Daybreak Express (1953)

Touches You

the audience applauded

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Daybreak Express (1957) *** (out of 4)This here was director D.A. Pennebaker's second short and it takes place throughout New York City just as the sun is starting to rise. The camera is basically placed on an express train and we get countless images from the city with all of them connected by the fact that the sun is rising.It's obvious where the title comes from but for the most part I really enjoyed this short for what it was. There's a lot of quick edits and the focus never stays on one thing for too long but this works perfectly well against the Duke Ellington music score that is going throughout the picture. I really loved the cinematography as well and especially the early shots of the sun just starting to rise among the sky scrappers.

It is a film at only 5 minutes in length, yes, but it is still a great piece of cinema, regardless!Documentary filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker has made 2 of my all time favorite films, "Don't Look Back" and "Monterey Pop", which are both music documentaries. "Daybreak Express" can, arguably, be considered a music documentary, considering almost the entire film includes a soundtrack by Duke Ellington, which flows perfectly with the beautiful imagery of the sights and sounds of city life.It is an amazing short film, which contains tons of excellent imagery! I'd recommend it to most people, which is a type of recommendation that I've never really given to most experimental film. But, this short is fun and amusing enough to entertain most people, especially those with some minor-major interest in cinema.

This one here is a 5-minute short film by writer and director D.A. Pennebaker. He made this one over 60 years ago, back in 1953 and it was his first project in the world of film. Pennebaker is still alive today, turned 90 this year, an Oscar nominee and Honorary Oscar recipient. In "Daybreak Express" he shows us the break of dawn from a train's perspective. We constantly hear the train, also hear some music and just see some of the buildings from the city or people sitting in the train on a couple occasions. I am not too familiar with Pennebaker's other works, but this one here did not really impress me I must say. Still it's not entirely bad and certainly an okay difference to the uncountable number of cartoons made by Disney, Warner Bros. and other around the time when this came out.

A brisk little film, beautifully photographed, around the 3rd Avenue Elevated railway in New York. Apparently it was due for demolition so Mr Pennebaker immortalised it in this film. We see lots of stark monumental railway architecture silhouetted against the morning skies, 1950's commuters in trilby hats and overcoats, and swirling images as the trains plunge into central New York. A good experiment with technique, a great soundtrack, and now a great piece of nostalgia.I saw this as an accompaniment to "The Horse's Mouth" on DVD. I am pleased the filmmaker was stubborn enough not to sell the film outright and made a handsome return of $25 a week during the run of the main feature.