Now Over 5500 Reviews and (near) Daily Updates!

WELCOME! Use the search engines on this site (or your own off-site engine of choice) to gain easy access to the complete MAKSQUIBS Archive; more than 5500 posts and counting. (New posts added every day or so.)

You can check on all our titles by typing the Title, Director, Actor or 'Keyword' you're looking for in the Search Engine of your choice (include the phrase MAKSQUIBS) or just use the BLOGSPOT.com Search Box at the top left corner of the page.

Feel free to place comments directly on any of the film posts and to test your film knowledge with the CONTESTS scattered here & there. (Hey! No Googling allowed. They're pretty easy.)

Send E-mails to MAKSQUIBS@yahoo.com . (Let us know if the TRANSLATE WIDGET works!) Or use the Profile Page or Comments link for contact.

Thanks for stopping by.

Friday, November 22, 2019

ROME EXPRESS (1932)

Intrigue-packed stuck-on-a-train British thriller, technically sharp & well directed for the period by Walter Forde, but with the lion’s share of credit due to scripter Sidney Gilliat in a warm-up to his even more expertly conceived LADY VANISHES/’38, co-written with Frank Launder for Alfred Hitchcock. This one sports a series of crimes & crises (like GRAND HOTEL on wheels; already well-known as play & novel, though only filmed later this year), with a famous movie actress hiding an affair with a married man; a tyrannical business tycoon lording it over his assistant; three men vying for a stolen Van Dyck canvas which is then lost in a briefcase mix-up; an insufferable Old School bore poking his nose into everyone’s affairs; plus ‘French’ Postcards and a French detective on holiday to take charge when a body turns up along with the missing canvas. Paced at a good clip, Forde loses narrative focus here & there (a scorecard might have helped!), but you’ll pick up the thread quick enough, especially with all those tasty character actors to push things forward: Conrad Veidt, Cedric Hardwicke (exceptional!), an unrecognizable Finlay Currie as a fast-talking publicity man; Hugh Williams; Donald Calthrop; and silent film star Esther Ralston whose dialogue sounds as if it were all dubbed. Super fun, super influential, a super find.

DOUBLE-BILL: Remade as SLEEPING CAR TO TRIESTE in 1948. (not seen here) OR: As mentioned above, THE LADY VANISHES.

No comments: