Roaring Rails

A fast-moving drama with some pretty violent scenes but also a real tear-jerker. Harry Carey and his adopted son are essentially alone in the world. They ride the rails as Harry Carey desperately looks for work. They barely manage to get enough to eat. Great performances by Harry Carey, Edith Roberts and a very young Frankie Darro as Carey's son. Darro's performance is one of the best you'll see from so young an actor.

This film was not filmed on a Hollywood back lot. The production company obviously spent some money on this film, and with great results.

Harry Carey stars in a pretty good programmer about a railroad engineer, down on his luck, who takes the blame for a murder in order to get his adopted son, Frankie Darro, an operation for his eyes. Everyone is against him but hash house slinger Edith Roberts.

The whole thing wanders from the Battle of Château Thierry in France to some nice outdoors scenery around Klamath Falls in Oregon and ends with Carey running a train through a burning forest for ten thousand dollars. Carey was a middle-ranked star at this point, having started out with D.W. Griffith. He would continue to star in B westerns through the 1940s and take starring supporting roles until his death in the late 1940s -- look for him as the Vice-President in MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON as, basically, Will Rogers.

This is the sort of movie where the story drives the characters, but Carey pulls off his part with his usual great competence.

Fighting in 1918 France during World War I, train engineer Harry Carey (as William "Big Bill" Benson) agrees to adopt young Frankie Darro (as "Little Bill" Benson) from his dying mother. After the fighting, Mr. Carey returns to his US railway profession. Almost immediately, a train wreck occurs, due to a mishap involving young Darro. As a result, Carey is demoted. He has more trouble working his way back to the top due to the distracting antics of his cute son, but Carey won't give up Darro...

A favorite with rough railroad workers, kind and pretty waitress Edith Roberts (as Nora Burke) takes a liking to Carey and Darro. Handsome and sneaky Wallace MacDonald (as Malcolm Gregory) causes problems for the potentially happy family. When tragedy strikes, Carey must make a do or die deal to save Darro. When it appears everything has ridden off the rails, Carey engineers a fiery climax. Directed by actor Tom Forman and edited briskly, "Roaring Rails" is an above average railroad melodrama.

****** Roaring Rails (9/21/24) Tom Forman ~ Harry Carey, Frankie Darro, Edith Roberts, Wallace MacDonald

Roaring Rails (1924)

*** (out of 4)

This is one of the most over-melodramatic films that you're ever going to see and it's also one of the most predictable but there's no denying that it has enough charm that you can't help but fall for it. During WWI, soldier Bill Benson (Harry Carey) sees a mother killed leaving her young son (Frankie Daro) all alone so after the war he takes the kid back to the States. Once there Bill starts his old job as a railroad engineer but after a deadly crash he and the boy are forced out West to start over but bad luck follows them. ROARING RAILS, until recently, hadn't been seen since its original release and this is probably the only reason it isn't better known. Had the film been around the past several decades I can't help but think that it would be even more popular but thanks to George Eastman House the film has been restored for future generations. I think it's fair to say that the film is trying to capture the cuteness and charm of Chaplin's THE KID but unlike that film this one here is incredibly mean-spirited and at times it's shockingly violent. The amount of violence aimed at the child is pretty shocking when viewed today but I always say that's why silent movies are so interesting because you never know what they're going to contain. The kid takes quite a bit of abuse from the villains in the film and there's no question that the filmmakers wanted you to hate these guys so that Carey can deliver in the good guy role. Carey is excellent in his part as he can turn on the charm as well as play it straight when the scene calls for it. Darro doesn't give the greatest performance in the world but he's charming enough for the part. Edith Roberts is terrific as the love interest and Wallace MacDonald and Frank Hagney make for some of the greatest villains of the silent era. At just 67-minutes the film drags in spots due to how predictable it is and at times the melodrama is so in-your-face that you feel as if you're being beaten over the head. However, the film works so well that you can overlook its flaws.