Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor star in this spectacular comedy thriller set aboard the Los Angeles-Chicago Silver Streak train. Publisher Wilder witnesses a murder and thief Pryor helps to hide him as Patrick McGoohan and his gang of villains close in. It harks back to those British thrillers of the 1930s - The 39 Steps and The Lady Vanishes - with some screwball antics thrown in for good measure. There's also the delectable Jill Clayburgh to sort out the men from the boys. With such an endearing trio of characters, it makes you wonder why there wasn't a sequel, though it did pave the way for Wilder and Pryor's 1980 collaboration Stir Crazy.

A somewhat daffy book editor on a rail trip from Los Angeles to Chicago thinks that he sees a murdered man thrown from the train. When he can find no one who will believe him, he starts doing some investigating of his own. But all that accomplishes is to get the killer after him.