Sleeping Car to Trieste *** (1948, Jean Kent, Albert Lieven, Alan Wheatley, Paul Dupuis, David Tomlinson, Rona Anderson, Derrick de Marney, Grégoire Aslan, Bonar Colleano, Zena Marshall) – Classic Movie Review 4,022

Jean Kent, Albert Lieven and Alan Wheatley star in the quirky and amusing 1948 British thriller film Sleeping Car to Trieste about spies, diary thieves, blackmailers and murderers aboard a trans-Europe express train.

‘A Thousand Miles of Thrills, Drama and Excitement!’

Director John Paddy Carstairs’s 1948 British comedy crime thriller Sleeping Car to Trieste is a quirky and amusing remake of the granddaddy of all train thrillers, 1932’s Rome Express, about spies, dastardly diary thieves, blackmailers and murderers aboard an intercontinental trans-Europe express train travelling between Paris and Trieste, and on to Zagreb.

Though it is not as plush or express as the esteemed original, it is not too bad at all, quite engaging in fact, providing a most comfortable, fast moving ride with attractive passengers.

Among the actors having a jolly good time are Albert Lieven (in the old Conrad Veidt role as the mysterious Zurta), Alan Wheatley as the shifty Karl / Charles Poole, Jean Kent as Valya and Paul Dupuis as the smug French police detective inspector Jolif, with David Tomlinson as the annoying, interfering English passenger Tom Bishop, Rona Anderson, Derrick de Marney, David Hutcheson, Bonar Colleano and Zena Marshall. The young Michael Ward has a gratifying lot to do as the rather precise bird fancier Elvin. He has to share a compartment with brash American army Sergeant West (Bonar Colleano), who is busy chasing the other kinds of birds. Sleeping cars being possibly sexy, sex is in the air, or rather on the train, but this being a British film of its era, no one is going to end up having any.

Grégoire Aslan hams it up as the French chef Poirier, though stays the right side of amusing. You could say the same of David Tomlinson’s performance as the ever-so-English Tom Bishop, fond of Scotch, gambling at cards, irritating his fellow passengers, and mispronouncing the few French words he hardly knows.

And this time Finlay Currie (who was in the original as the film star’s brash American publicist, a character not in this film) is the horrid rich man, Alastair MacBane, a pompous author who gives a hard time to his meek little minion, his much put-upon sad secretary Mills (Hugh Burden).

The best performances come from Albert Lieven, Alan Wheatley, Jean Kent, Finlay Currie and Hugh Burden, all in serious roles, and the weakest from Rona Anderson, Derrick de Marney, David Hutcheson, Bonar Colleano, all in semi-comedic roles. Paul Dupuis comes and goes a bit, but sometimes he’s fine. The film really belongs to Albert Lieven, a classy villain.

Albert Lieven’s character of Zurta isn’t really that mysterious. He’s a foreign spy in league with the alluring Valya (Jean Kent), who steal an all-important diary from a Paris embassy whose contents could ignite a war abroad somewhere. Karl/ Charles Poole (Alan Wheatley) steals it from the others and boards the Orient Express to make off with it to Zagreb to sell it to the highest bidder. Moving compartments so he doesn’t have to share with a music loving Frenchman, who turns out to be a police inspector, he involves an unmarried couple (Derrick De Marney as George Grant, Rona Anderson as Joan Maxted) trying to maintain a semblance of honour while planning to enjoy a clandestine affair on board. Obviously they need a compartment to themselves as well.

Allan MacKinnon and William Douglas-Home (uncredited) adapt the original story Rome Express by Clifford Grey, bringing a shade too much comedy to the screenplay, but, even so, it is quite appealing. It is not over complex but it is satisfying, A diary provides the Mcguffin, and, yes, Hitchcock would have made it just a shade smarter.

These were great travel days when you could chuck a body out of a train window if you wanted, or jump off the train and be killed by a passing train going the other way, and even find a porter at the railway station. Happy days!

It is made at D&P Studios, Denham, Uxbridge, Buckinghamshire, England, with a lot of back projection for exteriors, and much appealing genuine stock train footage intercut into the studio shots. A studio concoction it may be, but nevertheless it is pretty convincingly done, with a flavourful impression of life on a multi-compartment sleeping car of the era.

Jean Kent as Valya.

Also in the cast are Claude Larue, Leslie Weston, Michael Ward, Eugene Deckers, Dino Galvani, George De Warfaz, Gerard Heinz, Michael Balfour, Tony De Lungo, Tony Etienne, Christina Forbes, Armand Guinle, Joy Harrington, Henrik Jacobsen, Andreas Malandrinos, Sheila Martin, Primrose Milligan, Oscar Nation, David Paltenghi, Marcel Poncin, Boris Ranevsky, Gaston Richer, Victor Robinson, John Secret, John Stevens, Merle Tottenham, and Michael Yannis.

Sleeping Car to Trieste runs 95 minutes.

It was released on 6 October 1948.

Rona Anderson.

Rona Anderson (1926–2013), who makes her film debut, receives an ‘introducing’ credit, and plays Joan Maxted, was married to Gordon Jackson. She recalled: ‘I did enjoy doing it. 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.’

But that was not how Jean Kent (29 June 1921 − 30 November 2013) remembered it. She said 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?’

Yet both women are right. The film is full of nice little cameo performances and Jean Kent does have to wear some silly hats and clothes.

Presumably the train was originally bound for Vienna as the film was originally called Sleeping Car to Vienna.

It is also the debut of Lisa Daniely, Anna Gilchrist, Sheila Martin and Mona Lilian.

Both Albert Lieven and Bonar Colleano later married British actress Susan Shaw.

The cast

The cast are 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 [Coco Aslan] as the chef Poirier, 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, Leslie Weston, Michael Balfour, Tony De Lungo, Tony Etienne, Christina Forbes, Armand Guinle, Joy Harrington, Henrik Jacobsen, Andreas Malandrinos, Sheila Martin, Primrose Milligan, Oscar Nation, David Paltenghi, Marcel Poncin, Boris Ranevsky, Gaston Richer, Victor Robinson, John Secret, John Stevens, Merle Tottenham and Michael Yannis.

Trieste

Trieste is a seaport in north-eastern Italy and the capital city of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia. It was rated one of the 25 best small cities in the world for quality of life in 2020 and one of the ten safest cities in the world in 2021. Curiously, it has the highest percentage of researchers in Europe in relation to population.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4,022

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Rona Anderson was married to Gordon Jackson.