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Hoosier Line

This movie is part of the collection: Prelinger Archives

Audio/Visual: sound, color

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: ATSF1920 - - May 14, 2007
Subject: Good Historical Interest
This was apparently a Monon Railroad promotional film, made ca. 1948 - 1950, to tout the charms of the railroad and the country through which it ran. This film may have been produced for, or in conjunction with, the great Chicago Railroad Fair of 1948-1949.

For the citizens of Indiana, the Monon was an essential part of Indiana itself, an ingredient of what Michael Schaara calls "the mystic dirt of home", and regarded with an affection that bordered on reverence. This unabashed boosterism sounds jarring to our cynical ears today, but was politely received 60 years ago.

From a technical standpoint, it is almost as though someone had discovered a boxful of broken strands of film, and had tried to cobble them together as best they could, without a definitive reference to guide them. Some of the sequences are clearly out of order (the opening two or three minutes, for example, are actually the end of the film, and the true opening sequence appears to have been lost altogether). But this may be the only surviving print of this film, and for that reason alone it is worth a half-hour of your time. Railfans will revel in the images of Hoosierland railroading.

Reviewer: BraddS - - March 11, 2005
Subject: Gr..t If Y.u D.n't M.nd A.l th. Sk.ps!!!!!!
Beautiful color shots of EMD F-units in Monon livery leading passenger trains through the Indiana countryside. Apart from those and the Purdue Men's Choir (I think), you'd have to conclude that even if someone had deliberately removed random frames in order to try and make this as annoying to watch as possible, they wouldn't have succeeded as well...

Reviewer: Jah Gussi - - March 10, 2005
Subject: glm
glm
Watch out for Clark Gable in this one.
Makes a great Soundie when chopped up, good stuff for a remix here.

Reviewer: Spuzz - - March 9, 2005
Subject: I don't know, Hoosier Line?
Sometimes I wish that some Prelinger films could be taken and polished up and reedited again to clean up the print, fix the edits, sync the sound, etc I have seen 2 films like this thus far on here, and Now when I see a film like Hoosier Line, I wish someone could take up the task and do something, because this film really IS outstanding. A great rundown of the Hoosier train route, commonly known (here) as the Monon line. In this film, we meet up with a very odd looking chap who runs the mail runs? at a stop in the line, visit Chicago, go to the Kentucky Derby AND the Indianapolis 500 and visit all the farm life in Indiana. Oh, did I mention throughout all of this, there's Hoosier themed musical numbers? All of this is in great color. Now all we need is someone to FIX the darn film as the film is somewhat in pieces. The beginning repeats itself at the end, the sound syncing is way off, and could use a little cleanup task. Anyone up for the task?