The Lost Special: A train, a mystery, and a whole lot of head-scratching

Is this worth your time?

Look, if you are the kind of person who enjoys early cinema serials and doesn't mind a plot that feels like it was written on a napkin, maybe. If you want a tight, logical thriller, stay far away. This is for the folks who find joy in grainy film and weirdly earnest acting.

The whole thing centers on the "Gold Special," a train that just vanishes. One minute it’s there, the next it’s gone. It’s like magic, but with more coal smoke and less wonder.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of The Lost Special (1932) through its definitive frames.

Our heroes are a reporter lady and two college students. They spend a lot of time looking confused in dusty offices. Sometimes they wander into a room and just sort of stand there while the camera waits for something to happen.

There is this one scene where a character is explaining the train’s disappearance, and he’s talking for so long I started counting the cracks in the wall behind him. The pacing is basically: run, stop, talk, look surprised, repeat.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of The Lost Special (1932) through its definitive frames.

It’s not quite as weird as L'Age d'Or, but it has its own brand of bizarreness. At least The Cocoanuts knew it was supposed to be funny.

Odd bits I noticed:

• The train sets look like they were built out of cardboard and optimism.
• The reporter lady has a hat that seems to have a personality of its own. It barely moves when she does.
• Every time someone mentions the train, the background music gets way too dramatic. Like, we get it, the train is gone.
• There is a guy in the background of one scene who is clearly just waiting for his lunch break. He’s staring right at the lens.

The mystery itself? It’s thin. Really thin. It feels like the writers got halfway through and then decided to just throw more people in the desert. It reminded me a bit of the aimless energy in Gang War, though without the grit.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of The Lost Special (1932) through its definitive frames.

I found myself wondering if they ever actually found the train or if they just forgot about it. The movie keeps going, but the focus shifts so much you lose the thread. Honestly, the best part is just watching the old-timey clothes. Nobody wears a suit like that anymore.

If you like movies that are a bit of a mess, this might scratch that itch. It’s not good, but it’s there. And sometimes, that’s all you get.