''Sleeping Car to Trieste'' is a 1948 British

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. ...

directed by John Paddy Carstairs and starring

Jean Kent Jean Kent (born Joan Mildred Field; 29 June 1921 − 30 November 2013) was an English film and television actress. Biography Born Joan Mildred Field (sometimes incorrectly cited as Summerfield) in Brixton, London in 1921, the only child of va ...

Albert Lieven Albert Lieven (born Albert Fritz Liévin; 22 June 1906 – 22 December 1971) was a German actor. Early life Lieven was born in Hohenstein, East Prussia (Olszynek, Poland). His father was the head physician of the Tuberculosis sanatorium Ho ...

Derrick De Marney Derrick Raoul Edouard Alfred De Marney (21 September 1906 – 18 February 1978) was an English stage and film actor and producer, of French and Irish ancestry. Actor The son of Violet Eileen Concanen and Arthur De Marney, and the grandson of ...

and

Rona Anderson Rona Anderson (3 August 1926 – 23 July 2013) was a Scottish stage, film, and television actress. She appeared in TV series and on the stage and films throughout the 1950s. She appeared in the films '' Scrooge'' and '' The Prime of Miss Jean Br ...

. It was shot at

Denham Studios Denham Film Studios was a British film production studio operating from 1936 to 1952, founded by Alexander Korda. Notable films made at Denham include ''Brief Encounter'' and David Lean's ''Great Expectations''. From the 1950s to the 1970s th ...

outside

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. The film's sets were designed by the

art director Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and unify the vis ...

Ralph Brinton Ralph W. Brinton (1895–1975) was a British art director. He was nominated for an Academy Award in the category Best Art Direction for the film '' Tom Jones''. Selected filmography * '' Blue Smoke'' (1935) * ''Late Extra'' (1935) * ''Slee ...

. It is a remake of the 1932 film '' Rome Express''.

Plot

The setting is almost entirely on a train travelling between Paris and

Trieste Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into pr ...

after World War II. Two rather mysterious people, Zurta (Albert Lieven) and Valya (Jean Kent), are at ease in sophisticated society. Zurta steals a diary from the safe of an embassy in Paris while they are guests at a reception there, killing a servant who walks in on the robbery. Poole, an accomplice, is passed the diary, but he double-crosses them and attempts to escape with it on the

Orient Express The ''Orient Express'' was a long-distance passenger train service created in 1883 by the Belgian company ''Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits'' (CIWL) that operated until 2009. The train traveled the length of continental Europe and int ...

. Just in time, Valya and Zurta board the train. They start looking for Poole, who seeks to conceal himself and the diary. Other travellers become involved, including a US Army sergeant with an eye for the ladies, an adulterous couple, an idiot stockbroker, a wealthy, autocratic writer and his brow-beaten secretary, an

ornithologist Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...

, and a French police inspector. Staff and other passengers provide light-hearted scenes. The diary passes through the hands of several people while the police investigate a mysterious death.

Cast

as Valya *

as Zurta *

as George Grant *

Paul Dupuis Paul Dupuis (August 11, 1913 – January 23, 1976) was a French Canadian film actor who was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and who performed in British films during the late 1940s. The roles he played were mainly as the romantic leading man. H ...

as Inspector Jolif *

as Joan Maxted *

David Tomlinson David Cecil MacAlister Tomlinson (7 May 1917 – 24 June 2000) was an English stage, film, and television actor and comedian. Having been described as both a leading man and a character actor, he is primarily remembered for his roles as authorit ...

as Tom Bishop *

Bonar Colleano Bonar Sullivan (14 March 192417 August 1958), also known by the stage name Bonar Colleano, was an American stage and film actor based in the United Kingdom. Biography Early life Colleano was born Bonar Sullivan in New York City. He had childhood ...

as Sergeant West *

Finlay Currie William Finlay Currie (20 January 1878 – 9 May 1968) was a Scottish actor of stage, screen, and television.McFarlane, Brian (28 February 2014). ''The Encyclopedia of British Film: Fourth edition''. Oxford University Press. pp. 175-176; He re ...

