Daniel C. M
A very entertaining (even in it's slower, River Kwai-esque first 20-30 minutes) that never really loses it's momentum nor derails the express (pun intended). Genuinely funny at it's comedic moments, impressive special effects that aged like fine wine, good story alongside a great performance by Sinatra himself, overrall just a great adventure that follows the steps of other great classics like the previously mentioned Bridge on The River Kwai and The Train.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
03/16/25
Full Review
j t
After a bit of a slow start this film delivers on all levels. Sinatra is good, Trevor Howard is excellent and Edward Mulhare steals every minute of every scene he was in - should've got a best supporting actor award for this.
It holds up well over all this time and some of the scenery is terrific. One of the. better WWII films from that era.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
05/15/24
Full Review
Rodney B
Von Ryan's Express is a mashup of other war movies most of which were better. A sweatbox for Allied POW colonels? Think Bridge Over the River Kwai. A stolen train to flee from Nazis? Think The Train.
Fighter pilots in World War II were generally in their mid-20s, yet Frank Sinatra, at twice their age (50) plays a P-38 pilot, an American bird colonel no less, whose plane is shot down in Southern Italy. Taken to an Italian prisoner of war camp, he takes command of the POWs from Trevor Howard, who is at his scenery-chewing best. Knock off the Wehrmacht guards? No problem. Steal a train? Consider it done.
No point in puzzling through the nonsense of this film, just break out the popcorn and sit back to watch the Italian scenery and some of the by play.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
07/17/23
Full Review
steven a
Robson keeps the suspense tight as the chase ensues and the action scenes are well-staged with great stunt work. It is all photographed against a backdrop of the Italian countryside and the Alps, whilst Goldsmith's percussive score helps accentuate the tension. Sinatra and Howard, the British officer he teams up with, spar off each other effectively to produce an appealing adventure.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
03/30/23
Full Review
Liam D
With Mark Robson (The Ghost Ship, Return to Paradise) direction, star Frank Sinatra (The List of Adrian Messenger, Robin and the 7 Hoods) and composer Jerry Goldsmith (Lionheart, The Flim-Flam Man) this is a intense War Thriller
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
11/13/21
Full Review
Audience Member
Colonel Joseph Ryan (Frank Sinatra), a USAAF P-38 pilot, is shot down over Italy and taken to a POW camp. Ryan insists that the camp commander, Major Basilio Battaglia salute him as a superior officer, which the sympathetic second-in-command, Captain Vittorio Oriani, translates. Most prisoners are British from the 9th Fusiliers. Their previous commanding officer recently died due to being placed in the "sweat box" as punishment for hitting Battaglia. Major Eric Fincham (Trevor Howard) is the senior British officer until Ryan, being senior, arrives and assumes command. Italy is close to surrender, and Ryan declines to support Fincham's escape attempts. When Fincham captures American prisoners stealing medical supplies from a British secret hoard, Ryan orders Fincham to distribute the medicines to the seriously ill prisoners. He infuriates Fincham by revealing an escape plan to Battaglia in exchange for prisoners being treated better. When Battaglia refuses to issue new clothing, Ryan orders prisoners to strip and burn their filthy uniforms. Battaglia throws Ryan into the sweat box as punishment. When Italy surrenders, the guards flee; the British promptly try Battaglia as a war criminal. He portrays himself as a broken man who has repudiated fascism. Rather than executing him, Ryan sentences him to the sweat box. A German fighter plane overflies the camp, forcing Ryan and the men to flee into the Italian countryside with Oriani's help. They hide out in some ruins while Ryan attempts to contact Allied forces. The next morning, the Germans recapture the prisoners and load them onto a northbound train. Fincham assumes Oriani betrayed them until he is found severely battered aboard the train's prisoner carriage. The Germans then shoot all ill prisoners. Fincham blames Ryan for letting Battaglia live, and derogatively calls him "von Ryan". The train travels to Rome, where a German officer, Major von Klemment, takes command. Ryan pries up the railcar floorboards. That night, when the train stops, Ryan, Fincham, and Lt. Orde sneak out and kill several guards. They free a boxcar load of POWs, who help them kill the remaining guards whose uniforms they then don as a disguise. Ryan and Fincham capture von Klemment and his mistress, Gabriella. As the train moves out, another train follows. Von Klemment reveals that the second train is carrying German troops and is on the same schedule. Further, von Klemment is to receive orders at each railway station. A German-speaking Allied chaplain, Captain Costanzo, impersonates the German commander to ensure their passage through the next station in Florence...
Critics liked Von Ryan's Express. Variety noted, "Mark Robson has made realistic use of the actual Italian setting of the David Westheimer novel in garmenting his action in hard-hitting direction and sharply drawn performances." Frank Sinatra's daughter Nancy noted in her biography of her father that his performance fuelled speculation of another Academy Award nomination. Time Out London called the film a "ripping adventure" that was "directed with amused panache by Robson, and helped no end by a fine cast...", while the BBC's TV, film and radio listings magazine The Radio Times described it as "a rattlingly exciting Second World War escape adventure, with a well-cast Frank Sinatra..."
This Frank Sinatra WWII film has it´s moments, but at the same time the storyline is stretched, the balance between comedy and actiondrama doesn´t fully work and the characters are very wooden in many ways. I really like that they made sure that Italians speak Italian and Germans speak German. A very important detail that many films from the same era didn´t comply to. Frank Sinatra is ok, even if his character is a little bit over the top as the "saviour" at times, but that is however slightly balanced out when he shoots the female character Gabriella in the back and also dies in the end. I like that. Trevor Howard is solid. Financially, it became one of Sinatra's most successful films.
Trivia: According to Saul David's memoirs, Frank Sinatra was desperate to have Richard Burton as his co-star. Sinatra was not aware, however, that the studio, 20th Century Fox, were in the middle of a bitter court case with Burton and his wife, Elizabeth Taylor, over the massive cost overruns on Cleopatra (1963), and wouldn't even entertain the thought of hiring Burton. Sinatra had made plenty of overtures to Burton in the hope he would sign on, and he was furious that he had wasted his time and effort. Frank Sinatra mandated that this movie's ending be changed, and subsequently this destroyed any possibility of a sequel that the 20th Century Fox studio was considering. In the original ending which appears in the source novel, Ryan is not killed as with the film's ending; he survives and with the other escaped POWs, is able to get to neutral Switzerland. This ending would have allowed Ryan, the movie's central character, to appear in a sequel. Sinatra wished for his character to be killed off to add a token of believability to the movie, as well as for there to be redemption for the death of the female character Gabriella.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/21/23
Full Review
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