The Phantom Train

1926 73 minutes Directed by Gabriel García Moreno

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About The Phantom Train

Engineer Adolfo Mariel, played by Carlos Villatoro, arrives in Orizaba to investigate thefts on the railway and falls for Elena del Bosque, daughter of dispatcher Don Tomás. Her other suitor, Paco Mendoza (Manuel de los Ríos), is El Rubí, the bandit leader. Paco fights a bull to impress her, is hurt, then stages a kidnapping so he can pretend to rescue her. The boy El Chango and Carmela help Adolfo expose him. Paco abducts Elena onto a train; Adolfo takes her back in a chase. The gang plants dynamite to wreck the train Adolfo and Elena are on. Paco, not knowing of the plot, saves them and is killed.

Cast & crew

More about The Phantom Train

Gabriel García Moreno wrote and directed it for the Centro Cultural Cinematográfico in Orizaba. William Mayer produced it. Ferrocarriles Nacionales let the company shoot on the new electric train from Esperanza, Puebla, over the Cumbres de Maltrata to Orizaba. Manuel Carrillo was the cameraman, and José A. Ramírez ran the laboratory.

Themes

  • Train robbery
  • A suitor who is the bandit
  • A chase on the railway
  • Orizaba
  • El Rubí
  • train robbery
  • dynamite
  • bullring
  • Adolfo Mariel

Making

Spanish Wikipedia, citing Esperanza Vázquez Bernal's 2002 Cineteca booklet, says five nitrate rolls survived. One sequence was burned when Mayer tried to project the print at home. The gap was filled with stills from the Archivo General de la Nación, frames from the film, and photographs from the archive of Marcela Luna Villatoro.

Look

Manuel Carrillo shot the film on the Ferrocarriles Nacionales line and in Orizaba, including the bullring. The chase runs over tracks, tunnels, bridges, and both steam and electric locomotives.

Preservation

The film was lost for years. In the late 1960s Mayer's family gave the nitrate to historian Aurelio de los Reyes, who deposited it at the Filmoteca de la UNAM. Historians at the Cineteca Nacional restored it in 2002. The Cineteca has since shown the restoration with live music.

Notes

  • Clarita Ibáñez plays Elena. Angelita Ibáñez plays Carmela. The child Guillermo Pacheco plays El Chango.
  • Rafael Araiza plays Boca Chula. A Señor Carrera plays the cashier of the Moctezuma.
  • The Orizaba bullring sequence includes a short faena by the bullfighter Juan Silveti.
  • When the company went bankrupt, García Moreno left this film and El puño de hierro (1927) with treasurer William Mayer.
  • The original main title is missing. The restoration credits were taken from the Archivo General de la Nación, set in type modeled on the poster.

Scenes

  • Paco enters the Orizaba bullring to court Elena and is injured.
  • El Rubí's men fake Elena's kidnapping so he can rescue her.
  • Adolfo chases the abductors along the railway and takes Elena back.
  • Paco dies stopping his own gang's dynamite from wrecking her train.