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Author Topic: The Titfield Thunderbolt Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 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  |  IP: Logged Jerry Chase Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1068 From: Margate, FL, USA Registered: Nov 2000 posted 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.  |  IP: Logged Dick Vaughan Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1032 From: Bradford, West Yorkshire, UK Registered: Jul 2000 posted 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  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 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..  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 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  |  IP: Logged System Notices Forum Watchdog / Soup Nazi Posts: 215 Registered: Apr 2004 posted 02-01-2007 04:09 PM                 It has been 1879 days since the last post.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 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  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 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.  |  IP: Logged Stephen Furley Film God Posts: 3059 From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England Registered: May 2002 posted 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.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 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  |  IP: Logged Clive Carmock Film Handler Posts: 24 From: Morden, Surrey, UK Registered: Dec 2004 posted 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  |  IP: Logged Ben Wales Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 602 From: Southampton. England Registered: Jul 99 posted 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.  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 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  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 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  |  IP: Logged

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