Von Ryan's Express

Von Ryan's Express
film poster by Tom Chantrell
Directed by	Mark Robson
Produced by	Saul David
Written by	David Westheimer (novel) Wendell Mayes Joseph Landon
Starring	Frank Sinatra Trevor Howard Raffaella Carrà Brad Dexter Sergio Fantoni John Leyton Edward Mulhare Wolfgang Preiss James Brolin John van Dreelen Adolfo Celi Vito Scotti Michael Goodliffe
Music by	Jerry Goldsmith
Cinematography	William H. Daniels
Editing by	Dorothy Spencer
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	June 23, 1965
Running time	117 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English, German, Italian

Von Ryan's Express is a 1965 World War II adventure film starring Frank Sinatra and Trevor Howard, based on a novel by David Westheimer, and directed by Mark Robson.

Plot

Colonel Joseph L. Ryan (Frank Sinatra) is an American pilot whose P-38 Lightning is shot down. He is captured by Italian troops and taken to an Italian prisoner-of-war camp in Italy, run by the cruel Blackshirt Major Battaglia (Adolfo Celi). The camp is populated mainly by British prisoners (9th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers, 167 Infantry Brigade, 56th (London) Infantry Division).

The previous British commanding officer, Col. Brian Lockhart, had recently died as a result of harsh camp discipline, specifically in being put in the metal "sweat box." When Ryan arrives in camp, Major Eric Fincham (Trevor Howard) is the ranking British officer. The American colonel being senior to Fincham, Ryan assumes command of the prisoners.

Ryan pays respect to his predecessor by refusing to sit in the late commanding officer's chair. When an American prisoner (there are only eight) is about to be punished for stealing rations, Ryan discovers he was stealing medicine, which Fincham had ordered be stashed for a future escape attempt. Ryan orders that the drugs be dispensed as necessary.

He then shows the Italian guards the prisoners' escape tunnels under construction, which infuriates the British prisoners. Fincham then shouts, "You'll get the Iron Cross for this, von Ryan!" When Battaglia doesn't keep his word to improve conditions as much as agreed, Ryan orders the prisoners to strip and burn their filthy clothes in an effort to force Battaglia into issuing new ones. Battaglia does so, but throws Ryan into the sweat box as a punishment.

After hearing of the Italian capitulation to the Allies, the guards flee, leaving the camp unguarded. The British promptly put Battaglia on trial as a war criminal, and allow his second-in-command and Anglo-Italian translator, Captain Oriani (Sergio Fantoni), to defend him. Battaglia portrays himself as a broken man who has repudiated fascism. Ryan orders him not to be executed, but to be put in the sweat box.

The Germans return and recapture the prisoners. Fincham is furious as he thought that Oriani has betrayed them, but when the POWs are put on the train, they find a severely battered Oriani in the prisoner carriage. Battaglia is outside, gloating, and they realise they have been betrayed to the Germans by the former commandant.

The Nazis shoot all sick prisoners, causing the irate Fincham to revive the "von Ryan" epithet. However, the prisoners do manage to seize control of the train by dangerously escaping through the bottom of the carriage, climbing onto the roof, and strangling the guards with improvised garrotes ("Thug garrotes" with a knot to crush the larynx, as prescribed by Fincham). After taking control of the roof, they jump on the remaining guards at the next stop, capturing the German commander of the train, Major von Klemment (Wolfgang Preiss), and his Italian mistress, Gabriella (Raffaella Carrà).

Oriani persuades the Italian locomotive engineer to help. A German-speaking Allied chaplain, Captain Costanzo (Edward Mulhare), is enlisted to impersonate the German commander to ensure their passage through the next station - Florence. He does so bravely and with style, but when they return to the train, he faints.

Unfortunately, a German troop train is right behind them. And they realise that the troop train and this prisoner train are headed towards Innsbruck in Nazi-controlled Austria. Ryan and the prisoners manage to switch their train at Bologna onto a different line while the troop train continues its usual route to Innsbruck.

Von Klemment and Gabriella are kept tighly bound hand and foot and gagged. Fearing they will be murdered once the prisoners leave the train, Gabriella conceals a piece of a broken drinking glass to cut their bonds. At a water stop, von Klemment escapes and shoots Orde, but he is shot as well.

Ryan, in a German uniform, must reluctantly kill Gabriella as she escapes to prevent her from betraying his men. Ryan makes involuntary eye contact with a nearby Italian youth who had previously been hurling insults at what he thought were Germans. Now the youth silently stares with contempt at Ryan.

By this time, the Germans have wind of the ruse. The prisoners attempt to escape in one siding stop, but are foiled by an Allied air attack on the town. They flee under fire.

