Silver Streak (1976 film)
Silver Streak is a
1976 comedy film starring
Gene Wilder,
Jill Clayburgh,
Richard Pryor,
Patrick McGoohan and
Ned Beatty and directed by
Arthur Hiller.
The
film score is by
Henry Mancini (
The Pink Panther,
Charade, etc.)''.
Saying that he "just wanted to be bored," book editor George Caldwell (Wilder) is traveling from
Los Angeles to
Chicago aboard a
train called "The Silver Streak." George meets and becomes romantically involved with Hilly Burns (Clayburgh). After he witnesses the murder of Hilly's boss and soon afterward is himself accused of the murder of an FBI agent, George must enlist the help of a professional criminal (Pryor) to save Hilly. One of the most notable moments of the movie comes at the end, when the train engine, now out-of-control, crashes through the wall of the train station in Chicago.
The film grossed over $51,000,000 in the box office during its run. The film was the first collaboration between Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor, who would go on to make three more films together -
Stir Crazy,
See No Evil, Hear No Evil and
Another You.
More recently, it was listed at #95 on the
AFI's list of the
100 Funniest American Movies of All Time and is number 84 on
Bravo's 100 Funniest Movies.
* While loosely based on
Amtrak trains, Amtrak was not involved with the filming of the movie. All exterior train shots were filmed on the
Canadian Pacific Railway in
Alberta and
Toronto despite ostensibly being set in the
United States, and operated by the fictional railroad "AMRoad" (reportedly because Amtrak did not approve of Caldwell accidentally bursting into Burns' bedroom while she was getting dressed). The film features some beautiful scenes of midwestern landscapes, train layouts, and many action shots, as the protagonist and allies battle the villains on and off the train, and get thrown off or jump on and off the moving train periodically throughout the course of the plot. Most of the interior station scenes are of
Toronto's Union Station, except for a brief sequence immediately prior to the crash where we see, from the front of the train, a rapidly approaching bumper post, filmed in
Windsor Station in
Montréal,
Quebec.
* So "undisguised" was the train set, the lococomotives and cars still carried their original names and numbers, along with the easily-identifiable CP Rail red-striped paint scheme, although they carried the fictional name "AmRoad". At the start of the climatic shoot-out, an obtrusive CP Rail GM switcher is seen calmly moving cars in the background. Most of the cars are still in revenue service on
VIA Rail Canada; the lead locomotive is preserved in Québec but the second unit has been scrapped.
* Although the film dates to 1976,
Henry Mancini's soundtrack was never officially released before his death in 1994. When
Intrada did so in 2002it became one of the Top Special Releases of 2002.
* The spectacular ending when the train arrives at
Union Station in Chicago was apparently inspired by the wreck of the 16-car
Federal Express at
Union Station in
Washington, DC, on the morning of
January 15,
1953 (see link). At the time, it was the most spectacular modern runaway passenger train wreck. When brake couplings failed, the train skidded for two miles and passed right through the stationmaster's office at the end of track 16 at a speed estimated at 30 to 50 mph, demolishing it, but miraculously killing no one.
* Seven-foot-two actor
Richard Kiel appears as a murderous henchman with strange-looking teeth; he would play a very similar character,
Jaws a year later in the
James Bond films
The Spy Who Loved Me and
Moonraker.
* An earlier film
Silver Streak starring
Charles Starrett was made in 1934 using the
Pioneer Zephyr trainset. The 1934 film has little in common with the 1976 film of the same name, and also differs somewhat from the trip on the original "Silver Streak" Zephyr that same year.
* The name "Silver Streak" was coined by the news media reporting on the record setting 1934 trip of the
Pioneer Zephyr, the first passenger train which featured a
stainless steel consist. On that famous trip, the
Pioneer Zephyr was also headed for
Chicago, but at a much faster average speed of 77 miles per hour. Of course, no murders or other spectacular events featured in the movie are known to have taken place on the 1934 inaugural run.
*
NIHS Wreck of the Federal Express*
Silver Streak on Soundtrack.net
