Train Ride to Hollywood
Train Ride to Hollywood
G | 01 October 1975 (USA)
Train Ride to Hollywood Trailers

Harry Williams, member of the rhythm & blues band, Bloodstone, is about to go onstage for a concert when he is hit on the head. The rest that follows is his dream. The four band members become conductors on a train filled with characters and (impersonated) actors from the 1930s, such as W.C. Fields, Dracula, and Scarlett O'Hara. Various songs are featured. The singing conductors are obliged to solve a mystery; Marlon Brando is murdering Nelson Eddy, Jeanette McDonald and others by suffocating them in his armpits. A wacky funeral, a fight with a gorilla, and the threat of being turned into a wax museum figure are all part of Harry's dream.

Reviews
TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film
Kailansorac Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.
Ketrivie It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.
Abegail Noëlle While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.
Chemi Che-Mponda Train Ride to Hollywood is a musical comedy. Bloodstone's Harry Williams is fascinated with Hollywood and its famous actors of old. He falls and hits his head just before going on stage, no thanks to their producer (Michael Payne) tugging on his leg. The movie is his dream, a goofy dream at that. There are auditions in Hollywood and they need to take a three-day train ride to get there. The only problem is they don't have the money for train tickets. So they trick real railway workers and steal their uniforms. The train's passengers consist of a Sheikh and his harem, W.C. Fields, Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler, a loveable Dracula, The Godfather, Humphrey Bogart, Jean Harlow, Nelson Eddie and Jeanette MacDaonald and others. Bloodstone turns into detectives ala Sherlock Holmes following a double murder. Guess the killer couldn't stand Nelson Eddie and Jeanette MacDonald's continuous singing. A wacky funeral, fight with a gorilla, and threat of being turned into a wax museum figure are all part of Harry's dream.Dance numbers are good especially the memorable Train Ride number filmed in L.A's Union Station. (Funny thing is they start at Union station and end there). I've watched it over and over again. Charles McCormick and his falsetto voice are wonderful in the number with the Rhythm professor. Charles Love singing to Tracy Reed is also great to watch. Too bad there is no soundtrack for this film. The movie is overall fun.
joshl-1 This is not an overly serious movie. If you're in the mood for something silly a la a poor-man's Mel Brooks flick, this is one that is done by a tight soul group called Bloodstone. I gave it a 7.In addition to some original music, the group does good covers of a striking variety of song genres, and I think this is a particularly good quality of the film and music. Examples from the 40s-50s-60s: As Time Goes By (very good version!), Yackety-Yack, Money (yeah the one that the Beatles covered).These guys looked to me like they had a very good time making this movie, and that makes the movie better.This movie is not meant to be the experience of a century. It's just a deliberately ridiculous musical romp with some terrific music, some ok choreography and a villain or two and that's that. I liked it because of the music, the performances of individual group members, the soundtrack ages quite well in my collection and in the end it's an B-movie plot. On this last point, I'd say that, if you're in the mood for a silly musical, the plot-story is weak but ok, with a lot of referential characters (impersonated characters such as of Bogart, A Legosi-ish Vampire, Nelson Eddy+Jeanette MacDonald, I think maybe a James Dean-type, etc.)The group members are sufficiently ok in acting that one can like them.The DVD does not stand in well as a good-audiophile soundtrack (unless there's something I don't quite get about how to use a video DVD to play back sound). Since the music is what I wanted to re-listen to many times, I had to get the CD. But there's nothing wrong with the film. I'd have to give it higher than a 5, the average at the time of this writing, if only because an enjoyable musical is so hard to find.I had to wait about 20 years for them to come out with both the movie and the CD. Something has always been wrong with Bloodstone's music and film distribution. I saw this film in the 70's and here it is 2002 and finally it's available on VHS or DVD? What about the soundtrack? Why wasn't that available with other Bloodstone albums, until now? What the heck is up with that? This isn't the first time I've run into that trouble finding Bloodstone's work. There was also a problem with getting all the songs from the vinyl of Natural High on to the CD. To my knowledge, that hasn't been fixed.
chauncey-5 This is a fun, silly movie which takes very bizarre and unexpected turns. But I've watched the "Train Ride" musical number over and over again. It's worth the rental. As they say, "Get your ticket get your ticket you gotta have a ticket for this train ride..."
fubared1 This really is pathetic. Nothing to recommend it other than 2 good oldies. Bad acting, bad direction, bad script, bad music. How did this movie ever get made...and released by a major studio! You can buy the movie Letter-boxed, but why anyone would want to is beyond me (unless of course they're in it, but I'd be too embarrassed to admit to that).