Week Sixty-One
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| "Streamline Express" 1935 |
MOVIE NAME: STREAMLINE EXPRESS
STUDIO: MASCOT PICTURE CORP.
DIRECTOR: NAT LEVINE
DATE: 1935
TYPE: COMEDY, DRAMA
CAST:
VICTOR JORY as Jimmy Hart , EVELYN VENABLE as Patricia Wallis, ESTHER RALSTON as Elaine Vinson , ERIN O'BRIEN-MOORE as Mrs. Forbes, RALPH FORBES as Fred Arnold , SIDNEY BLACKMER as Gilbert Landon, VINCE BARNETT as Jones, CLAY CLEMENT as John Forbes, TOMMY BUPP, as Wilbur
SOURCE: A F I, Catalog of Feature Films 1931-1940
STORY: Patricia Wallis, a Broadway star, fails to show up for dress rehearsal, after an argument with the play director Jimmy Hart. Then Jimmy learns that she is about to leave New York for California on the inaugural run of a luxurious high-speed train, the Streamline Express, with her millionaire fiancé Fred Arnold. Jimmy rushes to the station, but unable to get on board he stows-away in a trunk. Pat refuses to return to the theater despite Jimmy's pleas and threats, preferring to lead a quite life as wife and mother and then she has him thrown off the train. Jimmy bribes a steward to let him be his replacement, so he will have time change Pat's mind. Also on board are philandering husband John Bradley and gold digger Elaine Vinson, to whom he has given a diamond pendant. Much to his surprise, his wife Mary is waiting in his stateroom, after her suspicions were alerted by the jeweler. Bradley asks her for a divorce, but before she can get off the train, it departs, forcing them to share the stateroom. As the trains speeds west, Landon, an old acquaintance with a criminal background visits Elaine and threatens blackmail with the secrets he knows about her, and Elaine gives up her pendant for his silence. Pat attempts to ignore Jimmy, meanwhile Jimmy hints to Arnold that his wife is a kleptomaniac. When Bradley notices that Elaine is not wearing her diamonds, she claims that they were stolen, and search of all passengers is conducted. As the conductor approaches Landon in the bar, he drops the pendant in his cocktail and the drink is picked up by Wilson, the resident lush. Landon recovers it, but the conductor suspects Jimmy, while Arnold suspects Pat and asks Jimmy to speak to her. Pat and Jimmy have a huge argument and pillow fight, which leads to confessions of secret love. They decide to marry when the train arrives in California; however when Jimmy tells her there will not be time for a honeymoon, Pat flies into a rage, suspecting he is only marrying for the show. Still posing as steward, Jimmy finds the diamonds in Landon's shaving cream, but Landon accuses Jimmy of being the thief, and the conductor takes him into custody. Arnold promises to help him, believing that he is covering for Pat. Jimmy declares that he is Jimmy Hart the theater director and that Pat will vouch for him. Arnold then claims that Jimmy stole the necklace to derail his marriage. Jimmy is saved when Mrs. Bradley provides an alibi. Landon confesses revealing Elaine's complicity in the scheme, and the Bradley are reconciled. Arnold gives up Pat, and she informs Jimmy that the Hart's will be returning to New York in time for the show.
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