as Alastair MacBain *

Grégoire Aslan Grégoire Aslan (born Krikor Kaloust Aslanian; 28 March 1908 – 8 January 1982) was a Swiss-Armenian actor and musician. Early life Krikor Kaloust Aslanian ( hy, Գրիգոր Գալուստի Ասլանյան) was born in Switzerland or in Con ...

as Poirier, the chef (as Coco Aslan) *

Alan Wheatley Alan Wheatley (19 April 1907 – 30 August 1991) was an English actor. He was a well known stage actor in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, appeared in forty films between 1931 and 1965 and was a frequent broadcaster on radio from the 1930s to the ...

as Karl/Charles Poole *

Hugh Burden Hugh Archibald Nairn Burden''The Daily Telegraph'', 25 July 1962 (3 April 1913 – 16 May 1985) was a British actor and playwright. Hugh Archibald Nairn Burden was the eldest son of Harry Archibald Burden, a colonial official, and Caro Cecil ...

as Mills *

David Hutcheson David Hutcheson (14 June 1905 – 18 February 1976) was a British character actor. He made his film debut in ''Fast and Loose'' in 1930 and played his only lead role in 1934's '' Romance in Rhythm''. He went on to specialise in hooray henrys, sil ...

as Denning *Claude Larue as Andrée *

Zena Marshall Zena Moyra Marshall (1 January 1926 – 10 July 2009) was a British actress of film and television, who was born in Kenya. Early years Marshall was of English, Irish and (on her mother's side) French descent. Though born in Kenya, after her ...

as Suzanne *

Leslie Weston Leslie Weston (24 July 1896 – 13 October 1975) was a British actor who was also a radio and variety comedian. Selected filmography * ''Glamour Girl'' (1938) * '' They Drive by Night'' (1938) * ''Two for Danger'' (1940) * ''We Dive at Dawn' ...

as Randall * Michael Ward as Elvin *

Eugene Deckers Eugene Francis Deckers (22 October 1917, in Antwerp – 1977, in Paris, France) was a Belgian actor. Career After establishing himself on the British stage, Deckers made his first English language film appearance in 1946. Formerly a romantic ...

as Jules *

Dino Galvani Dino Galvani (born Candido Galvanoni; 27 October 189014 September 1960) was an Italian-British actor, who made his career in Britain on stage and radio and in films. He is remembered for his role in the popular BBC radio comedy series '' ITMA'' ...

as Pierre *George De Warfaz as Chef du Train *

Gerard Heinz Gerard Heinz (born Gerhard Hinze; 2 January 1904 – 20 November 1972) was a German actor. Heinz was born in Hamburg, Germany and later moved to Britain, where he changed his name. He appeared in almost 60 films (including ''Caravan''), and a n ...

as Ambassador

Production

The film was originally known as ''Sleeping Car to Vienna''. Rona Anderson made her film debut. "I did enjoy doing it", said Anderson. "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 generally." It was the one movie

made while under contract to Rank for five years. However, Jean Kent later stated 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?"

Release

The film proved more popular in the US than most British films, enjoying a long run in New York. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' wrote, "not without its trying moments, but on the whole it is a mighty interesting ride...The director John Paddy Carstairs shrewdly maneuvers the pursuers and the hunted about the train in a natural and credible manner so that the possibility of an imminent meeting creates a good deal of tension...None of the principals is too familiar to audiences here, and at times dialogue is lost in some of the players' throats, but the performances are generally satisfying."

References

External links

* * *
Review of film
at ''Variety'' {{John Paddy Carstairs 1948 films British black-and-white films British crime films Remakes of British films Films directed by John Paddy Carstairs Films scored by Benjamin Frankel 1948 crime films Films set in Trieste Films set in Italy Films set in Paris Films set on trains Films shot at Denham Film Studios Films set on the Orient Express 1940s English-language films 1940s British films Two Cities Films films