#RAILROAD STORY ON CBS SATURDAY MOVIE#

The strange woman, the wife who appears and disappears at random.

just what was it that he was ill from? hmmm. The strange man whom we never hear from, but whose presence is so powerful over the girl. he's sort of a silent observer - until the end when he comes to the father. The train conductor which everything around him seems to happen with no control or feedback from him. The only word I can find to describe this episode is 'peculiar.'Įvery character in this situation has something 'peculiar' with it. while not a typical RMT thriller by any means, it was certainly a typical Elspeth Eric jaunt into psychology. This was such a sad story, from start to finish. Very nice guy.he told me he wondered if I was the RAILROAD PRESIDENT checking up on them. As I was standing alongside my car (in coat and tie) a fellow obviously from the train crew walked up to me and made small talk. At the latter town a train hauling some interesting cargo (machinery) had stopped, and I stopped to get a better glimpse. I took a drive back from church across the line through Westville and Watts, OK, where I could drive by the main line of the Kansas City Southern railroad. I also love trains, and I think this captures the (inevitable, IMO, with the rise of autos and planes) decline of passenger train traffic quite well. There's not much action, not much (though some) supernatural element to it, not much suspense, though some.īut I love Eric's lines about fathers and daughters, and thought that she was indeed insightful in the way she wrote Norman Rose's character's monologue.Īt one point he, a widower raising a nearly grown daughter whose eye is on a mysterious stranger who visits the town daily on a certain train, says something to the effect of 'There's really no perfect man a father sees for his daughter, because in his heart HE thinks he's the pefect man for her.' (My daughter and I recently got a chuckle out of that one with me saying 'Honey, I don't know if I'd WANT you marrying a guy like me.) This is an Elspeth Eric play, and I'll tell you why I personally like it so much. I can't say the issue of either mysterious person was fully resolved to my satisfaction in the story, but the execution of it, and Rose's dialogue as a father, was extremely touching. Rose's character is further perplexed by a mysterious woman who says his daughter will never be able to marry the mysterious passenger, because he belongs to her (the woman). The man always takes one particular train (according to the daughter) though the town's soon-to-be-retired stationmaster cannot ever recall seeing him arrive or depart from it. However, the daughter has fallen in love with a mysterious man whom she can't or won't introduce her father to. The town is gradually losing all the passenger trains which stopped there. They're usually a unique combination of cars that's never duplicated quite the same way again, and they are planned, they have a point of origination, a journey and a destination, whereupon they stop, or 'die', if you will.

(Interestingly, my own then-12-year-old daughter was the one who told me about this particular RMT.) It's interesting to me how trains can be compared to people. Rose, who plays a doctor in a small town who's raised a daughter by himself since his wife died years ago. ) I'm almost also tempted to call him 'I suppose' Rose, because he's always saying 'I suppose' in other RMT episodes I've heard.Īs a train buff I found some additional cause for solemnity in this very good play by Ms. (I think he matured and wised up by the time Himan Brown recruited him.

#RAILROAD STORY ON CBS SATURDAY MOVIE#

telephone book'' Rose did this little gem from Elspeth Eric.then again, maybe not, as his aforementioned movie appearance apparently took place 3 years before Rose joined the RMT.

Railroad story on cbs saturday