Von Ryan's Express: Frank Sinatra & Trevor Howard Star

This exciting 1965 film, based on a popular novel of the time by David Westheimer, is set in Italy (largely filmed there, too), beginning in August 1943. The Allies are about to complete the conquest of the Italian island of Sicily and Italian morale is low. Colonel Joseph Ryan of the U.S. Army Air Corps, played by Frank Sinatra, is captured by the Italians when his plane is shot down. Italian soldiers hide their prisoner from a couple of German army officers who come looking to see what happened to the pilot of the downed plane. Ryan is sent to an Italian prisoner of war camp, whose main prisoners are British army troops, now under the command of Major Fincham, played by Trevor Howard, as the previous British commander has just died as a result of spending a long time in a special little prison coop, called "the sweat box." Now Ryan is the senior officer, but he at first defers to Fincham and Ryan feels it will not be long before they are freed, so the overall strategy should be to survive in the best conditions they can get and await the arrival of the Allies. Ryan finds, however, that Fincham has let his own men and a couple of Americans suffer in sick bay with malaria, while holding back on medicines and some other supplies for a possible escape attempt. Fincham's contentious style has made the Italian commandant, Major Battaglia, played by Adolfo Celi, respond in a harsher way than he might otherwise have done. Ryan shows Battaglia the potential British escape tunnel and Battaglia has the showers turned on, razors given out and delousing powder dispensed to the POWs, but he will not issue the prisoners fresh clothing, because he is selling the Red Cross provided clothing to make money for himself. Ryan orders all of the prisoners to strip and to throw the raggedy uniforms into a fire they've built. This forces Battaglia to issue the fresh clothing, but he has Ryan locked in the sweat box.

The Allies invade the Italian mainland and Italy surrenders, causing the Italian guards to desert the camp. Ryan is freed, and Battaglia is locked in the sweat box, at Ryan's order, rather than being hanged as Fincham wanted. The 400 prisoners, now helped by anti-Nazi Italian officer, Captain Oriani, played by Sergio Fantoni, try to get to the not too distant coast in hopes of being rescued by Allied naval forces. German military forces arrive at the camp and free Major Battaglia and they then begin to pursue the fleeing prisoners, who have a number of sick men. Oriani goes ahead of the main group to see if he can contact the Allies. The Germans surround the prisoners, killing some, but the rest are captured. All but the sick and wounded are loaded onto a train. Fincham believes Oriani betrayed them, but Oriani is found badly beaten on a railway car, as he has been captured too. Who walks out and gives the fascist salute? Battaglia! The Germans shoot the sick and wounded, bringing Fincham to say, "You let Battaglia live ... You'll get your Iron Cross for this, 'von' Ryan." (The Iron Cross was a German military decoration.) Ryan is depressed. The train moves out and stops in Rome on its way northward headed toward the German border and Innsbruck (Austria was part of Germany, at that time). The train comes under the command of Major von Klemment, played by Wolfgang Preiss. If you've seen any World War Two movies with German officers made in the 1960s, you've seen Wolfgang Preiss.

Meanwhile, Ryan sees an opportunity to pull up some loose floor boards in his boxcar. When the train slows down, some of the men drop down onto the tracks, then climb up and overpower the guards stationed on top of the cars. They put on the helmets and the uniforms of the guards. When the train stops for water, the men now overpower the remaining guards, toss their bodies onto the train, capture von Klemment and take over the train. Off they go! Now you get the title... "Von Ryan's Express." When the train in underway, the men find a young Italian woman in von Klemment's car, ah... undoubtedly there to darn the major's socks. Von Klemment tells the men the train is scheduled to stop in Florence to feed the German troops and the prisoners. The British chaplain, played by Edward Mulhare, had studied some in Germany years before, and he is fluent in German. They dress him in the uniform of one of the killed German officers, so he will be able to address any German personnel when the train stops. He is highly effective and he helps to keep the group from being found out; after which, he promptly faints.

