A grand ride

Since the beginning of the movies, trains have provided splendid backgrounds and set pieces, as well as dynamic platforms for stunts, fights and other forms of derring-do.

They've even been key components of the narrative, not just conveyances for the characters but characters in themselves.

And they are perfect for a medium that moves.

Some of the most memorable movies ever made, from Buster Keaton's extraordinary silent "The General" (1927) to Alfred Hitchcock's "North by Northwest" (1959), showcase this most romantic of all forms of transport. Nothing has changed. Today's filmmakers find them just as irresistible.

Opening Friday, "Jonah Hex" may never be counted among the immortal films -- it is, after all, a comic book-turned-big-screen-video-game -- but the movie does utilize a train to introduce the sinister character played by John Malkovich, and reminds us what a grand "actor" the locomotive can be.

Starring in the title role is Josh Brolin, with Megan Fox as co-star. Jimmy Hayward directs.

Also coming out this fall is director Tony Scott's "Unstoppable," an action thriller in which a rail company frantically works to prevent an unmanned, half-mile-long freight train carrying toxic gases and liquids from wiping out a city. Starring are Denzel Washington, Chris Pine ("Star Trek") and Rosario Dawson ("Sin City").

The best of the current bunch likely will be the Coen brothers' "remake" of the 1969 John Wayne western, "True Grit," this time with Jeff Bridges as the crusty old Marshal Cogburn. It's slated for release on Christmas Day.

Stan Garner of the Train Source Inc. in Payson, Ariz., has been hooking up motion picture production companies with trains since 1972.

Called one of the best in the business by Kevin Keeth of Trains magazine, Garner worked on both "Jonah Hex" and "True Grit," just two of the many films with which he's been associated as train coordinator or consultant.

" 'Jonah Hex' is a comic book, really over the top, and they spent a ton of money on that movie," says Garner, a huge fan of the great train movies of eras past. "In addition to 'True Grit,' which is a typically character-driven Coen film, I also worked with the Coen brothers on the train sequences for 'O Brother, Where Art Thou.'

"Theirs is one of the top production companies in Hollywood. They know what they want to do, they know how they want to do it, and they are quick to follow the technical advice of the people they hire to give it, which is rare in this business," he says.

For Garner's money, the most impressive train movie of all is "The General," Keaton's masterpiece of invention.

"Buster Keaton is responsible for a great many of the technical innovations and techniques still used in filmmaking today," says Garner. "And he did all his own stunts."

Chugging

Nobody understood the potential better than Hitchcock, who made four movies propelled by trains: "The 39 Steps" (1935, the prototype for all sophisticated action-comedies), "The Lady Vanishes" (1938), "Strangers on a Train" (1951) and "North by Northwest" (1959), the last credited by 007 maestro Albert "Cubby" Broccoli as the stylistic inspiration for all the James Bond films of the '60s and '70s.

Arguably the most unusual of all train films, based on a screenplay by the Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, was Andrei Konchalovsky's "Runaway Train" (1985), often referred to as history's only existential action movie.

It is more European in tone, lodged on a list with few foreign-language movies, apart from "Central Station" (Brazil) and "Closely Watched Trains" (Czechoslovakia).

The greatest fight scene? No contest: Sean Connery and Robert Shaw in "From Russia With Love" (uncut version).

Dazzling stunts? Try "Breakheart Pass" (1976).

Most romantic (i.e., sexiest)? The seduction scenes between Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint in "North by Northwest" edging Gene Wilder and Jill Clayburgh in "Silver Streak" (1976) by half a caboose.

Choo-Choo Hall of Fame

2000s

"3:10 to Yuma" (2007, Russell Crowe, Christian Bale), "Polar Express" (2004, Tom Hanks, Daryl Sabara), "The Station Agent" (2003, Peter Dinklage, Paul Benjamin), "O Brother, Where Art Thou" (2000, George Clooney, John Turturro).

1990s, 1980s

"Central Station" (1998, Fernanda Montenegro, Vinicius de Oliveira), "Mission: Impossible" (1996, Tom Cruise, Jon Voight), "Before Sunrise" (1995, Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke), "Throw Momma From the Train" (1987, Danny DeVito, Billy Crystal), "Night Train to Venice" (1986, Hugh Grant, Malcolm McDowell), "Runaway Train" (1985, Jon Voight, Eric Roberts).

1970s, 1960s

"The Great Train Robbery" (1979, Sean Connery, Donald Sutherland), "Silver Streak" (1976, Gene Wilder, Jill Clayburgh, Richard Pryor), "The Seven-Percent Solution" (1976, Nicol Williamson, Robert Duvall), "Bound for Glory" (1976, David Carradine, Ronny Cox), "Breakheart Pass" (1976, Charles Bronson, Ben Johnson), "Murder on the Orient Express" (1974, Albert Finney, Ingrid Bergman), "The Sting" (1973, Paul Newman, Robert Redford), "Emperor of the North" (1973, Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine), "The French Connection" (1971, Gene Hackman, Roy Scheider), "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (1969, Paul Newman, Robert Redford), "Once Upon a Time in the West" (1969, Henry Fonda, Claudia Cardinale), "The Professionals" (1966, Burt Lancaster, Lee Marvin), "Closely Watched Trains" (1966, Vaclav Neckar), "Doctor Zhivago" (1965, Omar Sharif, Julie Christie), "Cat Ballou" (1965, Jane Fonda, Lee Marvin), "Von Ryan's Express" (1965, Frank Sinatra, Trevor Howard), "The Train" (1964, Burt Lancaster, Paul Scofield), "A Hard Day's Night" (1964, The Beatles), "From Russia With Love" (1963, Sean Connery, Robert Shaw), "How the West Was Won" (1962, George Peppard, Debbie Reynolds).

1950s, 1940s

"North by Northwest" (1959, Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint), "North West Frontier" (1959, Lauren Bacall, Kenneth More), "Some Like It Hot" (1959, Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon), "The Bridge on the River Kwai" (1957, William Holden, Alec Guinness), "3:10 to Yuma" (1957, Glenn Ford, Van Heflin), "Bad Day at Black Rock" (1955, Spencer Tracy, Robert Ryan), "The Narrow Margin" (1952, Charles McGraw, Marie Windsor), "Strangers on a Train" (1951, Farley Granger, Robert Walker), "High Noon" (1952, Gary Cooper), "The Third Man" (1949, Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten), "Brief Encounter" (1946, Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard), "Lady on a Train" (1945, Deanna Durbin, Ralph Bellamy), "Night Train to Munich" (1940, Rex Harrison, Margaret Lockwood).

1930s, 1920s

"Union Pacific" (1939, Barbara Stanwyck, Joel McCrea), "The Lady Vanishes" (1938, Margaret Lockwood, Michael Redgrave), "The 39 Steps" (1935, Robert Donat, Madeleine Carroll), "Twentieth Century" (1934, John Barrymore, Carole Lombard), "Shanghai Express" (1932, Marlene Dietrich, Anna May Wong), "Danger Lights" (1930, Robert Armstrong, Jean Arthur), "The General" (1927, Buster Keaton), and "The Iron Horse" (1924, George O'Brien, Madge Bellamy).

Reach Bill Thompson at bthompson@postandcourier.com or 937-5707