Crimen en el coche cama

Six people on a Marseilles-Paris sleeper carriage. One murder on arrival. Then a killing spree by an unknown assassin bent on wiping out all remaining passengers.

The Sleeping Car Murders is a French Hitchcockian thriller. It presents a pretty interesting puzzle to be solved, a mystery with a quite satisfying, clever resolution. In some other ways, aside from the Anglo-American Hitchcock influence it's a movie that also contains elements of the Italian giallo, what with its black gloved killer who prowls around bumping off each subsequent victim. It isn't as violent or salacious as the gialli though but it does have the sense of style associated with them. Although this one has a definite Gallic flavour with its Paris setting. It also has a very cool swinging 60's theme tune which adds to the overall chic value. Its plot is admittedly a little muddled at times and it's not always obvious who is who and what they are up to. But things do become clearer as the flick proceeds. It's certainly an interesting obscurity and should be of value for fans of post-noir. Look out too for an appearance by a young Jean-Louis Trintignant.

I saw Compartiment tueurs many years ago in a movie house in New York City. I walked outside feeling still overwhelmed by how great a movie it is. It is an excellent mystery with outstanding performances by Yves Montand and Simone Signoret, but it is much more. Most mysteries do not work the second time around. What matters too much is discovering who the murderer is, but not here. What counts is not just the suspense and action but something else, a profound moral statement. The film reminds me a lot of Hitchcock's Vertigo, in which the audience knows two-thirds of the way through the film what has been happening. Well, in this film the audience begin to catch on to something else, something more significant than the identity of the killer. We discover something more disturbing, the pettiness of crime, particularly of murder. It is what Hannah Arendt called the "banality of evil."

I like movies that have depth to them. I should, having degrees in several areas. As a philosopher and ethicist I relate strongly to what this film says. There is no greatness in criminality; by the end of the film we feel only a gnawing sense of all that has been lost.

Six people are in a train sleeping car. One of them is murdered. Thus begins a fine thriller with some really good suspense. The story's underlying premise is clever and quite unusual for its time.

The main problem here is the dialogue, which makes character identification unnecessarily hard. In the first 13 minutes, nine major characters are introduced, but no names. People refer to each other as "you" and "miss" and "she". Fully 18 minutes elapse before we know the names of all six sleeping car occupants. Even then we have only names, but no way to connect the names with the faces. As the plot moves along, additional characters are introduced, which further muddles a suspect pool that is already unclear. Because of the sloppy script writing, this is one of the most frustrating murder mysteries I have ever watched. Some simple changes in the script's dialogue could have made the characters so much easier to identify.

The film's chilling suspense is reminiscent of Hitchcock. The solution to the whodunit puzzle is quite interesting, and foreshadowed by clues that are effectively subtle. Another plus is the presence of the lovely, and talented, Simone Signoret.

"Compartiment tueurs" is a good thriller. If the characters had been better defined the film could also have been a great whodunit.

And also the first film directed by Costa Gavras, very brilliant, tense, intelligent, compelling and grabbing for any audiences. Agatha Christie 's novels atmosphere, schemes, seems not being so far from this one. It is not AND THEN THEY WERE NONE either but I repeat, the suspense is there, all long. Sixties atmosphere and score too. Pierre Mondy and Yves Montand are excellent and the dialogues typically French of this period. Costa Gavras will find his way later with political oriented films, not only thriller as this one. He will be famous for this. A true little gem. And so many stars as Michel Piccoli, Simone Signoret, Jean Louis Trintignant, Charles Denner; at least at this time, 1965, they were not all stars, they were just in progress.

I saw this movie only once or twice -- on cable in the early 1980s, I think -- and it has remained one of my all-time favorites. It is filmed in black and white, and is a French police thriller seemingly populated with good-looking and sexy men, which is always an asset for me. I also love Simone Signoret and she is marvelous in this, as always. I think her daughter is in it, too, but I could be wrong. I cannot really review it because it is more or less a dim memory, but I remember being totally captivated by it. I have always looked out for it, but have not been able to either rent or buy it. I only remember excellent films, and I guarantee that any film buff would find this highly watchable and enjoyable.