Train Ride to Hollywood

We saw this movie when it was released in 1978. It was one of the silliest movies that I had ever seen, but I go to the movies to escape from real life, to be entertained. This movie had great musical numbers (I've had the soundtrack for 15 years) and quite a few entertaining moments. If you're a 30s or 40s movie buff and a fan of the old Fred Astaire musicals, you'll like the dance numbers alone. If you can sit back and see the humor in life, just let yourself go, then you'll enjoy "TRAINRIDE TO HOLLYWOOD".

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.

I saw 'Train Ride To Hollywood' on cable TV as a kid a couple of years or so after it was in the theaters, and it is the weirdest musical I have ever seen. Some scenes in this movie made me cringe, and other scenes were flat-out painful to watch. What redeems 'Train Ride To Hollywood' is the music.

Bloodstone were a great band, and their interpretations of old songs and their own material blended seamlessly here. The "Rock and Roll Choo-Choo" and "Money (That's What I Want)" scenes stand out for Bloodstone's ability to assert themselves as ROCK AND ROLL musicians, reclaiming rock and roll as black music and delivering memorable performances (the "Money" scene gives us Willis Draffen doing a Chuck Berry duck walk to put the exclamation point on rock and roll as black music while Harry Williams delivers an astonishing vocal).

I would have changed the storyline considerably by getting rid of one character (the snooty director who keeps getting pied) and possibly coming up with a different one instead, and also rewriting the murder "mystery" subplot, but hey, too late. The two non-Bloodstone performances that stand out are Guy Marks as Humphrey Bogart and Roberta Collins as Jean Harlow, whose take on the 1930s blonde legend is haunting. Collins could have had a great career if her hard partying hadn't ruined her.

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.

Oddly enough, I remember seeing this movie back when it first came out. Maybe the fact I was young in age made it more memorable for me *shrug*. I liked it...to this day I find myself humming "get your ticket, get your ticket, ya gotta have your ticket for the train ride". Perhaps it's also in part that I grew up listening to the Sinceres aka Bloodstone on the Radio and Records at home. Granted it isn't on par with any Cinematic greats...but for a cheesy 70s film it isn't that bad..especially for a vehicle for a 70s Band. This movie is a tad better than Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park (imho). If you want a thinking movie, yeah get something else..but for a fun look at a "classic" 70s cheesy movie there is far worse. Heck, I have to admit I've seen worse movies in the 2000s that were MEANT to be "serious"...at least this one was meant to be "fun".