Today is Melbourne Cup Day when briefly two countries do nothing but follow a horse race, so we thought we'd mention a couple of Australian movies set on trains.
Warm Nights on a Slow Moving Train (1988, 91 minutes) is set on the Melbourne to Sydney and return overnight expresses.
The synopsis: From Monday to Friday she (Wendy Hughes) teaches art at a Catholic school, but come the weekend and she rides the overnight express, turning tricks - each trip in a different guise, but always the same rules: the men must leave her cabin by 3 am. And no sweet-talk next morning. She is saving the extra money for medical bills for her wheel chair-bound, morphine addicted ex-athlete brother Brian (Lewis Fitz-Gerald). But then she meets and falls for a man (Colin Friels) who is different: strong, willful and charming. And he, too, has a secret agenda. And it includes assassination, for money that would settle all her and her brother's needs.
Like the title, the movie is rather slow moving too, but it will impart the atmosphere of those overnight trains.
Last train to Freo (2006) is adapted from a stage play and entirely set on a suburban electric multiple unit from somewhere in Perth to Fremantle, which in Oz fashion is locally known as Freo.
The synopsis: At midnight, on a hot summer's night, two ex-cons board the last train to Fremantle. Bored, restless and looking for trouble, they start to poke fun at their mind-numbing existence. Until a beautiful young law student steps into the carriage, alone, and seemingly unaware that the guards are on strike.
But there's more to this young woman than meets the eye. And when two other passengers join the train further down the line, the balance of power takes an unexpected twist.
It is edited in 'real time', although a trip to Fremantle from any of the other Perth termini would only take about half the movie's 85 mins.
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