Who payed the critics

I gave this film a 9 out of 10, because it was exactly what I expected it to be.

All that we are seeing on the screen is happening with real people, real action sequences in the background, forcing the eye to watch as if we were there.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Frank Sinatra is captured and placed in a Prisoner of War camp in WW2 Italy. While there are the classic scenes of soldiers standing up to the guards and being punished, the heart of the movie is about the men's escape attempts, led by Sinatra and Trevor Howard.I know this is a very famous war movie, but I didn't happen to like it. I found most of the schemes pretty unrealistic, and only a fraction of them suspenseful. There wasn't anything really wrong with the acting or the pace of the film, but I found my attention wandering more often than not. Then again, I fell asleep during The Bridge on the River Kwai, so maybe I'm just not riveted by POW movies. If you liked the 1957 Alec Guinness classic, give Von Ryan's Express a try and see if you find it as exciting. Then you can lecture me on true cinema appreciation!

Copyright 23 June 1965 by P-R Productions. Released through 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York opening simultaneously at Loew's State and the Tower East: 23 June 1965. U.S. release: 23 June 1965. U.K. release: 16 August 1965. Sydney opening at the Regent. 117 minutes. Cut to 110 minutes in the U.K.NOTES: Nominated for an Academy Award for Sound Effects, losing to the only other nominee, "The Great Race". Number 9 at the U.S. box- office for 1965. Number 7 at U.K. ticket- windows. The movie did equal business in Australia. Locations for the $6,000,000 epic follows the route of the escaping POW's, from the Adriatic coast of central Italy, through Rome, Pisa, Florence, Bologna, Milan and the Italian Alps which lead to Switzerland. Many key scenes were enacted in railroad stations, and these were filmed by conventional methods. Aboard the speeding train, Robson had to utilize techniques which introduced the element of danger to his task. A camera jeep was fitted out with special wheels to enable it to ride on the tracks at speeds up to 90 miles per hour. Robson and his camera crew were perched in a rostrum atop the jeep as they chased after Von Ryan's Express.COMMENT: My one and only complaint is that the ending is a bit abrupt — none of the usual obligatory shots of the train winding on. Right then and there, I — and the rest of the audience — wanted to see it all over again. For a powerful and compelling use of CinemaScope, it's hard to go past Von Ryan's Express. Typical Hollywood — just as a medium is mastered and finally licked into artistic and entertaining shape, it's jettisoned for some new fad... CinemaScope was never more involving than in this movie which seems to have been specifically designed from the outset with all the capabilities of the wider screen firmly in mind.A war picture with a difference. True, there's plenty of gun-'em- down action, but there's also suspenseful drama to pin it all on, including an arresting character conflict — grippingly acted — between Sinatra's 90-day American colonel and Howard's seeded professional British major. The support players are not wanting in charisma either, particularly strong performances coming from Edward Mulhare as the padre, Fantoni, Celi, Carra, Preiss and even Ivan Triesault (speaking German like a native).Von Ryan's Express is a must for all train buffs of course, with the last half of the film excitingly staged on actual Italian locations. Robson heads up unusually fine technical credits. His direction here has an unobtrusive efficiency and confidence often lacking in his more morally ambitious projects.

FRANK SINATRA...the great crooner...was also a great actor! :)This movie (as well as others), are definitive proof of that! Frank was at his best in all of his movies...but, he was at the top in movies like "Ocean's Eleven;" "Assault on a Queen;" " None But the Brave;" "The Manchurian Candidate;" "Sergeants 3;" "From Here To Eternity;" and, many more, especially in this movie! Frank Sinatra was STARDOM-GOLD whether it be for his singing or acting, or, just being himself."Von Ryan's Express" is a classic World War II adventure of American and British POWs escaping from an Italian POW camp just as the Italians surrendered in World War II. Now, he and his men, with the help of an Italian Army Captain and a train conductor, are alluding and evading the Germans after 'stealing' a train.This is an EXCELLENT movie that all World War II buffs need to see! :)

All aboard the Freedom Train! Von Ryan's Express is an enjoyable, somewhat more than a waste of time prisoner escape movie. While Sinatra's acting was decent, I found his character to be not very believable -- but he did well with what he had in the script. Many of the characters were somewhat stereotypical but not too over the top in that regard, and the supporting cast was competent and entertaining. The story is of course not very credible, although it could have been more plausible had they been trying to fool civilian authorities in peace time rather than Nazi military and Gestapo officials during World War 2, as in the movie.The movie's strengths include the epic cinematography of a locomotive charging through a variety of genuine Italian scenery (an Italian railroad company was given thanks at the end, but their reward really was the free advertising for tourism and rail travel in that beautiful country), occasional bits of comic relief that worked (such the chutzpah of Sinatra stubbornly negotiating the sale of his shiny American watch with a Gestapo agent, a fact that should have given things away in the real world), and some picturesque air to ground combat scenes.