Ryan and Fincham find out from von Klemment that the train will switch crews and guards when it gets to Verona. So now, Ryan cannot take the train into Verona, or it will all be over. Von Klemment says to divert a train, there will need to be an order issued by a high ranking German officer. * The chaplain now goes back to portraying the German officer and he tells the Germans at the regional command center that he needs to change the train route because it is carrying important things for Hermann Göring. The ruse works, but it isn't long before the Germans check with the regional commander about the Göring shipment, about which, of course, he knows nothing. The alert goes out and a chase begins, as an SS officer takes a train load of troops and calls in air support. In the meantime, von Klemment and the woman escape, and Ryan first kills von Klemment, and then the woman, as she heads for a police office. No more sock darning for her... Damn! (or maybe 'Darn' would be more appropriate?) Ryan, Fincham and company head for the Swiss border, but the German planes attack as the train speeds through a number of small tunnels. The men manage to down one of the aircraft, but the planes damage a walkway on a mountainside and bring down rocks onto the tracks, blocking the train's advance. Meanwhile, the German troop train is nearing. Ryan has most of the men clear the tracks and repair damages to the rails with rails pulled up from behind the train. Ryan, Fincham and a few others try to hold off the German troops who are now moving in on them by foot. Lots of fighting takes place, and several of the men are killed, as well as many Germans, but finally the tracks are cleared and the train is ready to roll. Ryan and the rear guard, including Fincham, break off the fighting and dash for the train, which is just beginning to move. Ryan is the last to run for the train and the German troops are not far behind. The German commander grabs a submachine gun and fires a burst, striking Ryan as he nears the train. He dies on the tracks as the train and the rest of the men roll toward Switzerland and freedom.

* Just a little history: Mussolini was ousted from power in late July 1943, but the new Italian government proclaimed its loyalty to the alliance with Germany, although not so completely secret negotiations began with the Allies to get Italy out of the war. With the Allies in the process of conquering Sicily, the Germans sent more forces to strengthen the Italian mainland. In early September the Allies invaded the mainland and the surrender of Italy was announced, with Hitler reacting by sending more forces and literally taking over Italy, except for the far southern region, which was quickly occupied by the Allies. A very slow and bloody campaign to conquer Italy then began, ending only in late April/early May 1945. The movie shows how the Germans have taken over Italy, including the rail system, which retained many Italian personnel, but under German supervision; thus, written orders had to be from German military officers.

Photo is of Fox War Classics, 20th Century Fox 2001 DVD.

WORD HISTORY: 
Express-This prefixed word has uses as a verb, an adjective and a noun; all coming from the same ultimate source. The prefix, "ex," goes back to Indo European, "eghs/ekhs," which had the notion of, "out from." This gave Latin "ex," with the meanings, "out from, from the inside, out of, from or since a period of time." This became a prefix in forming some words. The "press" part of the word goes back to Indo European "per/pre," which had the notion of  "to go forward, to go through;" thus also, "to apply force (to go forward or to go through)." This gave Latin "premere," meaning, "to squeeze, to compress." The two gave Latin "exprimere," which meant, "to make a visible impression or representation by squeezing;" thus also, "to make clear, to make known." Its participle form produced Latin "expressare," "to squeeze out, to make oneself clear." This passed to Old French, a Latin-based language, as "expresser," ("to make clear or known, to squeeze or compress). This was borrowed from French by English in the second half of the 1300s, but likely with influence directly from Latin, as the word meant, "to state clearly," but also, "to make a representation through a work of art." The Latin adjectival form ("expressus") had also given Old French the adjective "espres/expres," meaning, "clearly or distinctly stated." This was then also borrowed into English, but not until the second half of the 1400s. The noun in English came about from its initial meaning of, "direct messenger;" that is, "one who delivers directly from one location to a precise person or location." This meaning has carried over to modern times with the mail and package services. The further meaning of the modern noun, as in, "the Express," meaning, "express train, express bus," goes to the notion of "being direct, with travel service directly from one location to a precise destination." From all of this has also come the notion, "fast delivery or transport."