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Handy (Jam) OrganizationSafe Roads (1935)

Driving is compared with running a railroad train. With excellent images of steam-era passenger trains.


This movie is part of the collection: Prelinger Archives

Producer: Handy (Jam) Organization
Sponsor: Chevrolet Motor Company
Audio/Visual: Sd, B&W
Keywords: Infrastructure: Roads and highways; Safety: Automotive

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: AlanMovieMan - - June 21, 2009
Subject: Wow! Lovely train shots.
To each the previous reviews, this film has some lovely shots of old time US trains and the film is in excellent condition considering its age (75 years almost at the time of writing).

The story line is preposterous, the acting and casting are nothing to write home about, and the editing of the drama section sucks. But somehow, the whole ensemble is actually pretty good in its own terms.

Points to note:

Some of the trains in the early sequences are steaming along tracks with weeds in between the rails. This normally denotes a seldom used track and gives lie to the notion that we're watching crack express trains traversing the USA 8-)

The electric model train which crashes about 70 seconds into the film must have had some cigarettes or something put inside. In fact the loco is smoking just as much BEFORE it crashes as afterwards!

The relationship between the three characters shown in the film is (as noted by Spuzz) very badly drawn, are the younger guys brothers or.. what?

Contains some excellent 'over the driver's shoulder' shots going down a crowded road showing loads of 1930s cars and trucks.

Reviewer: Spuzz - - June 20, 2004
Subject: All aboard to Dementialand!
Preposterous short begins with a fine and romantic tribute to trains, with many forgotten train lines shown in perspective. Then it all ends in a train wreck (literally) when two toy trains collide. "Aw, look what you did" a little boy says to his Dad. "Actually, you caused that yourself" says Grandpa, "You'll never be an engineer!" (Grandpa sure is harsh). Grandpa then says to the Dad that he should be an Engineer too. Dad says "An Engineer like you Grandpa?" It then dawned on me that Dad is actually SUPPOSED to be a younger man who can drive, but LOOKS to be the young tyke's dad. Quite a bit of off-casting there. Grandpa then says that everyone can be their own engineer when driving their car. Older Junior is not to sure what he means (and neither do we) so Grandpa goes on and on about comparing cars to trains (not bad actually). TIll finally, to shut the old man up, older junior of course says, (and I could see this coming a mile away) "Gee Grandpa, I never thought of it that way!"

Well, I don't think anyone would have.

Reviewer: cashel - - February 12, 2004
Subject: nostalgia and good advise
This is an excellent example of jam handy movie technique..I am always amazed as to how they can give so much information in such little time, ,,in this case,less than 8 minutes. Well worth the download just for the fine photography of the steam passenger train .But the advice that could save lives is still very relevant today

Shotlist

DRIVING OF AN AUTOMOBILE IS COMPARED WITH RUNNING A TRAIN ON THE RAILROAD. DRIVER IS AN ENGINEER ON WHOSE OBSERVANCE OF THE RULES OF DRIVING & THE COURTESIES OF THE ROAD THE PASSENGERS DEPEND FOR SAFETY.


CHEVROLET ADVERTISING AUTOMOBILES TRANSPORTATION HEALTH AND SAFETY ACCIDENTS DRIVING ROADS HIGHWAYS STREETS RAILROADS TRAINS DRIVERS ENGINEERS PASSENGERS COURTESY Danger Lurks