The Silver Streak

It's a variation on the "Get The Serum To Nome" drama, only this time it has to get . . . well, not to Nome. Good shots of the "Zephyr", now on display in Chicago and the high-speed, high-tech wonder of its day. To get the high-speed effect on film the simply halved the speed of the camera. This results in a fast train but ridiculously fast action on the part of railway workers. The acting and the script aren't bad for a thirties serial.

This movie really echoes the spirit of it's time. Everything then was progress & technology. The plot is the worst part of the film. It is terribly predictable & hackneyed. The film is also way short; 72 minutes for the version I have (barely 5 reels). The scenes at Hoover Dam could easily have been expanded to develop atmosphere & the brother/friend's character. The dam scenes are very interesting & show a human side to the massive project. Rail fans such as myself seek out this film (getting it is not easy) for the footage of the famous Pioneer Zephyr. This train is the forerunner of the French GTV & the Japanese Super Trains among many others. It was a technological marvel of it's time. The train has survived & is on display (magnificently restored) at The Chicago Museum of Science & Industry in a specially built vault below street level. There is an excellent use of montage early in the film as the father sees the history of railroading in his mind's eye. It is very well integrated into the story & not as 'In Your Face' as most montages are. The acting style has that curiously stiff feel of many of the early sound films. I think it has more to do with the director's uncertainty in the new technology than with the cast's talent. None of the cast were ever big time but they are attractive & reasonably well suited for their parts. I was pleasantly surprised to find it watchable. I had thought I would have to fast forward to the train footage that I bought the film to get.

While this movie is no less corny than others of it's time, the fact that most of the story takes place on a new streamlined high speed train is of interest to us train buffs. Most of the action is obviously speeded up in the camera just like the westerns of the time, it is still 70 min. of innocent fun. I recommend it.

First off, I have a love of railroading. Never worked in it, just love trains.

This is a B movie, at best.

But it's fun. It shows an actual historical streamline train. Show footage of the then Boulder Dam during construction. Has that Ralph of the Roundhouse plot ( an old juvenile series about steam railroading.)

Plot is contrived. Acting is flat. Dialog is basic.

But I like simple plots and B movies. Man loves woman, woman loves man, man loves engineering, old man hates newfangled things.

The one thing that bothered me was, one test run, and people wrote it off. That's dumb! That's not how engineering works! And I think a lot of people know this. But in this movie, apparently people think one failure is too many failures, lol.

I suspect the tail end of the movie, with all the impossible near misses will bother people. Just take it for what it is, a B movie ( programmer as some people would call it I guess.)

I was reminded of the fantastic murder on a private car at times, which is equally fantastic, but perhaps a better movie.

I just watched this movie because I am a railroad buff. The Zephyr train (now preserved in Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry) is the true star of this flick, especially because the other actors in the movie were little-known even in the 1930s.

As other reviewers have pointed out, the acting is poor, the film is too rushed, the characters are not developed enough and the storyline is quite predictable and lacks any dramatic tension.

Even those who do not care for political correctness will be sickened by the stereotypical portrayal of an African-American -- Sam, the train's chef played by Ray Turner. This was the only type of role that he could get in 1930s Hollywood.