The Phantom Express

The Phantom Express is an early talkie that impresses in a few ways. It's about a series of train accidents caused by an unexplainable phantom express whose headlights appear every few nights on the tracks. This mysterious train bears down on other locomotives causing them to brake suddenly and derail. The driver of the latest train to encounter the phenomena is fired in disgrace as the investigators do not believe his story. It's left to him and the son of the railroad president to clear his name and find out what is behind the notorious phantom express.

The Phantom Express is a fine example of one of the many mystery films released in the 1930's. Admittedly the actual mystery itself is a little easy to work out and the plot is structured such that it's obvious that the rival railroad company are behind things in some way. Nevertheless, there is still much to admire in this cool little film. As poverty row movies go, this has to be one of the better put-together. Where other cheap genre films of the 30's often restricted themselves to two or three studio-created locations, The Phantom Express includes many scenes set on the grounds of the rail-yard construction site. This authenticity is welcome and adds nice detail to proceedings. Conversely, I really enjoyed the model-work used for the train scenes. It was very well done and looked very cool, giving the film a lot of character and soul. This model-work was well integrated with the live action, especially in the final ride through the storm and was effective in generating suspense. A similarly well-handled thrilling scene was where the signalmen are tied up by thugs and made to helplessly watch the oncoming phantom express bear down the tracks on another train. Great stuff. Ultimately, the mystery of the phantom express is resolved with an explanation that I thought was kind of funny. I won't give anything away so will leave this little amusement for first time viewers to discover for themselves.

The cast acquit themselves well but a special mention should be made for J. Farrell MacDonald who is excellent as the fired train driver. The scene where he breaks down at his birthday party after being sacked is very good; MacDonald certainly put a lot of emotion into that moment. I also have to mention Axel Axelson, who plays MacDonald's trusty sidekick. Not only does he have a name that sounds like it should belong to an 80's hair metal guitarist, but he also has one of the craziest accents you are ever liable to hear. It seems to be a mix of Swedish, Dutch, Irish and possibly Martian. It's difficult to say with any certainty but it's funny as hell.

The Phantom Express comes recommended to anyone interested in early talkies and/or 30's mysteries. It's a very worthy little obscurity that has a great deal of charm about it.

THE PHANTOM EXPRESS (Majestic, 1932), written and directed by Emory Johnson, has the makings of a weekly chaptered serial told in only 65 minutes, short enough for any viewer not to lose his train of thought. The title that indicates a supernatural theme, it comes close to that as terror rides the rails, terror being some sort of mysterious ghost train. With William Collier Jr. heading the cast, this feature presentation relatively belongs to the third billed J. Farrell MacDonald in one of his few on-screen opportunities to play the central character. Interestingly, MacDonald assumed the role as a railroad engineer the very same year as the release of THE PHANTOM EXPRESS, a chaptered serial titled THE HURRICANE EXPRESS (Mascot Studios) starring John Wayne and Shirley Grey. With similar titles, it's understandable to get these two movies confused.

The story begins with D.J. "Smokey" Nolan (J. Farrell MacDonald), a veteran engineer of the Southern Pacific Railroad, running his locomotive "101" through the darkness of the night accompanied by his friend and partner, Axel (Axel Axelson). The signal lights tell him that the track is clear, but suddenly Smokey notices a headlight of another train directly ahead, forcing him to put the train into an immediate halt, pulling much of the attached railroad cars off its tracks. Following this incident, the headlight suddenly dims out. Accused of negligence, Smokey appears before John Harrington (Hobart Bosworth), the railroad president. Later, four more similar wrecks occur, Harrington finds himself pressured in selling out his railroad line, which causes Smokey dismissal from duty. In the meantime, Harrington's son, Bruce (William Collier Jr.), a pampered youth whose idea of responsibility is sleeping all day and dining with young ladies at night, surprises his serious-minded father by volunteering to investigate the mystery of the "Phantom Express" mainly for the purpose of becoming more acquainted with Smokey's attractive daughter, Carolyn (Sally Blane). Assuming the name of Bruce Smith and having his friend Dick Walsh (Eddie Phillips) pretending to be him by acting as railroad assistant, Bruce acquires the position as railroad mechanic, gets to room and board in the Nolan household and becomes better acquainted with Carolyn (sometimes addressed by Smokey as Caroline). During his investigation, Bruce realizes he's on the right track as he stumbles upon an amazing discovery.

