An American POW leads a group of mainly British prisoners to escape from the Germans in WWII.An American POW leads a group of mainly British prisoners to escape from the Germans in WWII.An American POW leads a group of mainly British prisoners to escape from the Germans in WWII.
- Nominated for 1 Oscar
- 1 win & 3 nominations total
Raffaella Carrà
- Gabriella
- (as Raffaella Carra)
Ian Abercrombie
- English POW
- (uncredited)
Don Ames
- Prisoner of War
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaMichael Goodliffe, who plays Capt. Stein, was an actual Prisoner of War during WWII. He was captured at Dunkirk and spent the next five years in a German POW camp.
- GoofsAll of the German soldiers carrying MP38/40 sub-machine guns (including all of the guards on the train) were wearing the wrong ammo pouches. The MP38/40 fired 9mm pistol ammunition from a 32-round detachable box magazine. The soldiers were all wearing cartridge pouches designed to hold 5-round stripper clips of 7.92mm ammunition for a bolt-action Mauser rifle. This means none of the Germans carrying sub-machine guns had any ready ammunition available once they fired the 32 rounds in their only magazine. This is a common mistake in WWII TV shows and movies.
- Quotes
Maj. Eric Fincham: It would take you too long to strangle a man, Colonel. The average Nazi would get impatient while you were doing it.
- Crazy creditsThe film credits and all promotion publicity still say "A Cinemascope Picture", and Alfred Newman's "extended" 20th Century-Fox fanfare is still heard on the soundtrack as the picture begins, but most of the film was actually shot in Panavision, at Frank Sinatra's insistence.
- Alternate versionsWhen originally released theatrically in the UK, the BBFC made cuts to secure a 'U' rating. All cuts were waived in 1988 when the film was granted a 'PG' certificate for home video.
- ConnectionsEdited into Galactica 1980: Galactica Discovers Earth: Part 2 (1980)
Featured review
Excellent war drama
Maybe not the best war movie ever made but an excellent one, thanks to Frank Sinatra's performance as well as character, who steals the show. It is typical of the sixties, tense, with a terrific suspense and action pace. You are never bored in this movie, a drama, war thriller taking place aboard a train. Mark Robson will make more or less the same topic a decade later with the same atmosphere: AVALANCHE EXPRESS, during which he will die, before the end of the shooting. But I prefer VON RYAN'S EXPRESS, no problem, the other one was a spy thriller. But none of those Robson's features will surpass John Frankenheimer's THE TRAIN, the best of the best ever about trains during the war.
helpful•20
- searchanddestroy-1
- Feb 1, 2023
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Languages
- Also known as
- Colonel von Ryans Expreß
- Filming locations
- Málaga, Andalucía, Spain(final shootout on rail track on mountain)
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $5,760,000 (estimated)
- Runtime1 hour 57 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1
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