Il criminale

Italian night trains are definitively not for rest. Long before Lado's Ultimo treno della notte, all can just happen during a nocturnal trip from Rome to Milan: falling out passenger, hostage-taking, mass shooting, chase pursuit, and all these on Christmas Eve... with an exceptional stealthy appearance of Santa Claus! Sequences are paced by the rehearsal of a jazz band stuck for the festivities, and cut by a peasant mother desperately seeking for her chickens. But like featured in Lado's story, nazis are on board. And so concludes the heroin (Yvonne Furneaux) between two glasses of champagne: "it is thrilling being with a nazi murderer" (Jack Palance). The former, "sentimental" as he sobs, just wants to offer a Christmas gift for his old mother who waits for him at the arrival, very far from the Belsen camp where prisoners were tortured to death by her beloved son. "How can anyone explain" mourns the train manager...