The Flying Scotsman [DVD] [1929]

Product Information

The Big Shakedown • Easy to Love • Hi, Nellie! • Massacre • Bedside • Dark Hazard • Mandalay • As the Earth Turns • Fashions of 1934 • I've Got Your Number • Heat Lightning • Jimmy the Gent • Journal of a Crime • Wonder Bar • Registered Nurse • Harold Teen • A Modern Hero • Upperworld • A Very Honorable Guy • Merry Wives of Reno • Smarty • Twenty Million Sweethearts • The Merry Frinks • Fog Over Frisco • The Key • He Was Her Man • Dr. Monica • The Circus Clown • Return of the Terror • The Personality Kid • Midnight Alibi • Side Streets • Here Comes the Navy • Friends of Mr. Sweeney • The Man with Two Faces • Housewife • The Dragon Murder Case • Dames • Desirable • British Agent • A Lost Lady • The Case of the Howling Dog • Big Hearted Herbert • Kansas City Princess • Madame Du Barry • 6 Day Bike Rider • I Sell Anything • Happiness Ahead • The Firebird • The St. Louis Kid • Gentlemen Are Born • I Am a Thief • Flirtation Walk • Babbitt • The Church Mouse • Murder in the Clouds • The Secret Bride • Sweet Adeline Inside Out • Catherine & Co. • Hot Potato • Sparkle • All the President's Men • Ode to Billy Joe • The Outlaw Josey Wales • The Gumball Rally • The Ritz • St. Ives • The Killer Inside Me • Led Zeppelin: The Song Remains the Same • A Star Is Born • The Enforcer Murder in the First • Boys on the Side • Just Cause • Outbreak • Born to Be Wild • The Pebble and the Penguin • A Little Princess • The Bridges of Madison County • Batman Forever • Under Siege 2: Dark Territory • Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home • Something to Talk About • The Amazing Panda Adventure • The Stars Fell on Henrietta • Assassins • Empire Records • Copycat • Les Misérables • Fair Game • Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls • It Takes Two • The Snow Queen • Heat • Grumpier Old Men It’s interesting seeing Ray Milland in his very first performance. He would go on to Dial M For Murder, The Lost Weekend and Love Story and he has plenty of sly, confident charisma here. Neither Jean nor Crow come across as especially convincing, though Marriott acquits himself as the aging driver (though only in his mid-forties, he deftly conveys the character’s 60-odd years). In a film that is over inside of an hour, pacing is not really a problem and given that the climax involves a runaway train, events become suitably energetic, tense and eventful as the finale approaches. Operation Pacific • Storm Warning • Sugarfoot • The Enforcer • Lullaby of Broadway • Raton Pass • Lightning Strikes Twice • Only the Valiant • I Was a Communist for the FBI • Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison • Goodbye, My Fancy • Along the Great Divide • Strangers on a Train • Fort Worth • On Moonlight Bay • Force of Arms • Jim Thorpe – All-American • Captain Horatio Hornblower • A Streetcar Named Desire • Tomorrow Is Another Day • Painting the Clouds with Sunshine • Come Fill the Cup • The Tanks Are Coming • Close to My Heart • I'll See You in My Dreams • Starlift • Distant Drums

The first half of this obscure movie is silent and we don't see any railway action. This starts in the second half, as does the sound. The engine's fireman sets out on his last trip before retirement. The previous day, he reported his driver for being drunk and gets suspended for this. He is on the train to get his revenge. The driver's daughter is also aboard. The suspended driver gets out of his carriage and goes to the engine by walking along the roof of the train, followed by the fireman's daughter. A fight breaks out when he arrives and the loco is uncoupled from the rest of the train, a points change just avoids a collision. After things have calmed down, the train continues its journey and arrives in Edinburgh on time, despite the delay. White Snake • The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part • Isn't It Romantic • The Golden Glove • Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase • Shazam! • The Curse of La Llorona • The Wonderland • Detective Pikachu • The Sun Is Also a Star • Godzilla: King of the Monsters • Shaft • Annabelle Comes Home • The Kitchen • Blinded by the Light • The Informer • It Chapter Two • The Goldfinch • The Battle of Jangsari • Joker • Western Stars • Motherless Brooklyn • Doctor Sleep • My Zoe • The Good Liar • Richard Jewell • Just Mercy • When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit Two things The Flying Scotsman is known for. The first is some very daring stunt work done on the train itself. The second is for the presence of young Raymond Milland in the role of the young engineer in love with the old engineer's daughter. It was only Milland's second film and there are certainly traces of the amiable light leading man he was throughout the Thirties in Hollywood. Since the 1930s there have been several other claims to the title of the Flying Scotsman, predominantly associated with cycling. The Flying Scot series of bicycles were built in Glasgow from the late 1920s until 1982 by a firm founded in 1901 by David Rattray. Although most 'Scots' bicycles were men's frames, there were also women's versions called The Queen of Scots.

