The Ghost Train (1903)

Just so...so bad

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Ghost Train, The (1903) *** (out of 4)Special effects film with a train double exposed on the negative to give a ghosting image. I'm sure this was something special back in the day but it's pretty weak today.Down the Hudson (1903) *** 1/2 (out of 4)Technically terrific little film where the directors take a trip down the Hudson but use a higher frame rate to make the film seem almost like 3-D. If you get sea sick I'd guess this film will also make you sick because it does that great of a job of making you feel you're on a boat.Captain Nissen Going Through Whirlpool Rapids, Niagara Falls (1901)*** (out of 4)Made up story of a captain going down Niagara Falls just as the title says. An unknown director from Edison Studios made this and this too is a big leap over the normal for its ear. The camera races down the side of the falls getting some great shots.Westinghouse Works, Panoramic View St. Car Motor Room (1904) *** (out of four)G.W. Bitzer film takes place in a motor room where the camera glides through the air from the front to the back showing us everything that goes on. This is a very neat looking film from Bitzer who would go onto become the cinematographer for D.W. Griffith.

This short clip was created using two processes, film negative and double-exposure. The double-exposure is a little harder to see, it's the moon and the clouds to the upper left hand corner of the frame. The negative helps to give the train a surreal or ghostly form, and it's rather effective. Of course, to our modern eyes, it probably wouldn't work unless we weren't expecting it, as such techniques have become a rather standard form... not in mainstream narrative production, but still in things like music videos. Still, for the time, it is a neat experiment and ambiance and was probably an interesting curiosity for those who saw it and those involved.--PolarisDiB

This is a less than 1/2-minute-long film of a locomotive pulling four cars around a turn. Why a ghost train? I hope I am not a spoiler when I tell you that it was done by developing the film as a negative. When projected; everything that is ordinarily white becomes black, while those usually black are white.It was filmed by the Biograph company on January 5, 1901 and is worth a look just to see how technical innovation was beginning to creep into film production.