The Last Train from Madrid

Hollywood tiptoed on eggshells when it came to the Spanish Civil War. This film is no exception. The plot is similar in style to MGM's "Grand Hotel" where separate stories are intermingled with the plot. The most interesting part of this film for me was the depiction of a woman's column marching to the front. But then one of the women sounded like she was from the Bronx and we never found out what happened to the column. Some of the acting is over the top like the dialog. But it is always fun to see Anthony Quinn,Lionel Atwill and Gilbert Roland. Bits of newsreel from the bombing of what appears to be Madrid are spliced in between the Hollywood back lot sets.

Seeing this film over 75 years after it came out you had to wonder about how Hollywood treated this film as history. During the time we cannot tell who's occupying Madrid and who's being a traitor to who. That word is flung about in The Last Train To Madrid. But if you know nothing about the Spanish Civil War you would not know it was the Loyalists that occupied Madrid. Loyalists/Republicans held the Spanish capital and two years later the surrender of Madrid signaled the end of the War in a Nationalist triumph. Two years after this film was seen by our movie-going public.

In 1936 the war started as a revolt of the army against the duly elected Republican government. It is discussed by historians to this day as to whether they were justified. But they did it and when Lionel Atwill calls Anthony Quinn a traitor I'm not sure who was betraying what. Part of the plot calls for Quinn to aid his old friend Gilbert Roland who's with the other side escape Madrid. But I can only guest that Atwill is part of the army Nationalist Revolt and Quinn has betrayed it and Roland even more so by being loyal to the Spanish Republic.

The Last Train From Madrid has the city besieged and there will be a last train going out before the tracks are destroyed. Passes will be issued on a limited basis and they become as valued as those famous Letters of Transit in Casablanca. The film is the story of those trying to leave Madrid and how successful they are.

A bit of Grand Hotel, a bit of Shanghai Express is the best way to describe this film. It would rate higher with me if it was more explicit.

....who by all accounts was very much like Courtney. According to her daughter, brilliant writer Paula Fox, and her granddaughter writer and therapist Linda Carroll Elsie was a horrible sociopath like person.

With genes like that, add Marlon Brando's peculiar brand of insanity (Love's rumored grandfather) and it explains a lot about the Courtney Love mythology (her mother's memoir describes a surreal Pattry McCormack (The Bad Seed) type of kid.

So am most eager to see if the lead character played by Lamour, offers insights into her psyche.

Okay just saw it and is fascinating. It uses the Raymond Carver (Robert Altman's Short Cuts) utilized tool of inter woven story lines. Very Ship of Fools, Grand Hotel..

Robert Cummings (Love That Bob) as Juan Ramos? Was he Latino?

Many panned this over the years (Graham Greene "The worst movie ever made) but the premise is great and provides fertile ground for exploration of the characters. However it is true the war is simply a plot device and could be any war any time.

I wonder watching it how much Elsie Fox wrote or how much her screenwriter husband, Paul Hervey Fox, contributed. Maybe he did the bulk of it and as Love did what she allegedly did with Cobain's work-- she simply took writing credit. At least he survived the relationship.

Then again, with this literary pedigree (Paula Fox is a genius) maybe Love is more of a heavyweight than I thought.

I had not seen "The Last Train from Madrid" since I was a child when it was broadcast regularly on KTLA-5 in Los Angeles. I watched it tonight, not expecting anything beyond a B film. I watched it because I like Lew Ayres' acting and I didn't realize that he was in this film.

I watched it and, although the film put a disclaimer about not taking sides in the Spanish Civil War (which was a recent world event and going on when this film was made), the script displayed enough anti-militaristic messages and a sense of dread offer a muted, veiled support of Republican Spain. Nonetheless, the film states that it is focusing on the dramas that play out in times of war among people.

Many commentators are judging this film with 21st Century eyes. No one can go back in time and redo the film to suit subsequent historical research and people's sense of justice. It was made in 1937 and reflected the largely isolationist attitudes that most Americans had about the war. It was writers and actors, in and out of Hollywood, that were committed to tell Americans about the horrors of the civil war. To be fair, no other film industry was making films with the Spanish Civil War as a theme.