An interesting curio then, but perhaps not for everyone. The restoration premiered at the Glasgow Film Festival at the end of February and you can also catch the Flying Scotsman locomotive itself, also restored, at an upcoming exhibition at The National Railway Museum. You can find more information on that here and you can get hold of a copy of the film on DVD at LoveFilm here. There’s a clip below courtesy of Optimum Releasing.

The film was shot with co-operation of the London and North Eastern Railway company, who allocated their flagship Class A1 locomotive, the eponymous 4472 Flying Scotsman along with use of the Hertford Loop Line for filming. [5] This locomotive was extensively used by the LNER for promotional purposes, having been a star of the 1924 British Empire Exhibition and breaking a number of speed records. At the time of its appearance in this film, the locomotive is technically an A1 (only being rebuilt and classified "A3" in 1947). The locomotive is the only member of its class to have been preserved. [6]They Came to Rob Las Vegas • Dracula Has Risen from the Grave • The Trygon Factor • The Big Bounce • 2000 Years Later • The Illustrated Man • The Sweet Body of Deborah • The Big Cube • The Wild Bunch • The Learning Tree • The Rain People • On My Way to the Crusades, I Met a Girl Who... • The Valley of Gwangi • The Great Bank Robbery • The Good Guys and the Bad Guys • The Madwoman of Chaillot • Once You Kiss a Stranger • The Arrangement • The Damned • 80 Steps to Jonah A Fever in the Blood • Gold of the Seven Saints • The Sins of Rachel Cade • Portrait of a Mobster • Parrish • Fanny • The Fabulous World of Jules Verne • The Steel Claw • Claudelle Inglish • Splendor in the Grass • The Mask • Susan Slade • A Majority of One • The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone The name was first associated with the Special Scotch Express train journey from London King’s Cross Station to Edinburgh which ran every day from 1852. It was the fastest day express service on the east coast mainline, and before long became popularly – but unofficially – known as the Flying Scotsman. House Party • Magic Mike's Last Dance • Mummies • Creed III • Shazam! Fury of the Gods • Air • Evil Dead Rise • The Flash • Barbie • Meg 2: The Trench • Blue Beetle • The Nun 2 • Wonka • Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom • The Color Purple The Flying Scotsman is something of a historical artifact, being the first full-length British film to feature sound. It was made by British International Pictures, though distributed by Warner Bros, who had of course made and released 1927’s The Jazz Singer, which was the first talkie to make its way onto the big screen. In truth the film is something of a hybrid, consisting of a first half that one might call a good old fashioned silent film, with musical score, inter-titles and an affected, artificial-feeling acting style, before the second half gives us scenes loaded with dialogue and sound effects.

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre • My Girl Tisa • They Made Me a Fugitive • April Showers • Winter Meeting • To the Victor • The Woman in White • Silver River • Wallflower • The Big Punch • Romance on the High Seas • Key Largo • Embraceable You • Rope • Two Guys from Texas • Johnny Belinda • Smart Girls Don't Talk • June Bride • Fighter Squadron • Adventures of Don Juan • The Decision of Christopher Blake • WhiplashChasing Liberty • Torque • The Big Bounce • Clifford's Really Big Movie • Starsky & Hutch • Spartan • Taking Lives • Bad Education • Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed • The Whole Ten Yards • New York Minute • Troy • Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban • House of Flying Daggers • A Cinderella Story • Catwoman • Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light • Exorcist: The Beginning • Laura's Star • The Polar Express • Alexander • Ocean's Twelve • Million Dollar Baby • The Aviator Sir Chris Hoy at the Homecoming Parade in Glasgow in 2012. Photograph by Mark Harkin, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Brass • The Tie That Binds • Little Church Around the Corner • Main Street • Where the North Begins • Little Johnny Jones • The Printer's Devil • The Gold Diggers • The Country Kid • Lucretia Lombard • Tiger Rose Allegedly Sir Nigel Gresley, chief engineer of the LNER, was so concerned at the unsafe practices shown in the film, such as the decoupling of the locomotive from the train while in motion, he insisted that a disclaimer was placed in the opening credits explaining that such things could not happen on the LNER. [7] The notice stated "For the purposes of the film, dramatic licence has been taken in regard to the safety equipment used on The Flying Scotsman". [8] Film historian John Huntley claimed that Gresley subsequently forbade any further filming on the LNER. [9]