Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: The Titfield Thunderbolt

This is topic The Titfield Thunderbolt in forum The Afterlife at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://ft-forum.com/ft/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=12;t=000568

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 12-08-2001, 12:55 PM:

I'm looking for a DVD or VHS of this film. If anyone has access to one let me know. I'm not even sure if its on disk or tape. A copy of it would also be fine.
This is my favorite of the Ealing Studio Comedys. Fantastic Technicolor too! Saw it in a theatre about 6 years ago. Sure would like to see it again.
Mark @ GTS

Posted by Jerry Chase (Member # 660) on 12-08-2001, 01:47 PM:

I have a VHS copy taped off the tv, but it is B&W, the quality is terrible and it is barely watchable. Great fun film though.

Posted by Dick Vaughan (Member # 540) on 12-10-2001, 02:34 AM:

Mark

I agree it's a wonderful film. I really love all those Ealing comedies.
You can get a PAL VHS copy from http://www.amazon.co.uk for £5.99 (about $8.50 ) shipping is just over $4 airmail

AFAIK it's not availble on DVD

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 12-10-2001, 04:54 AM:

I wouldn't be surprised if the engine which featured in that film is still being used somewhere on the British railway network...

In an interview published in Charles Barr's book 'Ealing Studios' the scriptwriter said that he was trying to satirise the nationalisation of the railways (in 1948). Makes the film doubly ironic that they've since been privatised again and are just as bad..

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 12-10-2001, 10:18 AM:

Thanks for the suggestions I'll check out Amazon and also look into having it converted to NTSC(never the same color!). It is definately my favorite of the Ealing Comedies. Just thinking about the sequence where the steam tractor and the Steam locomotive have a duel always makes me crack up

. The bar car is another great moment too.

While we can't boast of running locomotives like that on Amtrack, we do have the latest motive equipment that always seems to break down in the middle of a run someplace. Perhaps reviving the old rolling stock is not such a bad idea......
Mark @ GTS

Posted by System Notices (Member # 2357) on 02-01-2007, 04:09 PM:

It has been 1879 days since the last post.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 02-01-2007, 04:09 PM:

At last there is a decent NTSC region-1 copy of this film available off of E-Bay from the seller "bitobritain". The seller claims they are imported from Europe but it is definately a copy done in a DVD burner. Never the less the quality is as good as it gets. I also bought "Whiskey Galore" along with Titfield... its hard to decide which one is the the funnier. And oh man... that gorgeous Technicolour Cinematography in Titfield really comes through!!

Mark

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 02-01-2007, 04:50 PM:

Having visited and walked round the island on which Whisky Galore was shot (Barra - Paul: the same place where Twin Otters land on the beach), adoring whisky and hating trains with a passion, I suppose I have a softer spot for WG. The panchromatic b/w photography is also stunning if you're lucky enough to see a nice print or transfer. The Canal Plus PAL DVD of WG has a very nice picture transfer, although the sound remastering is heavily compressed and doesn't do Ernest Irving's elegant orchestrations of Scottish folk songs justice.

Incidentally, another Ealing film, The Ladykillers, was the last feature to be shot in Britain with the three-strip camera.

Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 02-02-2007, 03:38 PM:

Mark, it's a pity you don't live in England, the Daily Mail gave away DVDs of 12 films recently, mainly Ealing ones, and including 'The Titfield Thunderbolt'. One of the rare occasions when free CDs/DVDs are worth buying a newspaper for. They were good transfers too. I think 'Kind Hearts and Coronets' is my favorite. It's a pity they don't get shown in cinemas more often; there were some good prints made a few years ago, and when they are shown they generally bring in a good audience. I believe that some of the original negatives were destroyed in the fire at Hendersons Laboratories some years ago.

quote:
I wouldn't be surprised if the engine which featured in that film is still being used somewhere on the British railway network...

You're actually not too far from the truth there Leo! The locomotive used in the film is a real one, 'Lion', from the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, and was built in 1838. It was really the next generation after Stephenson's 'Rocket' on the same line a few years earlier. Lion was in working order, and ran from time to time on various preserved lines, until quite recent times, probably some time in the late'80s. It was claimed to be the oldest locomotive in the World capable of being steamed. It was slightly damaged in a mishap during filming, and still bears the scars. The other locomotive used on the branch was later scrapped, as was the old coach which was Dan's home. There were plans to preserve it, and some people claim that it was scrapped en error.

quote:
Incidentally, another Ealing film, The Ladykillers, was the last feature to be shot in Britain with the three-strip camera.

It was also the last film shown at what would have been my local cinema when it closed in 1959. I don't remember it, I would have been two years old; my first visit to a cinema was four years later.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 02-02-2007, 11:34 PM:

I watched WG again tonight... its really an amazing little film and the editing on it is nothing short of amazing... seamless and invisible! The B&W cinematography looks as though it was done by Ansel Adams himself.

Mark

Posted by Clive Carmock (Member # 2882) on 05-29-2007, 03:25 PM:

A great film this. I still have a pretty good quality Super 8mm print of it which I ran recently.

Clive

Posted by Ben Wales (Member # 92) on 05-29-2007, 04:17 PM:

I had the pleasure to show this film with a crisp 35mm print from the BFI Archives at a Outdoor Cinema at Amberley Museum in Sussex, England for the Projected Picture Trust in 1998 on my own Westrex 5000.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 06-07-2007, 05:36 PM:

After reading the IMDB comments on the "Titfield Thunderbolt", there is one actor in the credits that well known of another classic UK comedy series - being the "Carry On" series .. and that actor is Sidney James.

I would absolutely love to find a DVD collection of these famous "Carry On" series. If one want to enjoy British humour, it's one of the greatest that comes from the Isles...

-Monte

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 06-21-2007, 01:40 PM:

They're not as good as the Ealing comedies but the're pretty funny. Check E-BAY . Watch out that you don't buy a wrong region disk! There are finally decent NTSC DVD's available of Titfield and others on there.

Mark