HORROR EXPRESS 1972- aka PANIC ON THE TRANSIBERIAN EXPRESS
Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Telly Savalas
During a cold winter Professor Saxton (Lee) is transporting an ape man frozen in a block of ice back to England for study. Along the way, the creature thaws out and several corpses are discovered their eyes turned completely white. It is soon learned that the apeman is not responsible but a body-hopping alien that was frozen inside of the creature uses various individuals as hosts taking knowledge and traits needed in an effort to build itself a ship to make it back to its home planet.
A fascinating and ahead of its time sci-fi/horror amalgamation that is also one of the most fitfully entertaining 90 minutes of frightful fun you're likely to come across. Lee is perfectly cast as the cold, arrogant atheist professor Saxton. Cushing is also in fine form a bit against type as Lee's unwitting partner in the whole affair. Cushing plays a somewhat horny old fellow who tries on several occasions to get in the pants of a beautiful spy masquerading as one of the passengers. Cushing even gets to indulge in some brief Frankenstein style surgery as he performs a make-shift labotomy on one of the victims where it is surmised that the memories of the victims have been wiped away after seeing the brain is completely smooth "like a baby's bottom", as one of the characters puts it.
Speaking of the characters, they are all (for the most part) so good and well drawn that they accentuate the quirky story wonderfully. There are also several minor subplots going on that never take precedence over the main story at hand and you learn just enough about them to maintain interest in the characters.
One of the best aspects of the story is that the alien only "steals" the minds of those it deems intelligent enough to learn any knowledge that will assist in it's ability to build a ship to get home. One of the characters is a demented priest whom, once the identity of the thing is revealed, naturally assumes it is the devil(!) and then proceeds to "switch sides" so to speak. The nutty priest beckons the creature to come into him but the alien retorts that the fool has nothing to take.
One of the most startling scenes has Cushing and Lee remove an eye from one of the casualties. They extract some fluid from the eye and place it under a microscope. They see the last thing the person or thing saw before they died. The apeman's eye reveals dinosaurs and a glimpse of the Earth from space!
Telly Savalas has a minor but memorable role as a sadistic cossack who, after a wire gets out about the trouble on the train, has the locomotive stopped. He and a cadry of soldiers board the train and summarily harass the passengers until the alien finally enters the priests body thereby killing all the soldiers. In the very taut final moments, Lee and Cushing attempt to derail the train over a cliff stopping the alien creature. The thing brings the soldiers back from the dead and they pursue the remaining survivors.
The score in the film is also very memorable (the name of the composer escapes me) and can be heard, at various times during the movie, being either whistled, played on the piano or in some other fashion by mischellaneous individuals throughout the movie.
Obviously taking inspiration from past sci-fi pictures, the film must have been seen by John Carpenter as some elements are strikingly similar to his remake of THE THING. There are numerous funny scenes and dialog exchanges. One in particular has Lee trying to get a ticket to board the train and the comeuppance that the ticket master receives is quite funny. In fact, the first 15 minutes or so is a bit of a running gag as Lee has endless trouble trying to get on the train as well as constantly explaining himself. Another follows shortly thereafter as Lee invades Cushing's room after he has anticipated a nightly fling with the beautiful young woman that occupies the bunk. Another amusing scene has the actual creature (disguised inside a host) questioning Cushing and Lee proclaiming that either one of them could be the monster. Cushing replies..."Monster...? We're British you know." Another great scene has the alien in a train car alone with Lee. It begins asking many questions of the professor. You know that any moment the thing will attack and kill Lee and just as it appears the alien will make its move, one of the characters enters and unknowingly saves him.
Directed with an assured hand and professionalism (on an obviously low budget) by Eugenio Martino who also helmed the Italian western BAD MAN'S RIVER (1972). That film utilized a nice miniature steamboat which was sometimes composited into the scenery. Here, a miniature train is used for the main location of the action. This same miniature was used in the spaghetti western PANCHO VILLA which also starred Savalas as the title character.
During this time, Peter Cushing's wife had recently passed away and it was extremely difficult on Cushing to appear in a movie. After his wife died, there was a noticeable difference in Cushing's appearance. He lost weight and his face became very gaunt. At first Cushing did not want to travel to Spain to shoot this movie but it was Lee who talked him into it and it turned out to be a most therapeutic trip for the grieving Cushing. Cushing never lets his anguish show and gives his all to the movie.
Like most foreign films, the sound was dubbed in later and the three main participants dubbed there own voices. One of my favorite movies from childhood, I first caught HORROR EXPRESS, like so many, on SHOCK THEATER. The now OOP DVD from Image is the best version out there. There are numerous dupes on various labels and I'm sure at least one of them utilizes the Image version. The disc also has a music only track and a fold-out cover replete with liner notes on the film. Thank you Mr. Lee. Without your assist, fans may not have seen one of the greatest collaborations between two of Britain's most famed actors.
