Watch The Flying Scotsman For Free

You won't be disappointed!

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

This film was made by British International Pictures who with the Indian of the talkies decided to turn their unreleased ailments into part sound.Instead. of inserting sound sequences they turned the second half into a complete talkie.They also did this on The Informer and Kitty.By 1931 ailments were dead,and any cinema that could not afford the equipment closed.The sequence where the actors are walking along the outside of the train was truly hair raising.The actors had no doubles and there were no process shots.You could see the looks of sheer terror on the face of the actors.The cast is interesting.Ray Mill and is a rather cocky engineer in one of his early films.Moore Marriott is the train driver before he found fame with Will Hay a few years later.No doubt this film is popular with train enthusiasts for its many views of the steam era over eighty six years ago.

I know this fascinating movie deserves only a five or a six, but I give it seven out of ten because of its added interest for train buffs. Yes, the movie was actually filmed aboard the famous express train of the title, and would you believe the actors all perform their own thrilling stunts? It was also fascinating to see Ray Milland in a leading role before he had perfected his on-screen image. Also interesting to find comedian, Moore Marriott, in a straight role. The girl, Pauline Johnson, was good to see too, although her career was virtually over at this point. And this was the last of only three movie appearances for stage actor, Alex Hurley, who does such incredible work here as the villain of the piece. Available on a very good FilmRise DVD. Take no notice of the claim that the DVD is in color. It isn't!

Moore Marriott, bumbling, blustering old buffer of the next generation of British comedies, shows his origins in drama as Bob White, about-to-retire driver of the elite "Flying Scotsman" express between London and Edinburgh. Fireman Crow (Alec Hurley) is fired after White reports him drinking on duty, igniting a feud that culminates in Crow's attempt to wreck the Scotsman. Stirred into the mix are his replacement on the footplate, cocky young fireman Jim (Ray Milland) and a romance with Bob's daughter Joan (Pauline Johnson)."The Flying Scotsman" is essentially a silent, with a few dialog sequences, mainly in the love story, which takes up more than half the action with a chance meeting in a dance hall and subsequent visit to a posh restaurant, where Jim scandalizes everyone by ordering sandwiches and beer. Action picks up in the last two reels, with Crow and Joan inching along the outside of the speeding train and then onto the roof, the actors doing their own stunts, without any apparent safety harness. The impossible way Crow, with a single flip of his knife,separates the locomotive and carriages, obviously offended the rail service, since the producers apologize in the opening credits for making it look so simple. Aside from the stunts, the film is mainly interesting for the early Milland, who, though still too exaggerated in his gestures, shows a sure grasp of screen comedy.

The fireman of the fabled British train The Flying Scotsman gets reported by the engineer for being drunk on the job and he's given the sack as they would say in the UK. In the USA he'd be picking out a weapon of choice and going back to his job to start a massacre. But over there, being the civilized folks they are all he's going to do is wreck the train in vengeance while it's on it's run from London to Edinburgh.Two things The Flying Scotsman is known for. The first is some very daring stunt work done on the train itself. The second is for the presence of young Raymond Milland in the role of the young engineer in love with the old engineer's daughter. It was only Milland's second film and there are certainly traces of the amiable light leading man he was throughout the Thirties in Hollywood.The film was started while films were silent and midpoint in the story the players start to speak. Though it doesn't add or detract from the story in a dramatic sense and it isn't done with any sense of style as Blackmail was by Alfred Hitchcock, it makes far better sense than say the first sound version of Showboat where in certain scenes the players just speak and go silent without rhyme or reason.The Flying Scotsman is a curious antique good for those who love old trains and old films.