VON RYAN’S EXPRESS

US, 1965, 117 minutes, Colour.
Frank Sinatra, Trevor Howard, Raffaella Carra, Brad Dexter, Sergio Fantoni, John Leyton, Edward Mulhare, Wolfgang Preiss, James Brolin, Adolfo Celi, Vito Scotti, Michael Goodliffe.
Directed by Mark Robson.

The mid-1960s was a time for re-creations, on a very large scale, of significant events of World War Two, both truth and fiction. 1963 saw The Great Escape. 1965 saw The Blue Max as well as The Battle of the Bulge. Von Ryan’s Express fits into this group – with more than a number of plot similarities to The Great Escape.

The film is set in Italy, a prisoner-of-war camp with mainly British officers. However, with the death of the chief British officer, an American is put in charge. There are the usual characters, the stiff upper lipped British, the American who swaggers but makes mistakes, loyal Italians, traitors. The film has the end of the war for Italy and trials for commandants of prisoner-of-war camps.

However, the main action is in the escape, the leadership shown by the American, his having to learn from his mistakes.

It is surprising to see Frank Sinatra in the central role of Ryan. However, the other actors, British, German and Italian, have been in these kinds of films before.

The film was directed by Mark Robson, a veteran director who in his thirty-five year career of directing moved from small-budget horror films for Val Lewton (Seventh Victim, Ghost Ship, Isle of the Dead, Bedlam) to smaller dramas like Champion and My Foolish Heart to action adventures in the 1950s including The Bridges at Toko-Richard? and The Inn of the Sixth Happiness to potboilers like Peyton Place and From the Terrace and finally Valley of the Dolls and Earthquake. The film was written by Wendell Mayes who had a long career in writing, many westerns like From Hell to Texas, The Hanging Tree but also distinguished dramas like Anatomy of a Murder, Advise and Consent, In Harm’s Way (all for Otto Preminger). He also wrote the screenplay for The Poseidon Adventure.

1.An enjoyable adventure film? For what audience? Expectations for a war film and adventure?

2.A successful war film? Pros and cons of war? Audience expectations about war? Explicit moralising?

3.A successful war spectacular, wide screen, colour, score? The Italian locations? The train itself? The ultimate battle?

4.How well did the film set its scene, World War Two atmosphere, the role of the Americans, British? Italy in 1943, confronted by the Germans and the Allies? The place of the prisoner-of-war camps? The invasions?

5.How well did the film set the scene in the camp? The commander’s death, defiance of the commandant? The Italian commander and his lack of interest in the camp? Oriani and his sympathy for the prisoners? The British attitude to being prisoners and escape? Harassing the Italians, storing supplies that were needed, the rights and wrongs of this? British stiff upper lip?

6.How did this contrast with the Americans in with Ryan? Ryan as the hero? Entry into the film? Frank Sinatra’s personality and style? Was Ryan credible and sympathetic? His role in the camp, being fair, the meeting about the supplies, his being called Von Ryan?

7.The importance of the changes in war and the invasion, the liberation for the Italians? The effect on the prisoners?

8.How exciting was the takeover of the train? As action films go, excitement of the journey, the reality of the deaths?

9.How well did the film progress as an adventure film, the drama at the stations, impersonation of the Germans, the chaplain and his success in impersonating the commander (and his fainting), the imprisonment of the German officer and the girl, the hostility of the Italians as the train passed?

10.Comment on the moral implications of the adventure: the German wanting to escape, the girl and her being with the Germans, trying to survive? The shooting and its effect on Fincham and Ryan? The Gestapo and investigations, black market? Tension of this sequence, Ryan not understanding German?

11.The clever plan for bypassing Milan station, outwitting the Germans?

12.The sequences in the mountains, the chasing of the train, the planes and their strafing, the ripping up of the tracks, the pursuit of the soldiers and their being shot? The impact of so many deaths? Freedom versus imprisonment and death?

13.Was it appropriate that Ryan should be killed, so dramatically? What if he had survived – for emotional response?

14.What did the film have to say about war, heroism, courage, wisdom, prudence, freedom? Excitement in war and glamour?