Tonight's Movie: The Great Train Robbery (1941) - A Kino Lorber Blu-ray Review

It's been about a year since the last Dark Side of Cinema Collection, Volume XXVI, was released by Kino Lorber.

I'm very happy to say that the Kino Lorber Studio Classics series has now returned with the Dark Side of Cinema XXVII Collection!

It's a terrific selection of little-known movies: UNMASKED (1950), THE MAN IS ARMED! (1956), and the subject of this review, THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY (1941).

THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY isn't to be confused with the 1978 film which I reviewed here a few years ago. Rather, it's a tight little 62-minute "B" film from Republic Pictures, the kind of movie I'm frankly amazed has made it to Blu-ray. I was absolutely thrilled to see it in a beautiful print and am so appreciative of Kino Lorber making it happen.

THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY has a fairly simple plot, but the screenplay by Olive Cooper, Garnett Weston, and Robert T. Shannon tells the story with some original touches. Years before Stanley Kubrick thought of doing it in THE KILLING (1956), THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY travels backwards and forwards in time to tell its tale. The storytelling technique is all the more impressive given the film's short running time.

It's the classic tale of a good brother who's a member of law enforcement versus his brother who's gone bad. Tom Logan (Bob Steele) is the good brother, and Duke (Milburn Stone) is the bad sibling.

Duke owns a roadhouse, but behind the scenes he's a crook, and he and his confederates are about to steal a million dollars in gold from a train -- a train which literally disappears off the tracks, confounding both law enforcement and railroad employees.

Among those on the train: Kay Stevens (Claire Carleton), who is loved by both brothers...

To be sure, THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY is no one's idea of a classic movie, but it's just the kind of film I love to discover. I'm a fan of Steele, and it's also fun to see Stone as a baddie in his pre-GUNSMOKE years.

It's also not film noir, but really, who cares? I absolutely love that this short little crime film was included in a Dark Side of Cinema set, and I'd be very happy to see similar films released in the future.

I'm not sure where the movie was filmed, but it appears in spots to be the Southern California desert, which would make sense as Republic Pictures probably didn't have the budget to go too far. 

The movie also has some great train miniatures which are surprisingly convincing, adding viewing interest.

Steele is heroic, Carleton is cute and spunky, and I thought this was a fun little hour. I'd happily watch a marathon of several more films such as this.

The movie was directed by longtime Republic Pictures director Joseph Kane. Look for a review of his film WOMAN OF THE NORTH COUNTRY (1952), which I recently saw at Cinecon, to be published here in a few days.

The movie was filmed by Reggie Lanning.

The supporting cast includes Helen MacKellar, Monte Blue, Si Jenks, Hal Taliaferro, Jay Novello, and Eddie Acuff.

The extras consist of a commentary track by Gary Gerani, which I'm particularly looking forward to hearing, and a gallery of three trailers for other films available from Kino Lorber.

Thanks to Kino Lorber for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray collection.

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