Somebody claimed that the train wreck scene in "The Fugitive" has been taken from the old movie "The Young In Heart" with Paulette Goddard.
I watched the entire train wreck scene and fast-forwarded through the rest of the movie: this train wreck scene has no similarity at all with "The Fugitive" (David Janssen).
The train footage is of a wreck in France waldenpond88. I don't recall precise details but if you watch the wreck scene closely you will see French writing on the side of the train briefly. From Trivia-
"The train transporting Richard Kimble to death row in the series' opening credits is clearly a French one, not American."
I haven't seen The Young in Heart but the story does take place in Europe, Monte Carlo mostly I understand. So it is possible.
Does anyone else know?
Your post made me wonder, and after examining the train wreck footage from the movie on youtube [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--aDyIDCALQ&feature=fvst] and comparing it with the scene in The Fugitive opening [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtNaE9jJSHo&feature=related] I think that it is some of the same footage. If you compare the movie and pause at 24:17 with the TV show paused at 00:53, I believe you will reach the conclusion that 1) it is the same footage, shot for the movie 2)the scene is enlarged and airbrushed for the TV show, so that the cars that are additional to the car in the immediate background and the car immediately ahead of it, are eliminated for the very brief scene, and 3)in the movie, the train wreck is filmed background for the actors in the foreground. In the TV opening, the initial scene appears to be an early 1960's commuter train, but that switches to the interior scene - but when the train derails, it is clearly a model and the aftermath is the few seconds of the old stock footage from the movie. It may not exactly coincide with the precise movements of the "survivors", but both the movie and the TV show used a rather short length of film that would be be a fraction of what would have been shot.
shareHave to agree with your assessment. The footage is not simply reproduced but is in the background of the movie & foreground of The Fugitive. If you have both videos paused side by side on the screen, you can certainly see the position of the 2 derailed cars matches.
Here's the links just for ease-of-click:
Young In Heart: http://youtu.be/--aDyIDCALQ
Fugitive: http://youtu.be/mtNaE9jJSHo
O.k., you convinced me. I was wrong.
I compared the scene which shows the undercarriage of the train which is identical (it jumps out of the rail).
The next scene in "The Fugitive" where people are walking in front of the derailed train also looks like the same train used in the "The Young at Heart" movie.
Thanks for the two links. They are very helpful and made the comparison so much easier!
This is a great find! Thx to all! Loved THE FUGITIVE since it first ran. I used to have the video of YOUNG IN HEART, but never watched it.
shareI have always wondered something.....we see Gerard and Kimble handcuffed to each other on the train. The train derails and next we see Kimble run and fall into the little stream with the cuffs in a classic letter "s". So I wonder...what does Gerards arm look like?lol
shareya know. That is a really good question-lol