Rent Rome Express (1932)
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- A sinister character boards the 'Rome Express' on the trail of a valuable van Dyck painting, recently stolen from a Paris gallery. Much to his annoyance he finds the train populated with a motley assortment of passengers, including adulterous lovers, a parsimonious philanthropist, a golfing bore, a holidaying French police chief and an American movie star - all of whom are between him and the painting he desperately seeks...
- Actors:
- Conrad Veidt, Esther Ralston, Hugh Williams, Donald Calthrop, Joan Barry, Harold Huth, Gordon Harker, Eliot Makeham, Cedric Hardwicke, Frank Vosper, Finlay Currie, Muriel Aked, Grethe Hansen
- Directors:
- Walter Forde
- Producers:
- Michael Balcon
- Writers:
- Clifford Grey, Sidney Gilliat, Frank Vosper, Ralph Stock
- Studio:
- Network
- Genres:
- Action & Adventure, Classics, Drama, Romance, Thrillers
- Collections:
- Top 10 Films About Trains: Thrillers, Top Films
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 16/11/2015
- Run Time:
- 91 minutes
- Languages:
- English Dolby Digital 1.0
- Subtitles:
- English
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Full Screen 1.33:1 / 4:3
- Colour:
- B & W
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- B
- Bonus:
- Image Gallery
- Original Promotional PDF's
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Reviews (2) of Rome Express
Corridors of Evil - Rome Express review by CH
Journeyman. The word is often used disparagingly, when in fact it denotes adapability and skill. Such was the case with Walter Forde, who began his career on the music-hall stage, turned to acting in silent movies during the Twenties before becoming a scriptwriter in Hollywood and returning to England to make two decades' worth of films which catch so much of the country's spirit through tumultuous times while never being less than entertaining.
Signs are that people are waking up now to the tremendous achievement of Rome Express (1932). This has a fair claim to be the first of the train movies (although Forde had made a now-lost 1931 version of The Ghost Train, to which he returned at the end of the decade). A huge set was constructed, in England, to resemble the Gare de Lyon, where the events begin but most of it takes place upon the train, through whose windows one glimpses the passing European countryside by night and day. This was film from a compartment on the actual train and then projected beside the suitably claustrophobic stage set, all locked compartments and bustling corridors, with the enviably well-appointed dining car offering scant relief from the diverse machinations of those aboard.
Here is a film driven as much by character as steam engine. From a story by Clifford Grey, the script was developed by Sidney Gilliatt, soon to become a great force in British film-making. The mainspring of the plot is that a gloriously evil Conrad Veight knows that somewhere aboard the train somebody else has concealed a stolen van Dyck - and he wants it, so much so that human life is a side issue in that quest. For all that, one's unslackening interest is maintained by those who, unwittingly, become entangled by this. Here, for example, are an adulterous couple chanced upon by a golf-club bore known to the husband, who has to fake a passion-quelling excuse; a philanthropist businessman travels with a male assistant upon whom he lavishes nothing, a penny-pinching nature at odds with the headline-seeking reasons for his donations; there is a silent actress - all tight dress and long cigarette-holder - and her cigar-chomping publicist who promises that arrival in Rome will bring her career new directions; and more, these carriages populated by Cedric Hardwicke, Joan Barry, Hugh Williams, Esther Ralston. Gordon Harker, Finlay Currie. The smallest part fits into a well-meshed whole, all of it caught so well by Gunter Krampf's cinematography which owes something, but not too much, to German films of the previous decade. As Graham Greene noted when watching a revival of it three years later, “Mr. Conrad Veight and Mr. Donald Calthrop brought to the screen a devilish ruthlessness and a mean cowardice which even the trivial plot about a stolen picture couldn't cramp”.
Extraordinary to think it was made ninety years ago (Forde lived until 1984). One can imagine the gasps from those who filled a cinema - though we have something they never imagined: not only a DVD but - if you buy the disc - a splendid booklet by Neil Sinyard about the film's creation. Rent it but, afterwards, you are sure to want a copy yourself, and continue invite people round to share it: they will not be disappointed.
British Thriller. - Rome Express review by Steve
The principal interest of Rome Express is that the story and some of the dialogue was written by Sidney Gilliat and it is obviously a run out for his co-script on the classic train thriller The Lady Vanishes. And while it isn't in the same class as the Alfred Hitchcock film, it is still an engaging watch, with a lively score.
The MacGuffin is a stolen Van Dyke which is stowed on an overnight train (with dining car) from Paris to Rome full of British character actors (and Conrad Veidt) playing a range of mysterious eccentrics and heavies. The painting is limited as a focus of suspense as most of the passengers aren't involved in its theft or discovery.
Still, the cast is colourful, though the characterisations are broad; Gordon Harker plays the most boring man in the world, and Cedric Hardwicke is among the most unpleasant. Like in The Lady Vanishes there's an eloping couple (married, but not to each other) who refuse to get involved in the mystery. But sadly- no Charters and Caldicott.
Typical of early talkies, the camera rarely moves. And like most British films of the thirties, the accents are very theatrical, which pick up well on the primitive microphones, but make the exchanges rather stiff. Maybe the working classes can't afford tickets. It's a dated film, but it has momentum and still entertains.