Chuck.Weinstock@sei.cmu.edu (11/13/86)
Most of the readers of this mailing list have probably seen the Railfan and Railroad articles on this movie. This enjoyable film shares a theme with the more serious film "The Grey Fox" of a couple of years ago. Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas play aging ex-con's (72 and 67 respectively) who get out of the pen after 30 years. The crime they committed that got them 30 years was robbing the "Gold Coast Flyer", the last train robbery in the US. Most of the film deals with their difficulty to deal with modern times. It doesn't take them long to discover that they don't fit in, so they decide to hook up with their old gang with hilarious results. Finally, they notice that the "Gold Coast Flyer" is making its last run, and they decide to go out in style by re-robbing their old friend. As a railfan I appreciated the extreme detail the Disney (this is a Touchstone Film) people went to. The 4449 performed flawlessly, as did Doyle MacCormick. I think they made one rail oriented goof: in the opening credits the camera is panning among Lancaster and Douglas's belongings and it passes a timetable for the Southern Pacific's "Gold Coast Flyer". Unfortunately the timetable has the Burlington Zephyr on it's cover. It went by so fast I'm not positive of this. Early in the movie someone sings a song, "They Don't Make Them Like They Used To." After watching Lancaster, Douglas and 4449 perform, I have to say I agree.