Sleeping Car to Trieste
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2022}}
{{Use British English|date=September 2012}}
{{Infobox film
| name = Sleeping Car to Trieste
| caption =
| image = Sleeping Car to Trieste FilmPoster.jpeg
| director = John Paddy Carstairs
| producer = George H. Brown
| writer = Allan MacKinnon
| story = Clifford Grey
| based_on =
| starring = Jean Kent
Albert Lieven
Derrick De Marney
Paul Dupuis
Rona Anderson
David Tomlinson
| music = Benjamin Frankel
| cinematography = Jack Hildyard
| editing = Sidney Stone
| studio = Two Cities Films
| distributor = General Film Distributors
Eagle-Lion Films (US)
| released = {{film date|1948|10|6|df=y}}
| runtime = 95 minutes
| country = United Kingdom
| language = English
| budget =
| gross =
}}
Sleeping Car to Trieste is a 1948 British comedy thriller film directed by John Paddy Carstairs and starring Jean Kent, Albert Lieven, Derrick De Marney and Rona Anderson.{{Cite web |title=Sleeping Car to Trieste |url=https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150043026 |access-date=26 March 2025 |website=British Film Institute Collections Search}} It was written by Allan MacKinnon and is a remake of the 1932 film Rome Express.
Plot
Zurta and Valya are at ease in sophisticated society. Zurta steals a diary from the safe of an embassy in Paris while they are guests at a reception there, killing a servant who walks in on the theft. Poole, an accomplice, is passed the diary, but double-crosses them and attempts to flee with it on the Orient Express traveling between Paris and Trieste. Just in time, Valya and Zurta board the train, on which compartments are scarce, leading to unintended consequences.
They start looking for Poole, who seeks to conceal himself and the diary, which is said to be capable of kindling a new conflict in the aftermath of World War II. Other travelers on the train, some of whom become involved incidentally in the intrigue, include a US Army sergeant with an eye for the ladies, an adulterous couple, a pestering stockbroker, an arrogant and wealthy writer, his brow-beaten secretary, an ornithologist, and a famed French police inspector. Staff and other passengers provide light-hearted scenes. The diary passes through the hands of several people before the police investigate Poole’s mysterious death. Just when it is successfully completed, Zurta takes it at gunpoint and leaps from the train…not safely onto the tracks but unknowingly immediately in front of a passing express.
Cast
- Jean Kent as Valya
- Albert Lieven as Zurta
- Derrick De Marney as George Grant
- Paul Dupuis as Inspector Jolif
- Rona Anderson as Joan Maxted
- David Tomlinson as Tom Bishop
- Bonar Colleano as Sergeant West
- Finlay Currie as Alastair MacBain
- Grégoire Aslan as Poirier, the chef (as Coco Aslan)
- Alan Wheatley as Karl/Charles Poole
- Hugh Burden as Mills
- David Hutcheson as Denning
- Claude Larue as Andrée
- Zena Marshall as Suzanne
- Leslie Weston as Randall
- Michael Ward as Elvin
- Eugene Deckers as Jules
- Dino Galvani as Pierre
- George De Warfaz as Chef du Train
- Gerard Heinz as Ambassador
Production
In October 1947 it was announced Two Cities would film a remake of Rome Express.{{cite magazine|magazine=Variety|title=Somlo vamps Two Cities|url=https://archive.org/details/variety168-1947-10/page/n248/mode/1up?|page=15|date=29 October 1947}}
The film was originally known as Sleeping Car to Vienna.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article228803702 |title=Lockwood happy in new role |newspaper=The Sun |issue=2359 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=27 June 1948 |accessdate=28 September 2017 |page=31 (STUMPS) |via=National Library of Australia}} It was shot at Denham Studios outside London with sets were designed by the art director Ralph Brinton.
Rona Anderson made her film debut.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article39086952 |title=Film Stars in Britain. |newspaper=Western Mail |location=Perth |date=22 July 1948 |accessdate=20 April 2014 |page=15 |via=National Library of Australia}} "I did enjoy doing it", said Anderson. "It was a film full of nice little cameo performances ... Paddy Carstairs had a good way of relaxing you and I think he had a very good way with actors generally."Brian McFarlane, An Autobiography of British Cinema by the Actors and Filmmakers Who Made It, Methuen 1997 p. 17
It was the one movie Albert Lieven made while under contract to Rank for five years.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article229191214 |title=IDLE STAR GETS ROLE AT LAST |newspaper=The Sun |issue=2491 |location=Sydney |date=14 January 1951 |accessdate=28 September 2017 |page=38 |via=National Library of Australia}}
Jean Kent later stated she "didn't like" the film "and didn't get on very well" with Carstairs. "You never knew where you were with him ... I don't remember enjoying it. I had silly clothes. I wanted to be very French in plain black and a little beret but I had to wear these silly New Look clothes. I was playing a superspy of some kind. But who was I spying for?"Brian McFarlane, An Autobiography of British Cinema by the Actors and Filmmakers Who Made It, Methuen 1997 p. 340
Release
The film proved more popular in the US than most British films, enjoying a long run in New York.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article56060176 |title=Mary Armitages: FILM CLOSE-UPS. |newspaper=The Mail |location=Adelaide |date=27 August 1949 |accessdate=20 April 2014 |page=2 Supplement: SUPPLEMENT TO "THE MAIL." |via=National Library of Australia}}
Reception
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "'This is a film which has put to use and made the most of a holding story, although many scenes and characters are irrelevant. The difficult characters call for some competent acting which is generally fulfilled. David Tomlinson is an excellent bore, and Alan Wheatley plays the part of the terrified man on the run well. The humour is adequate, the suspense and climax are good. This is good entertainment, but perhaps not for those who have previously seen Rome Express."{{Cite journal |date=1 January 1948 |title=Sleeping Car to Trieste |volume=15 |issue=169 |pages=139 |id={{ProQuest|1305810144}} |magazine=The Monthly Film Bulletin}}
In The Radio Times Guide to Films David Parkinson gave the film 2/5 stars, writing: "While 1932's Rome Express was a sleek, fast-moving turbo of a crime drama, this unnecessary remake is something of a branch-line diesel that director John Paddy Carstairs insists on stopping at every country halt. ... Comparisons are inevitable, if slightly unfair, but none of the cast improves on the original characterisations."{{Cite book |title=Radio Times Guide to Films |publisher=Immediate Media Company |year=2017 |isbn=9780992936440 |edition=18th |location=London |pages=848}}
The New York Times wrote, "not without its trying moments, but on the whole it is a mighty interesting ride ...The director John Paddy Carstairs shrewdly maneuvers the pursuers and the hunted about the train in a natural and credible manner so that the poss ibility of an imminent meeting creates a good deal of tension...None of the principals is too familiar to audiences here, and at times dialogue is lost in some of the players' throats, but the performances are generally satisfying."{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9806E1D6103EE03BBC4052DFB2668382659EDE|title = Movie Reviews|newspaper = The New York Times|date = 9 July 2021}}{{Dead link|date=March 2025|fix-attempted=yes}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb title|id=0040799|title=Sleeping Car to Trieste}}
- {{Rotten Tomatoes}}
- [https://archive.org/stream/variety172-1948-10#page/n184/mode/1up Review of film] at Variety
{{John Paddy Carstairs}}
Category:British black-and-white films
Category:Remakes of British films
Category:Films directed by John Paddy Carstairs
Category:Films scored by Benjamin Frankel
Category:Films shot at Denham Film Studios
Category:Films set on the Orient Express
Category:1940s English-language films
Category:Two Cities Films films