1959 Film 'It Happened To Jane'

[umtrr-author]

I tripped over this film the other day in a DVD catalog. It stars Doris Day as a widow and lobsterwoman whose shipment is delayed by the Eastern and Portland Railroad, run by the 'meanest man in the world' Harry Foster Malone (Ernie Kovacs). The plot requires a fair amount of suspending disbelief but there are some scenes of New Haven red and white power, relettered "EP" where the "N over H" is. A featured 'performer,' 'Old 97' which is perhaps an ex-New Haven 2-8-2 (a '3' painted over is visible below the painted '97' on the cab). For television fans, there are some cameos, including the entire panel and host of the game show "I've Got A Secret'. According to Wikipedia, most of the film was shot in and around Chester, Connecticut, which would explain the New Haven presence.

Kovacs as the railroad executive does an over the top performance, including sleeping in a 'lower berth' in his office which is allegedly in or near Grand Central Station, but a fair amount of the detail is at least reasonably accurate-- certainly more than the typical moviegoer would notice, or care about.

The film is available commercially, but it's also in its entirety on YouTube, and in good resolution as well, so I watched it there.

[Marty Feldner]

I saw this when it was first released, and have had the DVD for several years. The 2-8-2 was the last operational New Haven steam locomotive, and as I remember was literally given a reprieve from the scrapper's torch to be used in this film. (There is a member here who's screen avatar is 'Harry Foster Malone'- the name of the Kovacs character.) Not exactly an 'A' film, but a long-time favorite. Probably didn't hurt that Kovaks was always a favorite, and at that age I had a crush on Doris Day...

It didn't do especially well at the box office, and was re-released a couple of years later; for some arcane reason it was retitled "Twinkle and Shine", which has no bearing whatsoever to the movie.

[NH2060]

My parents happened to have this on TCM once years ago and I happened to catch some of the better shots of the NH equipment used.

One of the more noteworthy parts of the movie was filmed in Plainfield, CT @ the diamonds where the ex-NY&NE and ex-Norwich & Worcester tracks intersect. If you watch closely during those scenes you can almost make out the "New Haven" on the Osgood-Bradley coaches. There were 3 trains in that location during filming. Two of them were fronted by FL-9s; one trainset being "Eastern & Portland" 2016 with I believe 2 O-B coaches, the other being the "E&P" 2008 and another unknown unit coupled back to back with what I think were at least 4-5 O-B or Pullman Standard coaches. There's also a photograph of both units on location in the book Diesels To Park Avenue. Those faux-McGinnis E&P logos didn't look half bad for a movie job

Regarding "ol' 97" the original NH number was 3016.

If you look closely in this clip the map of the E&P appears to have little resemblance to the NH's network in the late 1950s. The Shore Line -for one- cuts through central Rhode Island :
http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/6598 ... roads.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;