| rdfs:comment | - The music is high tempo, the damsel is in distress, and the mustachioed villain is mugging to the camera. Yup, she's been chained to a railroad track, and the express is on its way. Used and, indeed, overused in many silent movies, to the point where it's been parodied for so long that no self respecting person would touch this Dead Horse Trope now. But when did that stop anyone? If a Dastardly Whiplash character appears, he'll probably use this trope without shame, befitting of a similarly "outdated" villain. For more information, see this page at The Straight Dope website.
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| abstract | - The music is high tempo, the damsel is in distress, and the mustachioed villain is mugging to the camera. Yup, she's been chained to a railroad track, and the express is on its way. Used and, indeed, overused in many silent movies, to the point where it's been parodied for so long that no self respecting person would touch this Dead Horse Trope now. But when did that stop anyone? This familiar scenario first appeared in the 1867 short story "Captain Tom's Fright", although a more rudimentary form of it was seen on stage in 1863 in the play The Engineer. However, it really entered the meme pool as a result of its inclusion in the 1867 play Under the Gaslight, by Augustin Daly. (Interestingly, in Gaslight the victim is a male, not a fair maiden) By 1868, it reportedly could be found in five different London plays all running at the same time, and remained a theatre staple for decades. From there it was but a short leap to silent films when the latter appeared on the scene, the first appearance on film seemingly being the 1914 serial version of The Perils of Pauline. If a Dastardly Whiplash character appears, he'll probably use this trope without shame, befitting of a similarly "outdated" villain. Sadly, this trope is also a case of Truth in Television. At least six people in the United States were killed between 1874 and 1910 as a result of being tied to railroad tracks. Usually the trains used in this trope would be powered by old-time steam engines, but a few modern uses/parodies would use more modern diesel locomotives instead. For more information, see this page at The Straight Dope website. See Chained to a Rock, which is much, much older, but operates on the same basic principle. Compare Railroad Tracks of Doom. Examples of Chained to a Railway include:
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