Von Ryan's Express stars Frank Sinatra as a POW colonel who leads a daring escape from WWII Italy by taking over a freight train, but he has to win over the British soldiers he finds himself commanding.
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CinemaSerf
7
By CinemaSerf
"Col. Ryan" (Frank Sinatra) arrives at an Italian POW camp to find it's mainly British occupants at loggerheads with the Commandant "Battaglia" (Adolfo Celi). It seems his brutality led to the death of their former CO and now "Maj. Fincham" (Trevor Howard) is out for blood! "Ryan" is a more calculating man, though, and that initially elicits hostility from the men - hence the "von Ryan", but his patience pays off and soon he is able to lead the whole lot of them on an audacious escape attempt that could see them all make it to safety. With the Nazis and their former persecutor in hot pursuit, they manage to commandeer a train and now they must use their guile and the unique skills of padre "Costanzo" (Edward Mulhare) to blag their way through the heart of the enemy lines en route to Switzerland. Can they make it? It's a bit of a slow burn, but once the story gets up to speed then there's loads of action with Sinatra and Howard working well together to create quite an exciting sense of peril as it builds to quite an exciting conclusion. There's a strong supporting cast including their principal antagonist "Maj. Von Klemment" (Wolfgang Preiss) and Brad Dexter's ingenious "Sgt. Bostick". Jerry Goldsmith helps it along with a solid score and there's quite a bit of dry humour in the script, too. Not one of the most famous of wartime thrillers, but it's not bad at all.
