You've got a convoluted story, but some great locations, and when a movie spends its entire time aboard a train, I'm on board too. Before Bette Midler started singing about Istanbul being Constantinople now (which is funny because it's the opposite), it was a great exotic place for dentures like this to either be heading to or take place in. For Gene Berry and John Saxon, it's a paycheck with a vacation because obviously they did some location shooting over there, and who wouldn't accept a job like that?
Senta Berger and Mary Ann Mobley provide the feminine beauty with veteran character actress Norma Varden an important part of the trip, much like Dame May Witty and Angela Lansbury in the two versions of "The Lady Vanishes". At first she seems like a typical snooty busybody, commenting on the fact that Americans always seem drunk when she encounters them.
Unless your attention span is 120%, some of the details are going to skip right by you so sometimes it's best to just watch with as much attention as you can, enjoy the sets and ignore the Implausibilities. Bond films have better scripts where everything is wrapped up neatly even if there is confusion along the way, and these TV movies that were written quickly don't have that benefit. These are the type of films where you take them as they are, enjoy it for what they provide and move on. A nice musical score helps and matches the location photography all the way.
Senta Berger and Mary Ann Mobley provide the feminine beauty with veteran character actress Norma Varden an important part of the trip, much like Dame May Witty and Angela Lansbury in the two versions of "The Lady Vanishes". At first she seems like a typical snooty busybody, commenting on the fact that Americans always seem drunk when she encounters them.
Unless your attention span is 120%, some of the details are going to skip right by you so sometimes it's best to just watch with as much attention as you can, enjoy the sets and ignore the Implausibilities. Bond films have better scripts where everything is wrapped up neatly even if there is confusion along the way, and these TV movies that were written quickly don't have that benefit. These are the type of films where you take them as they are, enjoy it for what they provide and move on. A nice musical score helps and matches the location photography all the way.