The engineer and Oriani have an idea: The next stop is Milan. If they could disable the signals at one key tower in the Central Station, they could also disable the controls and track displays at the station, confusing the Germans. At the same time, they could re-route the train up to neutral Switzerland through manual switching without being noticed.

The Germans, though, are waiting for them at Milano Centrale. Ryan and his men successfully disable one electric interlocking tower and switch the train off on the key line to Switzerland. The train is attacked by three German fighter aircraft. One plane is shot down, but the other destroys a section of track at a key bridge.

The POWs replace the damaged track in front of them. Ryan, Fincham and the others try to hold off the German soldiers. The track is repaired and the train begins to move. Ryan and Fincham run behind it. Fincham makes it onto the train and desperately reaches back for Ryan, urging him to run faster. Ryan is shot in the back and killed by the German commander just short of the train, which then crosses into neutral Switzerland. With Ryan's sacrifice, the prisoners have made their successful getaway. The film ends with a voice-over by Fincham, repeating his early comment to Ryan, "If just one man escapes, it's a victory."

Cast

• Frank Sinatra as Colonel Joseph L. Ryan
• Trevor Howard as Major Eric Fincham
• Raffaella Carrà as Gabriella
• Brad Dexter as Sergeant Bostick
• Sergio Fantoni as Captain Oriani
• John Leyton as Orde
• Edward Mulhare as Captain Costanzo
• Wolfgang Preiss as Major Von Klemment
• James Brolin as Private Ames
• John van Dreelen as Colonel Gortz
• Adolfo Celi as Battaglia
• Vito Scotti as Italian Train Driver
• Richard Bakalyan as Corporal Giannini
• Michael Goodliffe as Captain Stein
• Michael St. Clair as Sergeant Major Dunbar
• Ivan Triesault as Von Kleist

Production

Von Ryan’s Express was a project keenly undertaken by 20th Century Fox, which was still financially reeling after the extravagance and critical bashing of Cleopatra. Fox, in a bid to prove that they were still able to make films on an epic scale, shot extensively on location in Europe and built a full-scale prison camp as opposed to shooting on a backlot. It was producer Saul David's first film for Fox that he followed with Our Man Flint, Fantastic Voyage and In Like Flint.

Rumours of a personality clash between star Frank Sinatra, who was flown by helicopter to the set, and director Mark Robson were not enough to cause problems as the film was shot with relatively little trouble. However Sinatra did insist that the ending of the film be altered ending any chance of a sequel. Sinatra also insisted the film be shot in Panavision rather than Fox's CinemaScope.

The film score was written by Jerry Goldsmith.

Filming

Von Ryan's Express achieved verisimilitude using aeroplanes, trains and wheeled vehicles photographed on location and the occasional models. The fighters alluded to as Messerschmitts were Messerschmitt Bf 108s. A majority of the film was shot on location around Northern Italy in Cortina d'Ampezzo and Firenze Santa Maria Novella railway station in Florence. But the railway sequence at the film's conclusion was filmed in the limestone gorge of El Chorro near Málaga in Andalucía, Spain. Interiors were completed at 20th Century Fox Studios in Los Angeles, California.

Reception

Critics liked Von Ryan's Express. Variety noting that, "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..."

The film grossed $17,111,111 ($126,192,185 in 2011 consumer dollars) at the North American box-office, equating to $7,700,000 ($56,786,484 in 2011 consumer dollars) taken in box office rentals, Variety ranked Von Ryan’s Express as the 10th highest grossing film of 1965. Additionally, this would be Sinatra’s highest grossing and biggest earning film of the decade.

The film was nominated for a Best Special Effects Academy Award in 1966, while the Motion Picture Sound Editors also nominated the film for Best Sound Editing in a Feature Film.

British Channel 4 ranked Von Ryan's Express number 89 on their list of 100 Greatest War Films, commenting, "A ripping yarn culminating in a wild train dash through [Italy], with director Mark Robson cranking up the tension and releasing it with some excellent action set-pieces." It has a 91% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Seven years after the film, the fastball of baseball pitcher Nolan Ryan was dubbed "Ryan's Express" by fans of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

Literary differences

Unlike the film, the Ryan in the book by author David Westheimer survives and makes it to Switzerland with the other POWs. He then bursts into laughter when he discovers that the words "VON RYAN'S EXPRESS" have been painted onto the outside of the train. The novel also expands the character of Ryan, whose carelessness as an air cadet cost the life of a fellow trainee. However, in the cinematic version Sinatra insisted that his characterization of Ryan should be killed off at the end as a token of believability and atonement for shooting the unarmed Italian mistress of the German officer.

External links

• Von Ryan's Express at the Internet Movie Database
• Von Ryan's Express at AllRovi
• Von Ryan's Express at the TCM Movie Database
• original film trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuecL2BPTJA&feature=related