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Throw Christopher Dunn From the Train

5/12/2013

A reader of these pages, the utterly unrelenting Chris Dunn has noted that the movie, Throw Momma From the Train was left off the listed of wonderful train movies I posted yesterday, in honor of National Train Day today.

He makes a valid, and repetitive point. I had thought of including it, but in the end left it off because the main thing the film has to do with trains is the title. The story is really about something else than trains -- a lot else other than trains. The train sequence only comes in at the very end.

Still, it could have been included. And maybe some day it will get upgraded. But for now, the executive board has left it off.

However, good Mr. Dunn made the additional, and equally valid point, that today is also Mothers Day. And with it being both Mothers Day and National Train Day, a movie called Throw Momma From the Train deserves to be on the list.

In fact, I believe it deserves its own list.

And so, if you're looking for an appropriate and wonderful movie to rent on a day that is both Mothers Day and National Train Day, here is the list --

Throw Momma From the Train

A doff of the cap to Chris Dunn. A fine fellow who lives by the late coach, Jim Valvano's admonition -- "Don't give up. Don't ever give up."

I think Mr. Valvano meant it for some noble purposes higher than a list of movies, but still the advice holds.

6 Comments

Chris Dunn

5/12/2013 02:38:57 am

I was about to give up on the whole "Bridge on the River Kwai" thing until I read Jim Valvano's admonition above.

"Kwai" is about a train like "Citizen Kane" is about a newspaper.

Thwap. In your court.

Robert Elisberg

5/12/2013 03:32:18 am

Thank you for taking the time to write, and write and write. And for just being you.

I stand by the title of this posting.

(And by the fact that just because ones writes an analogy doesn't make it so.)

"Bridge on the River Kwai" is not about a train. It's about building a bridge so that a train can pass over a gully, and then destroying that bridge so that the train can't pass.

"North by Northwest" is not about a train, any more than it's not about a crop duster. Yet without a train, Cary Grant doesn't meet Eva Marie Saint and there's no movie. Nor one of the most iconic last shots in movie history.

"Around the World in 80 Days" is not about a train. Yet the epic journey requires that it cannot be completed without a train.

The fact that Harry Lime doesn't appear until the last five minutes of "The Third Man" doesn't mean that Harry Lime isn't at the dead-center heart of "The Third Man."

The fact that Ray Kinsella's father doesn't appear until the last three minutes of "Field of Dreams" doesn't mean that the son's need for closure with his dad isn't the core of "Field of Dreams," one of the great father-son movies.

"Bridge on the River Kwai" is one of the greatest train movies ever made. "Throw Momma From the Train" tangentially has a train in it.

"Throw Momma From the Train" is indeed tangentially a train movie -- it's just not a great, classic train movie at a level like the others listed.

I further stand by my earlier admonition: you are a lucky man that Cathy has stayed with you all these years.

It's Mothers Day. Spending your time trying to prove that "Bridge on the River Kwai" isn't a train movie rather than attending to the mother of your child might mean that next year I may not be able to make that same admonition...

Chris Dunn

5/12/2013 04:27:40 am

All right, that's it. I admit I have been vigorous in my insistence about "Bridge On the River Kwai" being a great train movie or not. This is mostly because it is one of my very favorite movies. I was pretty much willing to let it go, however, until you decided to make your "point" using another of my favorite movies, "The Third Man." Harry Lime DOES NOT make his first appearance only five minutes before the end. If he did he wouldn't have had time to stand outside Anna's apartment as long as he did. Or go up in the ferris wheel and talk about how everyone looks like ants. Or get off the ferris wheel and talk about cuckoo clocks. Or show up while Anna and Joseph Cotton were arguing. And then go into the sewers. For AT LEAST five minutes. Yes, I agree with you, Harry Lime is at the dead-center of that movie. But that is helped by the fact that he is in it FOR A HELL OF A LOT LONGER THAN FIVE MINUTES.

Oh, and Anna almost leaves Vienna by train. But doesn't.

Robert Elisberg

5/12/2013 05:29:48 am

Thanks again for your unrelenting note.

I just tracked down the movie online. Harry Lime finally appears for the first time in "The Third Man" with 12 minutes to go. I am so sorry that I said just five.

In Chrisdunn Land, I do understand this this is "A HELL OF A LOT LONGER THAN FIVE MINUTES." Seven minutes longer, in fact. More than double. Most people might look at this and think the point that Harry Lime comes into the movie very, very, very late, is pretty clear. With just 12 minutes to go in a 104 minute movie. But then, Chris Dunn is not most people. And the world is a better place for that.

By the way, someone on YouTube posted a compilation of Harry's scenes in the film. It works out to seven minutes of screen time . That's not the same as what I said about five minutes -- but it's still a mere seven minutes of screen time. Again, I'm so sorry that I said five minutes. It wasn't five. It was 12. A HELL OF A LOT LONGER THAN FIVE MINUTES. Seven minutes longer.

Seven extra minutes is a lot, like if you're being waterboarded.

Which is sort of what this has felt like...

Chris Dunn

5/12/2013 06:04:44 am

Not quite, me bucko. Harry appears at 1:05 into the movie, which is 1:44 long. It's been a long time since I took match but I think that's about 39 minutes, not twelve and CERTAINLY not five.

Thwap.

Robert Elisberg

5/12/2013 07:12:42 am

You were right about "The Third Man." I was wrong. (Not just about the five minutes. I had thought that the nine YouTube segments were the full film, so I just added up the remaining time. In fact, they were just clips.) There are indeed 39 minutes left when Orson Welles appears, not five minutes, nor 12.

Fortunately, I stand by the initial and sole point of all this. To assuage your Dunninan angst, just know that I was never saying that "Bridge on the River Kwai" is *only* (and merely) a train film -- it's not. But it *is* a train film. And far more so than "Throw Momma From the Train."

I've always admired your dear Cathy. I now am in awe of her more than ever.

Throw Christopher Dunn From the Train

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