At the Strand

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Strangers On A Train. (Photo courtesy Strand Theatre)

The Lady Vanishes. (Photo courtesy Strand Theatre)

Strangers On A Train. (Photo courtesy Strand Theatre)

The Lady Vanishes. (Photo courtesy Strand Theatre)

ROCKLAND — Full Speed Ahead, a statewide festival of train movies and events, will take place May 6-11 at locations around Maine, including Rockland at the Strand Theatre, and in Belfast, at the Colonial Theater.

As a festival presenter, the Strand Theatre will show two train-related films by director Alfred Hitchcock, the renowned “master of suspense.”

Strangers On A Train (1951) will be screened Friday, May 9, at 5:30 p.m., and The Lady Vanishes (1938) will be shown Saturday, May 10, at 5:30 p.m. Alicia Malone, author and host on Turner Classic Movies, will host these presentations.

Movies and trains have a long and productive relationship; more than 300 films have captured the anticipation and thrill of leaving, travelling, and returning by train. Eighteen nonprofit Maine cinemas, museums, and schools have collaborated to produce the “Full Speed Ahead” festival, which will offer entertainment, information, and recreation, and coincides with National Train Day (May 10). Twenty-four movies, plus live activities, will be offered in 16 locations.

“The festival program spans more than 125 years of history and includes beloved films of every kind for all ages, with live programs and activities related to Maine’s unique railroad heritage,” said Mike Perreault, executive director of Maine Film Center, in a news release.

In Strangers On A Train, a chance encounter in the club car of a passenger train between an amateur tennis player (Farley Granger) and a charismatic fellow traveler (Robert Walker) sparks a provocative though purely speculative plan: how to “exchange” murders to solve their respective family problems. Hitchcock’s adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel is widely praised for its unsettling exploration of fate and the dark dualities of human nature, according to the Strand, in a news release.

The Lady Vanishes stars Margaret Lockwood as a young woman traveling by train through Europe who becomes increasingly alarmed when an elderly governess (Dame May Whitty) mysteriously disappears – all other passengers denying ever having seen her.

"A masterful blend of humor, romance, and suspense, the film is a brilliant display of Hitchcock’s emerging talent for crafting intricate, witty, knife-edge thrillers," said the Strand.

“Alfred Hitchcock enjoyed using trains as a way to increase tension,” said Alicia Malone, in the release. “The claustrophobic interiors forced his characters to be in close proximity to each other, with little chance of leaving – though there were always plenty of closed cabins and shadowy corners to hide their dark deeds. Hitchcock films are always a lot of fun to watch on a big screen with a crowd, and I’m excited to experience both movies at the Strand Theatre!”

Screening hosts and guest experts include cinema studies professors Jonathan Cavallero, of Bates College, and Tricia Welsch from Bowdoin College; Maine International Film Festival’s co-founder Ken Eisen; biographer and film historian Mark Griffin; novelist and screenwriter Michael Koryta; Colby College English professor Aaron Hanlon; artist and filmmaker Alan Magee; and author and host on Turner Classic Movies, Alicia Malone.The festival poster was created by Bob Staake, illustrator of 23 covers for The New Yorker and more than 75 children’s books.“Movies allow us to engage in discussion on an endless variety of topics,” said Christina Belknap, executive director of Lincoln Theater in Damariscotta. “Hopefully the train festival encourages a conversation about more passenger service throughout Maine. For Midcoast arts organizations like ours, having the train extended to Rockland would be life changing.”
Maine’s Unique Railroad HeritageMaine once had five narrow-gauge railroads carrying passengers and freight on small two-foot-wide tracks. Several of these railroads are gone although engines and other equipment representing all five lines still exist. Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railway Museum (WW&F) in Alna supports an ambitious building and restoration program that adheres to historic accuracy, the subject of a May 9 Maine Historical Society live stream. And in western Maine a group recently formed to rebuild part of what was the Bridgton & Saco River Railroad.

Free and Discounted Programs

“Trains are like big, living toys,” said best-selling author-illustrator Chris Van Dusen who is hosting, “If I Built a Train,” inspired by his “If I Built” book series – a May 10 program about WW&F building from scratch a full-size 1900 locomotive and 1894 passenger car. That same day, WW&F will also offer train rides to its open-air pavilion for a catered Mother’s Day Tea. On May 9-11, Boothbay Harbor will present a weekend of free events, starting with Harbor Theater’s screenings of Thomas and the Magic Railroad (2000), May 9; The Train, May 10; and Union Pacific, May 11. On May 10, Railway Village Museum will offer train rides, light refreshments, and commemoration of their historic Merci Train (Gratitude Train) box car. (In 1949, each state received one of these box cars filled with personal gifts from beleaguered but appreciative post-War French and Italians. Maine State Museum holds the box car’s contents.)Other free movies are The Natural (Lewiston); Brief Encounter (Brunswick); and The General (Portland, free for students 21 and under).On May 10, a special STEM Saturday at Owls Head Transportation Museum (free with daily admission) will challenge children to make play-dough trains and equip them with Squishy Circuits train horns. All aboard for a lot of beeping!Also on May 10, Belfast & Moosehead Lake Railroad will offer half-price train rides from its Unity station.And Amtrak Downeaster is providing festival attendees with a promo code (v503) for 15% off travel on all Downeaster trains, May 1-Sept. 30, 2025, with 3-day advance purchase.

The “Full Speed Ahead” Train Festival is sponsored by the Midcoast Villager.

Visit www.MaineTrainFest.com for more information about the festival. Go to www. RocklandStrand.com or call (207) 594-0070 for tickets and more information about the Strand screenings. Regular movie ticket pricing applies to these shows: $10/Adults, $8/Seniors and kids, $7/Strand Members.

The Strand Theatre is located at 345 Main Street, Rockland.