Rent Von Ryan's Express (1965)

Great Boy's Own War Adventure - Von Ryan's Express review by GI

Here is a great wartime Boy's Own adventure film that sits alongside similar films from the same era such as The Great Escape (1963), The Bridge At Remagen (1969) etc. Hugely popular at the box office and they remain brilliantly entertaining today although some, like this one, don't get seen nearly as much as they should. These films shunned any attempt at war realism focusing instead on action, excitement and clichéd characters and with this being a Hollywood blockbuster this has an American star who is cleverer and braver than everyone else. Indeed there is an element of a clash-of-culture theme here with the thorny relationship between the American characters and the British ones. Frank Sinatra plays American Air Force Colonel Ryan who crash lands in Italy in 1943 and is sent to an Italian prisoner of war camp. He soon becomes embroiled in differences of opinion with the emotional British senior officer played by Trevor Howard. When Italy surrenders Ryan leads the whole camp in a bid for freedom by taking over a train and heading for Switzerland all the time hunted by the ruthless Germans. There's plenty of shooting, and some very tense scenes as the prisoners have to trick their way through various checkpoints etc with raincoat wearing Gestapo agents, and shouty SS officers. It's all great fun, it rollicks along at a fantastic pace and if you can suspend your incredulity at the ridiculousness of the whole thing you'll have a great time.