ROME EXPRESS [1932 / 2015] [Blu-ray] [UK Release] A Lifetime of Adventure in One Night on a Train! The Surprise Picture of the Year! A British Melodrama in Which All the Action Takes Place on the Paris-Rome Express!
A key 1930s thriller from director Walter Forde, ‘ROME EXPRESS’ stars Conrad Veidt in his first British film role alongside Cedric Hardwicke and Gordon Harker as intrigue unfolds on the legendary express train that once linked Paris to Rome. Whimsically scripted by Sidney Gilliat, this seminal adventure would ultimately inspire a genre of thrillers and is presented here in a brand-new High Definition transfer from original film elements in its as-exhibited aspect ratio.
A sinister character boards the Rome Express on the trail of a valuable Anthony 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...
FILM FACT No.1: Awards and Nominations: 1933 National Board of Review, USA: Win: NBR Award for Top Foreign Films.
FILM FACT No.2: ‘ROME EXPRESS’ was remade as ‘Sleeping Car to Trieste’ [1948]. Like the post-war remake of this film, ‘Sleeping Car to Trieste’ [1948] and details of the “back story” of the film. Zurta appears to be a professional criminal who organised the art theft and Alistair McBain has previously attempted to buy the painting.
Cast: Conrad Veidt, Esther Ralston, Hugh Williams, Donald Calthrop, Joan Barry, Harold Huth, Gordon Harker, Eliot Makeham, Cedric Hardwicke, Frank Vosper, Finlay Currie, Muriel Aked and Grethe Hansen
Director: Walter Forde
Producers: Michael Balcon (uncredited) and Phil C. Samuel (uncredited)
Screenplay: Clifford Grey (story) Clifford Grey (scenario) (uncredited), Frank Vosper (dialogue), Ralph Stock (dialogue) and Sidney Gilliat (scenario) (additional dialogue)
Composer: Leighton Lucas (uncredited)
Cinematography: Günther Krampf (Director of Photograpy)
Image Resolution: 1080p (Black-and-White)
Aspect Ratio: 1.37:1
Audio: English: 1.0 LPCM Mono Audio
Subtitles: English SDH
Running Time: 91 minutes
Region: Region B/2
Number of discs: 1
Studio: Gaumont-British Picture Corporation / Network
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: ‘ROME EXPRESS’ [1932] is a totally delightful comedy-thriller that showcases the cream of the British screen acting crop of 1932, with most roles played by major stars. Virtually the entire film takes place on the VIP-packed Paris to Rome express, at the time the fastest means of crossing Europe. There's film star Asta Marvelle [Esther Ralston] and her overbearing publicist Sam [Finlay Currie], as well as Monsieur Jolif [Frank Vosper], the head of the Sûreté or French police and his presence suggests that a crime will be committed on board and in fact, there are two: the smuggling of a stolen Anthony van Dyck painting by Mr Poole [Donald Calthrop] and the murderous attempts by his former partners, notably the sinister Mr Zurta [Conrad Veidt], to get it back. The acting and casting to the film ‘ROME EXPRESS’ is a combination of ‘Grand Hotel’ and ‘Shanghai Express,’ which is nevertheless it is original conception and beautiful execution, which combines in superb casting and the players all totally excellent.
‘ROME EXPRESS’ was one of the most ambitious productions that Gaumont-British Picture Corporation had made up to that time. The first production shot at the company's Shepherd's Bush studios; it was consciously international in focus, with foreign talent on both sides of the camera. Walter Forde who directed ‘ROME EXPRESS’ from a story by Clifford Grey, introduces the characters as they board the train. Later there are occasional extravagant sequences, but they do not hinder the flow of the narrative. Walter Forde indulges his fancy for excellent symbolic flashes, such as dissolving from a scene of a glutton eating to a glimpse of the fireman shovelling coal. This prototype train thriller attracted rave reviews upon its initial release and one critic even went so far as to say it was ‘the best British picture ever,’ and Walter Forde‘s direction was hailed as “outstanding.”