Nevertheless, I was engrossed way beyond my expectations by the story written by Robert and Elsie Fox, writers that I had never heard of before but I will research them now that I've seen one of their scripts produced. While there are elements of "Grand Hotel" and "Shanghai Express" in this film, the interweaving of characters surviving to get out of the Spanish Civil War was done masterfully and, with the exception of Dorothy Lamour's character, the other characters were compelling individuals, within the constraints of an 87-minute running time and plausibility. Although I felt that Robert Cummings displayed the weakest acting of the entire cast, I was taken with the complexity of behaviors displayed by Karen Morley's, Lee Bowman's, Helen Mack's, and Anthony Quinn's characters. They were as three dimensional as such a film would allow in that period about so complex a topic. Anthony Quinn was impressive in his acting and in the fact that, only a year acting in films, he gets and commands a lion's share of importance to the plot and characterization. He carried the weight of this film beautifully. Although Lee Bowman played a stock character, his short time onscreen was effective and nuanced, displaying, once again, what an underutilized actor he was by studios, showing an acting range that was rarely utilized and developed. See his portrayal of Gary Mitchell in the Doris Day musical "My Dream is Yours" to show how he had presence to carry a film. Gilbert Roland displayed more acting range than he was usually allowed, making his story suspenseful and intriguing. If anything, the script left me wanting to know more about Roland's character of Eduardo de Soto and his friendship with Capt. Alvarez, Anthony Quinn's character. A fine ensemble chat!

The cinematography is pure 1937 Paramount and that's, overall, a good thing. The cinematography at Paramount during this period was still being influenced b Lee Garmss and Leo Tover, who were influenced by one of Paramount's premier directors of this period, Josef von Sternberg. Whenever a Paramount film of this period had a foreign locale, the black and white photography gave a sensual, exotic, hothouse effect that was both inappropriate for realistically portraying a place and time but it was also exciting to watch, making it easy to immerse oneself in the world the Paramount cinematographers created. This has the virtue of really placing me in a world I would never otherwise experience but it does make the scenes of the film involving Lola's lover being shot dead or Maria escaping the march to Cardoso jarring in their artificiality. To the credit of director James Hogan, the bombing scenes filmed at Paramount had almost-seemless intercutting with newsreel footage of the bombings in Spain during the war.

All in all, this film, while not of the top tier of classic films, is fascinating as a time capsule, better-than-expected characterizations, and good acting from a true ensemble cast that gave some of these actors one of their best roles. It was an effective story of suspense and character. "The Last Train from Madrid" does need critical reconsideration, greater opportunities to view it, and deserves far more recognition than it currently has.

The film is set during the Spanish Civil War which was being fought at the time and it centres around 3 unrelated groups of people trying to obtain a boarding pass for a train that will leave Madrid that night. It is the last train out of the city to freedom before the track is blown up. Destination Valencia.

Everyone has until 11:00pm to obtain a boarding pass and these passes will be rigorously checked so it is bad news for anyone who is on the run. Every group we follow as at least one character who is wanted in this way.

There is some good acting as well as some tiresome sentimentality - army deserter Robert Cummings (Ramos) and Helen Mack (Lola) get bogged down in trite dialogue with each other although their final journey to the train station has a good moment. Game over for someone. Similarly, army deserter Olympe Bradna (Maria) is too sickeningly sweet in some of her scenes with American journalist Lew Ayres (Bill). Dorothy Lamour plays the love interest for 2 friends - soldier Anthony Quinn (Alvarez) and escaped prisoner Gilbert Roland (de Soto) - but it is rather ludicrous how she is top billed. More could have been made of this love triangle but as things stand Lamour only needed to show up for one scene. She does not merit headlining this film. That privilege should go to Quinn and Roland. Also in the cast is a very effective Lionel Atwill who plays the military Colonel and Karen Morley who plays a wealthy lady and is the most interesting female character.

Quinn, Roland, Atwill and Morley give the film the excitement and are the best of the cast. The film loses interest when these characters are not on screen because we just get lovey-dovey nonsense dialogue outside of the tensions relating to the build-up to the escape from Madrid at the film's climax. Not everyone makes it out.