This could have been a fairly engaging WWII adventure - it deals with a Nazi attempt to kidnap/eliminate Winston Churchill aboard the titular train - but, being a product from the tail-end of the Euro-Cult style, it's a tired ride (excuse the pun!) with little panache and a cast made up of equally worn veterans (Glenn Ford, Donald Pleasence and Jean Sorel) and totally uncharismatic newcomers - both of whom happen to be the offspring of a famous international star - in the form of Jason Connery and Francisco Quinn! Apart from the venerable "danger-on-a-train" theme, the ingredients are there for 90 solid minutes of entertainment - exotic locations, action, romance, treason, a decoy flight, an impossible one-man mission, a violent corpse-strewn climax, and even a clever (if predictable) twist ending - but, as I said, the film never really takes off and Martino handles the proceedings in lackluster fashion, with none of his trademark stylistics. Besides, the relentless and highly irritating synthesizer score is wholly inappropriate and seems to have been discarded from badly accompanying a Silent film...
Review of Casablanca Express
