The Friday Night Fright: Horror Express
Certainly not the pinnacle of the Cushing/Lee teams output, this is a guilty pleasure from my youth. The horror legends play a pair of scientists on a train to Europe with Lee transporting a mysterious find he made in China.
An alien intelligence that drains peoples brains through their eyes, a mad priest who thinks it’s the devil made flesh and Telly Savalas as a loony Cossack captain are just a few of the pleasures this Spanish production have to offer.
Cushing and Lee both give better performances than the film really deserves and one wonders how much of the dialogue was ad-libbed by the pair. There’s a wonderful scene where Cushing thinks he’s scored with a beautiful woman who’s onboard the train without a ticket, only to find his style cramped by Lee when it turns out the pair are sharing a compartment.
The standout moment though comes when Lee and Cushing are confronted by the police inspector onboard the train, who points out that one of them could be the host for the creature. “Monster!?” a shocked Cushing retorts “We’re British, you know!”
I really like this one but it’s a pity it’s not been better served on DVD; there have been loads of cheapo crappy versions but I think the best disc was released by Image in the US years ago though, despite being correctly framed, it was alas a non-anamorphic transfer that I think could be significantly improved upon nowadays. I’m always holding out for a decent modern release. Surely it’s gonna happen one day?
Comment by paulwjm | August 18, 2007
That’s the one I watched Paul, the old EuroShock one from Image. Not a bad transfer, given the cheap nature of the production, but like you say it could certainly be improved upon today.
Comment by Ian W | August 18, 2007
[...] Eugenio Martín, who went on to make the Peter Cushing/Christopher Lee monster-on-a-train flick, Horror Express. Rather than the usual wide open vistas the film concentrates on one settlement, too small to [...]
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