Von Ryan’s Express

Von Ryan’s Express is WWII war movie from 1965 starring Frank Sinatra and Trevor Howard. Frank Sinatra plays Colonel Joseph Ryan, an American pilot who is shot down over Italy and taken to a POW camp that is occupied mainly by British soldiers. Their commanding officer has just died after having spent time in a sweat box, making Ryan as the highest ranking officer. The British are planning an escape but Ryan prefers to sit out the war as Italy is about to surrender in a matter of weeks. He tries to make a deal with the Italian camp commander and gets his nickname Von Ryan from the British. When the Italians surrender the camp guards flee. Ryan and the British soldiers are forced to flee from the camp from advancing German soldiers but are soon caught and put on a train to the north. Ryan and a few others manage to get out of the train and take control by killing their German guards. Disguised as German soldiers they continue their train voyage and try to make an escape to Switzerland with the German army hot on their trail. The movie doesn’t rely on special effects so it can still be enjoyed after all these years. It isn’t great and sometimes you need a little suspension of disbelief to accept how easily they get past German checkpoints, Gestapo included. But Edward Mulhare speaking German is actually nicely done, especially when he reprimands a couple of soldiers in ‘true German fashion’ for not wearing their uniform up to standards or grinning shamelessly. Most younger people probably know him as Devon Miles from the tv series Knight Rider (if you are into that kind of thing …). Anyway, Von Ryan’s express is a bit of light one and a half hour of good against evil entertainment in WWII guise. Not excellent but not bad either and certainly different from the average WWII movie.