Orient Express

An old European film, concerned very much about the happiness of its characters, tells a few completely unrealistic stories, some of which lead to a happy ending, some of which don't. The Orient Express has to stop for two days at a small village in the Alps, but unfortunately, no murder à la Agatha Christie is committed. No, the travellers get off, spend two nights at the village within a picturesque landscape, fall in love both with the landscape and with various people inside the village. They keep telling each other about their dreams, which - who'd have thought it! - are exactly reciprocal to their lives. The travellers would like to stop travelling, and the village population dreams of seeing the world. Finally, a criminal is arrested, though not for murder on the Orient Express but for God knows what.

This film is a terrible tear-jerker that could be used as a commercial for this Italian village whose name I forgot. Curd Jürgens and Eva Bartok are the best-known actors. They act as melodramatically as necessary. Thank God the film runs only 80 minutes.

I wonder if this really is an episode of a 50s TV series - I really find that doubtful. What we have here is a big production movie - avalanche, winter landscapes - and not stock footage but the real thing, properly filmed, in colour. To my knowledge no TV serials of the early fifties were shot in colour, neither in Europe nor in the US. I find it hard to believe that this film that boosts the creative talent of Germany, Italy and France, could have been a one night episode. It might have been a cinematic rip off of the series, but Orient Express definitely was released cinematically.

Otherwise the film stinks and you won't miss anything if you miss it. The story is very superfluous and predictable, the direction is barely noticeable, and the actors are baaaaaaaaad - I only knew Curd Jürgens and Eva Bartok, but they do nothing to save the anonymous ensemble of Italian - French second degree thespians. Jürgens basically walks through the film, trying to keep as low as possible (he probably realized halfway through the production that this is developing into a turkey). Eva Bartok is dreadful - she looks like a porn star trying to cross over to a legitimate feature production. I sort of fell in love with her when I saw Blood and Black Lace by Mario Bava, but I never have seen another movie where Bartok is better than slightly embarrassing. No doubt a beautiful woman, she is much too busy to keep her lips sensually apart and the twinkle in her eyes to really remember about the rudimentary techniques of acting. Shame really.

The film is obviously lip synced (I have only the German version on DVD), and I've never heard it done more miserably: be it in the Alps, in the train, in the church or in the bedroom, everything sounds alike! The only redeeming feature which made me sit through this mediocre tear jerker was the superb picture quality and colours featured on the DVD.

If you have nothing to do on a Christmas eve because you've been a bastard and nobody calls you, you might want to cleanse your soul and shed a few tears watching this soap operetta.

In theory, I agree with the other reviewer's evaluation. But what he doesn't realize is that "Orient-Express" was actually a short-lived European television series -- presumably co-financed by the various branches of the Pathe company (which I know had offices in Britain and France and possibly Italy at the time). Apparently, this was one of those one-self-contained-story-per-episode series, much like "The Twilight Zone." That explains the episodic nature of the film and the fact that it doesn't follow a coherent story. Basically, like a lot of failed American series of the period, the production company decided to salvage what they could, cobble it together, and release it as a film to maximize profits. Unfortunately, like the other reviewer has pointed out, it simply doesn't work.

But as a TV series, "Orient-Express" was not without its merits. It boasted on-location camera-work throughout Europe -- something that no American TV series of the time could do. But perhaps the finest episode, which is partially reproduced in this film, is the one that starred Erich von Stroheim and his then lover (wife?) Denise Vernac. That episode was titled "The Man of Many Skins" and features von Stroheim as a detective who solves cases by figuratively getting under the villain's skin: he imagines how the criminal perpetrated the crime. What's even more clever, however, is that he also gets under their skins literally because he plays the role of the villain, too. Thus we get to see von Stroheim, very late in his career (he looks unwell), playing multiple roles -- sometimes within the same scene. We're treated to the remarkable sight of the egomaniacal von Stroheim playing against himself and probably trying to upstage himself, too! For von Stroheim aficionados, it's great fun.

The von Stroheim episode is available in its entirety on Kino's wonderful DVD of von Stroheim's own aborted project, "Queen Kelly." It's a nice extra, and it gives us a rare late performance from the one-of-a-kind von Stroheim. (It also lets you avoid wasting your time watching this mediocre movie.)