Sleeping Car to Trieste

Sleeping Car is a remake of the very good 1932 Rome Express with Conrad Veidt providing a much more sinister and intense Zurta in that one than Albert Lieven does in this remake - to his credit, though, Lieven does exude a debonair, charming sliminess, and I like both actors' widely different takes on the role.

Lieven is actually better suited to the role of Zurta than Veidt would have been, since the tone of Sleeping Car is lighter, despite the biting satire overall. Rome Express, while absorbing, is by comparison somewhat flat and humorless. The action and dialogue in both are crisp, fast-paced without being frenzied; the subplots in Sleeping Car are more entertaining.

Scottish actor Finlay Currie is in both. He's a fast-talking American show business promoter in Rome Express, and an overbearing author in the Trieste version. Urbane actor Paul Dupuis is more satisfying as the detective Jolif in Trieste. He has classier, funnier lines, and comes across as a three-dimensional sophisticate. In Rome Express, the role is a dull mish- mash attempted by Frank Vosper.

Not to be missed is the fun performance by always-watchable Jean Kent, in full control of her role.

Overall, Trieste corrects some of Rome's plot weaknesses, as well as adding life and humor, If you have a chance, watch both of them. They're both enjoyable.

As an American, I am always interested to see how Americans are portrayed in European films, particularly films made prior to WWII and in the years immediately following it.

The American in this film is portrayed as a vulgar contrast to the more sophisticated Europeans on board the train. He is a boozing, whistling, skirt-chasing Italian-American GI with a New York accent. (Why are they always from New York?) He is contrasted with the British passengers in two notable ways: First, his passion for the fairer sex is more overt and he comes across as wolfish in his pursuit of the young women in the film. This is contrasted with the discrete way in which the adulterous British couple on board the train are conducting their affair. When the two young French woman spurn his attempts to have a drinking party with them in their sleeping compartment, one says to him "We no longer wish to be liberated!" or words to that effect. This is a revealing statement about how the American military presence in postwar Europe was wearing thin the patience of Europeans.

Second, the magazines this American GI reads are prominently displayed so as to ensure that the audience can see them. They are the standard popular American mediocrities of the day: Saturday Evening Post, Life Magazine, etc. This is contrasted with the more scholarly (albeit boring) readings of bird-watching Britisher sharing his compartment.

Overall, the American in this film is the stereotypical boorish American so common in European films of this era. His portrayal, however, is not worse than Hollywood's stereotypes of Europeans.

Please note that this is not a criticism, but rather an observation. Americans are not singled out for criticism; the film traffics in several stereotypes (the cheapness of Scotchmen, for example) and does so mainly in a vein of comedic irony. Even the British get their own send-ups in this film.

This is a rattling good post-war thriller.It features customs duty evasion, adultery, espionage, murder, robbery in fact the screen writers attempted to include almost all the major crimes in their script (apart from sex crimes which were denied by the prevailing film code on film producers).The film is mainly played out on the romantic "Orient Express" with an international cast as it journeys from Paris-Simplon-Venice-Trieste across the Continent of Western Europe.Trains are a favourite location for thriller writers and several famous films were made with them as a backdrop: "The 39 Steps" (1935), "The Lady Vanishes" (1938), and "Night Train to Munich" (1940) all of which I can recommend to 1940s film buffs.

I have quite a few films from the 1940s, my favourite era.If fans want to see the principal players from "Sleeping Car to Trieste" cast in leading roles, they should attempt to obtain the following films: Derrick de Marney - George Grant, a younger actor in Hitchcock's "Young & Innocent" (1937), Jean Kent - Valya, still playing rather sadistic roles in "The Browning Version" (1951), Albert Lieven - Zarta, more sympathetic as a portrait painter in "The Seventh Veil" (1945), Paul Depuis - Det.Insp. Jolif, a French Aristocrat in "Madness of the Heart" (1949) & "Passport to Pimlico" (1949), Bonar Colleano - Sgt. West, virtually playing the same role in "The Way to the Stars" (1945), Finalay Currie - Alistair MacBain, such a versatile actor, try the convict in "Great Expectations" (1946) with John Mills, David Tomlinson - Tom Bishop, his best role was as one of the "Three Men in a Boat" (1953).Finally, Alan Wheatley is indelibly imprinted on my memory as the dastardly Sheriff of Nottingham in the 1950s British TV series "The Adventures of Robin Hood" starring Richard Green.

The plot without spoilers has already been indicated by other reviewers so I will restrict my comments on the acting.In the main it was very creditable and it has an interesting mix of international stars.The action never lets up but with the 1940s moral code in place, you know the guilty must eventually receive their comeuppance.In todays politically correct climate I am always fascinated by how often actors in these 1940s films light up and drink copious quantities of Scotch.It makes a refreshing change and reminds me of my youth when steam was the norm on railways.I rated it 6/10.P.S. I was born in 1946.

... on a train maneuvering to obtain a stolen diary with international implications. The main cast is Jean Kent, Albert Lieven, Derrick De Marney, and David Tomlinson, with many others in an ensemble cast that tries its best to weave together a half dozen stories, not all of which are interesting. De Marney I expected the most from, as I liked him in Hitchcock's Young and Innocent (1937), but he has matured here into blandness. Lieven I didn't know at all, and he is good and savage as the head spy. Tomlinson with the jug ears is always fun to watch, the pip-pip cheerio Brit.

However -- and it's a big however -- this is a remake of Rome Express from 1932, and it doesn't have near the excitement and suspense of the original. The original had Esther Ralston and a ton of Hitchcock actors: Gordon Harker, Donald Calthrop, Joan Barry, Cedric Hardwicke, and Frank Vosper. Most importantly, it had Conrad Veidt as the head spy. Good as Lieven is in the remake, he can't top Veidt, and really no one could. Veidt gives a strange shading to the most innocuous lines -- he's the kind of villain who would knife Granny if she got too nosy. (He also resembles Bruno Hauptmann somewhat -- I wonder if audiences in 1932 made that connection.)

The 1948 version is good, but the 1932 version is more fun to watch. Both have a killer climactic scene in the train's luggage car -- a chance for both Veidt and later, Lieven, to shine.

A combination of Allan MacKinnon's inspired adaptation, and good casting and direction add up to a rare example of a remake being as entertaining as the original. Albert Lieven as Zurta may lack the physical menace Conrad Veidt brought to the part, but his persona as a charming ruthless assassin is succinctly established within the first couple of minutes as he murders in cold blood prior to strolling nonchalantly away. Alan Wheatley was a sound choice as the double-crossing furtive character of Poole, in a role not dissimilar from the one he'd played in Brighton Rock shortly before. Gordon Harker's hearty golfing bore is replaced by two characters, David Tomlinson's well-meaning but thoroughly obtuse Bishop, and David Hutcheson's garrulous patronising Denning, ponderously lecturing the chef how to make 'Roly-Poly Pudding'. Paul Dupuis' Inspector Jolif is a big improvement on his counterpart in the original. The 'MacGuffin' of the politically explosive stolen diary is quite an advancement on the stolen painting in Rome Express, making a more convincing reason to warrant the involvement of the bullying McBain, as well as providing the establishing scene in the embassy, although the motivation of Jean Kent's enigmatic spy Valya is never really explained. Plenty of sly humour too all adds up to an entertaining ninety minutes or so.