The Great Train Robbery Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

The Great Train Robbery Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov October 4, 2026

Joseph Kane's "The Great Train Robbery" (1941) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The only supplemental feature on the release is an exclusive new audio commentary recorded by critic Gary Gerani. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

Take him out.

Most crime historians agree that the greatest train robbery took place across the Atlantic, in 1963. Bruce Reynolds and fourteen other thieves stopped a Royal Mail train traveling from Glasgow to London and stole 120 bags stuffed with British pounds. According to official records, Reynolds and his crew got away with approximately £49 million.

Several films have recreated the Royal Mail train robbery. The best of the bunch is Peter Yates’ Robbery (1967), starring Stanley Baker and James Booth. However, Robbery is not a historically accurate film. It alters and completely ignores numerous crucial elements of the true story about the Royal Mail train robbery. For example, some of the best parts of the true story are about the thieves' capture, their imprisonment, and how a couple of them escaped and reached faraway places like Australia and Canada, but Robbery doesn't depict them.

On this side of the Atlantic, train robberies have been happening since the early days of the Wild West. The bigger ones are credited to notorious characters like Jesse James and Butch Cassidy, but both had plenty of formidable rivals. Contemporary train robberies have been more creative and bolder, but oddly, far more desperate. For example, in 2022, thieves in the Los Angeles area repeatedly stormed cargo trains and stole all kinds of different retail goods. In 2025, various gangs, reportedly linked to the Mexican cartels, also repeatedly stormed cargo trains transporting retail goods in some of the hottest desert regions of Arizona.

Joseph Kane’s film tells the story of one such bold and desperate train robbery committed by a gang of thieves at the beginning of the last century. This is how the film describes the robbery and identifies the men who imagined it:

“In the treasure car of the Comanche Limited – a million dollar consignment of gold bullion… In the crafty minds of a group of men – intrigue… In the annals of American crime, the Logan gang’s endeavor is recorded as the most daring… In railroad lore, it has become legend handed down from a night on the windswept Amargosa desert of Northern Arizona – The Great Train Robbery”. A small text also clarifies the following: “This picture has no connection with the picture of the same title produced by the Edison Company in 1903”.

The Logan gang roamed the Wild West while James and Cassidy were around and, according to history books, it was involved in various train robberies. However, the Logan gang in Kane’s film is a fictional creation. The entire story about the raid on the Comanche Limited that its leader, Duke Logan (Milburn Stone), supposedly masterminded is entirely made up as well.

But it is a darn good story. While operating a popular roadhouse, Logan leads a crew of bold, vicious gangsters to a remote part of the desert, where they take over the Comanche Limited. Then, after the passengers are forced off, some of the men redirect the train into an abandoned tunnel near an old mine, while others cover the railroad tracks with sand and conceal the entrance. The authorities quickly realize the train is missing and panic. However, no one can provide a logical explanation for its disappearance. As the thieves begin unloading a massive load of gold transported by the train, Logan’s brother (Bob Steele), a railroad detective, joins the utterly perplexed authorities.

The Great Train Robbery is considered one of the more ambitious films in the Republic Pictures catalog. It is easy to understand why. It produces numerous impressive panoramic visuals, with the best ones shot on location in the Mojave Desert. It looks sleek, too. However, it remains a B-film that cannot be mistaken for anything but a Republic Pictures film. Had it been greenlighted by one of the Big Five Hollywood studios, it would have had a more glamorous cast and, perhaps unsurprisingly, a notably longer running time.

The Great Train Robbery Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.37:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, The Great Train Robbery arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber.

The Great Train Robbery has been remastered from a healthy element, likely fairly recently. However, it has not been fully restored. Many of its visuals have tiny nicks, blemishes, and some minor scratches. This is not a problem for me because all visuals have very strong and stable organic qualities. On a big screen, they easily reveal plenty of big and small details as well. They grayscale is very convincing. All blacks are lush but not crushed, and all grays and whites are nicely balanced. Image stability is very good. So, while The Great Train Robbery does not look immaculate and reveals some minor inconsistencies, its current presentation is very pleasing. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

The Great Train Robbery Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

I did not encounter any troubling age-related anomalies to report in our review, and I had the volume of my system turned up quite a bit. In fact, I thought that it remained rather surprisingly consistent in several areas where the limitations of the original soundtrack could have been exacerbated by natural aging. This said, dynamic intensity is still pretty modest, even during the shootouts. All dialogue is clear and easy to follow.

The Great Train Robbery Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary - this exclusive new audio commentary was recorded by critic Gary Gerani. It is a good commentary with plenty of interesting information about the original material that may or may not have inspired The Great Train Robbery, its stylistic identity, and its production and how it was handled by Republic Pictures. Also, there are some good comments about the real and imitated locations seen in the film.

The Great Train Robbery Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

One of the "Big Five" Hollywood studios would have delivered a much bigger, more glamorous, and longer film with the same material that Republic Pictures used to produce The Great Train Robbery. It tells a good story, set in a place that is perfect for a contemporary noirish western. However, in its current form, The Great Train Robbery is just a good B-film, ideal for a weekend double bill, where the main attraction is a proper big film like Robbery or The Grey Fox. It is included in Kino Lorber's Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema XXVII, a three-disc box set. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.