The supporting players includes David Rollins as Jack Nolan, Smokey's younger son; Claire McDowell as Mrs. Nolan; Lina Basquette (star of Cecil B. DeMille's THE GODLESS GIRL in 1929) briefly appearing as Collier's temperamental girlfriend, Betty; Tom Wilson as James Callahan, and Jack Pennick, C. Huntley Gordon, among others. Axel Axelson, who performs his task in typical Swedish fashion, accent and all, gives a performance that echoes the likes of the more familiar John Qualen, who might have assumed the part in that fashion had he been cast. The second billed Sally Blane (Loretta Young's sister), has little to do in this mystery, but performs well in what she is given as Collier's love interest and kidnap victim.

A poverty-row mystery with a neat ending twist, THE PHANTOM EXPRESS is surprisingly good in theme and action, however, occasionally comes off a little weak with some of its typical 1930s dialog and somewhat laughable staged fist fights between hero and villain. Aside from these minor faults, it's most notable scene occurs midway as Smokey (MacDonald) returns home to be surprised by a birthday party from his family (hundreds of candles on the cake and miniature train on track circling around the table), and unable to tell the bad news of his dismissal. Shortly after leaving the event, Smokey finds himself alone in his bedroom to grief and glaring at an old picture frame as he cries and laughs at the same time, causing him to throw and break the frame as it crashes onto the floor. All this is underscored with the use of violins. Quite original and effective.

After many years of obscurity with limited reissues, THE PHANTOM EXPRESS, became one of many public domain titles distributed onto video cassette in the 1980s, as well as getting some exposure during the after midnight hours on various TV channels during its early years of cable television, appearing on such networks as Christian Broadcast Network, Tempo and Channel America, before disappearing from the airwaves. A movie like THE PHANTOM EXPRESS might not be worthy of 15 academy award nominations, but is an interesting look back at the sort of programmers produced by independent film studios during the bygone 1930s, and something of interest mainly for its concept, if nothing else. All Aboard!!!!! (**)

Trains are crashing thanks to the sudden appearance of a phantom train on the tracks ahead of them. As the stock of the railroad plummets thanks to the crashes, the son of the railroad's owner begins to investigate.

Very good little movie that tells a rather exciting story of sabotage. The train scenes are all exciting, even if they were done with models, and the fact that we get a good number of them helps to keep the tension up. If there is a problem with the movie is that some of the middle section is a bit too talky since its a bit too clear why things are happening, even if we don't know how.

Definitely worth a look, especially on a rainy night

Mystery thriller 'quickie'. A train crashes one night on a rural US rail network. The crew insist they saw another train headed towards them on the same track, and that to prevent a collision they braked sharply; unfortunately their train derailed, killing several passengers. After the crash there is no sign of the other train, and a subsequent board of enquiry can find no record of it. As a result the driver of the crashed engine is sacked. Compounded by a series of other incidents and another sighting of the so called 'phantom express', the network's share prices begin to drop, causing the president of another rail company to make an offer - albeit a low one - to buy them out. The playboy son of the network's boss decides to finally do something with his life, and try to 1) solve the mystery, 2) save the engine driver's job, and 3) prevent his father from having to sell the company at a loss.

No big names, but quite a few familiar faces of the period. The cast act in that unmistakable style of the time, but they're pretty good. It's obviously low budget, and some of the train shots are clearly actually model railways. Some of the sound effects are a little unconvincing too! And at a runtime of just 70 minutes it still manages to feel padded in places. But it's enjoyable, and the gung-ho attitude of the son and his helpers is fun to watch. 6/10.

Without a doubt, The Phantom Express (1932) is my all-time favorite early talkie, railroad-themed movie. J.Farrel McDonald is outstanding as Smokey Nolan, the long-time engineer. I've seen a few other movies where McDonald plays a railroad-related part (e.g., with Victor McLaglen in The Broadway Limited) and it would appear that McDonald probably worked for the railroads prior to becoming a very good character actor as he played his parts with a great deal of ease and apparent intimate knowledge of the subject matter. Phantom Express was also very interesting from the standpoint that it was shot in live action, in/around LA and the Southern Pacific Railroad (including real shots of the SP boardroom at the old Central Station at 5th and Alameda), the SP Alhambra Roundhouse, Burbank Tower, etc. Also, the special effects modelling scenes were very much ahead of their time in terms of realism. All together, an excellent film of which I own several copies.