Von Ryan's Express (1965)

An American POW leads a group of mainly British prisoners to escape from the Germans in WWII.

Director:

Mark Robson

Writers:

David Westheimer (novel), Wendell Mayes (screenplay)

Stars:

Frank Sinatra, Trevor Howard, Raffaella Carrà

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 1 win & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Frank Sinatra	...	Col. Joseph L. Ryan
Trevor Howard	...	Maj. Eric Fincham
Raffaella Carrà	...	Gabriella (as Raffaella Carra)
Brad Dexter	...	Sgt. Bostick
Sergio Fantoni	...	Capt. Oriani
John Leyton	...	Orde
Edward Mulhare	...	Costanzo
Wolfgang Preiss	...	Maj. Von Klemment
James Brolin	...	Pvt. Ames
John Van Dreelen	...	Col. Gortz (as John van Dreelen)
Adolfo Celi	...	Battaglia
Vito Scotti	...	Italian Train Engineer
Richard Bakalyan	...	Cpl. Giannini
Michael Goodliffe	...	Capt. Stein
Michael St. Clair	...	Sgt. Dunbar

Storyline

Ryan, an American POW, leads his fellow prisoners on a dangerous escape from the Germans in Italy. Having seemingly made errors of judgment, Ryan has to win the support of the mainly British soldiers he is commanding.

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Plot Keywords:

based on novel | escape | italy | nazi occupied italy | gestapo | 

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Taglines:

Why did 600 Allied prisoners hate the man they called Von Ryan more than they hated Hitler?

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | War

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Certificate:

Approved

Did You Know?

Trivia

Frank Sinatra`s salary was $250,000.

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Goofs

A German Soldier mentions in German that the train is going to "Oesterreich" (Austria). From 1938-1945 Austria was a part of Germany and while its official name during that period was "Ostmark" instead of "Oesterreich," many Austrians (and some Germans) continued to refer to the territory by its original name.

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Quotes

Maj. Eric Fincham: If you crab this, the Germans won't have to kill you; I'll do it myself.

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Crazy Credits

The 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.

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Alternate Versions

When 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.

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Connections

Referenced in Mystery Science Theater 3000: Girl in Gold Boots (1999)

User Reviews

Great adventure war movie ruined by a poor end

It begins slow and gets faster and faster until the end. The color is wonderful and the music from Jerry Goldsmith well tuned to each scene. The screenplay is well adapted and the special effects good executed. The train scenes are very interesting to see and for all old locomotive lovers a must see. I liked the escape by train from south of Italy to the mountains of Switzerland.

I share the opinions on IMDb that Frank Sinatra delivered one of his best performance of his career. Interesting seeing also Wolfgang Preiss that has for me the right profile for a SS. He characterizes in several war movies always a high SS and this in a very believable way. The end therefore was very poor and it seemed to me that they wanted just to stop somewhere the story.

After THE TRAIN with Burt Lancaster and THE GREAT ESCAPE with Steve Mc Queen this is another good adventure war movie to add to my best of DVD collection. If you ask me which one of these three I like the most I would classify it as follows: 1) THE GREAT ESCAPE (read my critic) 2) VON RYAN'S EXPRESS 3) THE TRAIN (black and white, read my critic)

My vote: 7/10 that matches exactly the rating on IMDb.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English German Italian

Release Date:

23 June 1965 (USA)

Also Known As:

Von Ryan's Express

Filming Locations:

Villa Adriana, Tivoli, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Box Office

Budget:

$5,760,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

P-R Productions Picture

Technical Specs

Runtime:

117 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System) Stereo (DVD release)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1