You can easily identify the crucible from which Alfred Hitchcock’s style was being forged at the time, and the screenwriter here was Sidney Gilliat who would go on to some terrific success in the British film industry himself, and also scripted for Alfred Hitchcock. This was a distinctive method of the early thirties cinema, where it looked creaky to modern eyes yet contained a good degree of innovation, and even experimentation. With the film ‘ROME EXPRESS’ you would forgive the regular shots of an obvious model engine in an increasingly tangled, though not confusing plot, especially as always with the actor Conrad Veidt’s bad guy character was the massive big attraction in the 1930s films of that period, but there was of course a combination of humour, relationship drama and when one of the passengers is murdered in a menacing scene, thrills that again seemed very of its time, and no less enjoyable for that. Watching this was like taking a trip back through the years, so vividly had director Walter Forde concocted this brilliant and dramatic entertainment.
It was an enormous commercial hit and a big critical success too, and in the press at the time they announced that "for the first time in the history of British films we have a production that can be judged by international and not by British standards, and can present its case in a form as efficient and persuasive as Hollywood's own." Today, it is regarded as the high point of director Walter Forde's career, though merely a promising early entry in its young screenwriter Sidney Gilliat's filmography. Over the next decade, Sidney Gilliat would return to train-based thrillers with ‘Seven Sinners’ [1936] (director by Albert de Courville) ‘The Lady Vanishes’ [1938] (directed by Alfred Hitchcock) and ‘Night Train To Munich’ [1940] (directed by Carol Reed).
Blu-ray Image Quality – The Network Company has done a good job as possible in bringing this 1936 film ‘ROME EXPRESS’ Blu-ray up to scratch with a 1080p encoded image and is also presented in its 1.37:1 original theatrical aspect ratio. It is always heart-warming in seeing this Gaumont-British Picture Corporation British film of this vintage restored to close to its former glory as possible. The contrast did slightly vary at times as you go through the film, but when it is spot on it has terrific it has strong black levels, and the mid-range greyscale has been restored as best is possible. Now and again you get some dust speckles, as well as couple of tears, but most of the time the image is rock solid, and the detail is still crisp than you would find on a standard inferior DVD, but I should image Network could only do some much quality control, as I suspect imagine on the original negative had been very badly degraded. But while the interiors are highly stylised, the shadows and contrasts are typical of this “film noir” style, especially again with the black levels that again are very solid looking, but overall it was a very pleasant viewing experience. Please Note: Playback Region B/2: This will not play on most Blu-ray players sold in North America, Central America, South America, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. Learn more about Blu-ray region specifications.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – The Network Company has equally done a really fantastic job in bringing this 1936 film ‘ROME EXPRESS’ Blu-ray up to scratch with a 1.0 LPCM Mono Audio mix that offers a very solid soundtrack, especially with the very atmospheric Leighton Lucas composed music that compliments this 1932 black-and-white film so brilliantly in giving it that extra we can expect from this composers composition. Dialogue is very cleanly presented, and though there's no real damage to report, the mono audio sounds are really excellent for a 1932 black-and-white film and as usual The Network Company has brought us a very high standard we have always come to expect with their Blu-ray presentations.
Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
Special Blu-ray Cover printed inside with rare publicity material
Special Feature: Image Gallery and Original Promotional PDFs [1932] [1080p] [1.37:1] [2:38] Here you get to view 54 images of Rare Publicity Photographs, Posters and Newspaper Articles.
BONUS: Beautiful Designed 24 page Booklet by Professor Neil Sinyard entitled “ROME EXPRESS: A Reappraisal by Neil Sinyard” and contains extensive information on the film. Plus there are some wonderful rare black-and-white images from the film and also plenty of promotional material.
Finally, ‘ROME EXPRESS’ is a 1932 British thriller in the manner that you expect with the likes of Hollywood’s ‘Grand Hotel’ formula and with stars like Conrad Veidt from the film ‘Casablanca’ brings its mysterious drama that keeps you guessing to the end conclusion and especially with all the action taking place almost entirely on the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits Rome Express train, that is travelling between Paris and Rome, which is carrying a variety of colourful mysterious characters, including thieves, adulterers, blackmail victims and an American silent film star, but sometimes the acting gets a bit stilted at times, but this can be excused for a 1932 film, and because I love train films of this calibre and especially for anyone else who loves dramas set on trains will love this, especially as it has that Alfred Hitchcock style with his murder mystery film ‘The Lady Vanishes’ and so this film inevitable gets a 5 star rating from me. Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
