I watched this recently. It was great!
One thing I'm wondering about, though, concerns the train ride early in the movie. Nick and Nora are on a train, going back to Nick's home town. That train is really crowded, with people standing in the hallways, side-by-side. Did they really pack trains that tightly, back in the 1940's?
1944 and in the middle of WWII and it WAS like that. The troops had priority.
shareThat makes sense. Thank you for the reply!
shareMy mother graduated high school in 1946. She and a friend took a train from Alabama to visit some relatives in Kentucky. They got their tickets with the understanding that they may have to exit the train along the way if there were soldiers who needed to be on the train. I found that interesting.
shareIt was actually toward the end of WWII, and there weren't many "troops" other than sailors in those scenes - and few of them. Trains were the main long-distance movers of people.
Stupid!?! I never called you stupid! To call you stupid would be an insult to stupid people!
Not true. The draft, enlistees, troop movements were going full speed ahead and the trains were packed solid. It was only with the atomic bomb that ended the horrific mainland invasion of Japan that the war suddenly wound down. That was later in 1945.
shareThere was also rationing of gas and rubber during that time for the war effort so more people, when they had to travel, took trains rather than drive their own cars.
shareThere were fewer passenger trains scheduled, so yes they were crowded. Certain runs were more crowded than others too. A train from New York to Miami or Chicago would be more packed than other runs for example. I don't know where Sycamore Springs was supposed to be but getting there from NYC would probably involve a multi-day excursion. Perhaps involving lay overs along the way. One of the posters back then read, "Is This Trip Necessary?"
"Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government."
-Dennis
Thank you Soujurn, that was very interesting. I can see why they would put up posters saying, "Is This Trip Necessary?". If people had to endure those conditions I would think twice about it, too.
shareEvery seat taken by a civilian was a seat not available to a service man or woman. Plus, it was a drain on resources like fuel, food, and manpower.
"Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government."
-Dennis
My take on those train scenes is that because of the war, trains were crowded. But for the sake of comedy they exaggerated it just a bit, a typical way to make a funny situation even funnier. I don't think people rode trains standing all the way.
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