Wonderfully offbeat film!

To me, this movie is perfection.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

It is hard for me to believe that this film is now 51 years old. It seems like only yesterday that i stumbled on this gem in my first flush of cinema going youth. Based on a popular book of the era, this is world war 2 as adventure, and not in any way a recreation of events. Do not confuse this action escape yarn with the John Frankenheimer/Burt Lancaster drama The Train, that excellent movie is a very different animal. In Mark Rodson's Von Ryan's Express the emphasis is on entertaining high adventure and in its day this was an exciting escape thriller. Sinatra in his most successful box office role plays a brash self motivated American officer who leads a mostly British train load of prisoners of war to safety via the Swiss alps from internment in occupied Italy aided by many good none Nazi Italian's. The friction between the stiff regimented Brit's and the free loading American improvisation has been done so many times it has long been a creche but here it is very entertainingly achieved.I do hope i will not spoil the film for a first time viewer but the ending differs from the book with a so dull but very period down beat ending. As a foot note back in 1965 pop music and the charts was my generations "Cell Phone/Computer Game" where we were at, happening! Only slowly therefore did i discover Sinatra was a singer first and an actor second, but to this very day, i consider Sinatra a true movie star. Please give "Von Ryan's Express" a watch and i'm sure you will enjoy this cinematic moment in time.

I've watched VRE many times over the last 40 plus years. It was shown constantly on broadcast TV when I was a teen in the 1970's New York City (Sinatra, New York favorite), and because it's a decent action war film, I usually always watched it. I just rewatched VRE today (after at least 20 years) on a cable movie channel and showed it to my wife for her first time. I once would have rated this film a 9 or maybe a 10 even, but now it ranks as a 6 for me. My wife did watch it all so it is a decent escapist film. However, we started to make fun of it because the whole premise is they are escaping the Germans to go to Switzerland to "be free". When you got to Switzerland in real life during WW2 they put you in an interment camp until the end of the war, something the film never discusses. So Ryan is getting everyone killed off to save his reputation in general since he really messes up in the beginning of the film, getting shot down and captured in the first place and sparing the Camp CO. If you remember while watching the film, nearly every one of the POW's dies.....twice. It's hysterical but at the end they have the same amount of prisoners as at the beginning. And ammunition? This has a 1940's B Western mentality, unlimited ammo in the guns. And almost all of the WHOLE German army are armed with sub machine guns. Yawn. A flamethrower would have been cool at the end no matter what side used one. And Italiano Frank Sinatra doesn't understand a single word of Italian? And he's a Colonel flying a fighter plane with no wingman and decides to crash on the land instead of out at sea? Yawning on my 20th rewatch but the wife did stay around to see the ending (and laughed when she saw it). I give it a 6 because although the story is stupid, the production values are really high with the location shooting (it's a better film then the really lame Sinatra war film None But The Brave (also from 1965) which I give a 4 of 10 and also co stars Brad Dexter, (the least memorable Magnificent Seven member)). The fighter planes at the end were also cool as they were actual German planes not Mustangs (nor actual 109's but at least they were trainers from the period (108's)), so it's better then watching Battle Of The Bulge using American cold war tanks as Tigers. Finally, run through the tunnel! Why is it shorter to run around a mountain instead of through a tunnel anyway?

Awesome warlike movie with memorable images and outstanding acting by well-known faces . This is a splendid film about a daring breakout from an Italian concentration camp with all star cast and magnificently realized by Mark Robson . The opening prologue states: "Italy , August 1943. With the Allies poised to strike, the Germans seized control of Italy. So the war-weary Italian nation fought on, a prisoner of the German armies¨ . There appears Ryan, an American POW Colonel (Frank Sinatra , his leather jacket was later worn by Bob Crane in Hogan's Heroes and was later worn by Greg Kinnear in Auto Focus) and a British military (Trevor Howard who was second choice for Major Fincham after Peter Finch turned it down and Jack Hawkins was possible for this part) is the officer in charge until Ryan takes over the escape plan . Ryan leads his fellow prisoners as foreign soldiers (James Brolin , John Leyton , Edward Mulhare) as Italian local military (Sergio Fantoni , Adolfo Celi and Vito Scotti as Train Engineer) on a perilous getaway from the Germans (led by Wolfgang Preiss as Major Von Klemment) in Italy . Having seemingly made errors of judgement, Ryan has to get the support of the mainly British soldiers he is commanding . As they aboard a German train to neutral Switzerland .This great action tale contains thrills, intrigue, tension, excitement galore, entertainment and lots of fun . Suspenseful WWII epic packs exceptional plethora of prestigious actors incarnating the motley group of POWs , giving good acting and support , as a sensational Frank Sinatra whose character , Colonel Ryan, remains today as attractive iconography ; Edward Mulhare as an army priest posing as a Nazi officer , Brad Dexter as roguish Sgt. Bostick ,Sergio Fantoni as Capt. Oriani , a very young Raffaela Carra and Michael Goodliffe, who was an actual Prisoner of War during WWII , being captured at Dunkirk and spent the next five years in a German POW camp . Excellent production design and art direction with evocative scenarios by Walter Scott . Rousing and lively soundtrack , nowadays a classic score, by Jerry Goldsmith . Colorful cinematography by William H Daniels , Greta Garbo's usual cameraman .The motion picture lavishly produced by Saul David was well realized by Mark Robson. In the early 40s Robson was much involved with the low-budget terror unit in charge of producer Val Lewton , for whom made ¨Seventh victim¨, ¨The ghost ship¨, and ¨Island of the dead¨. In the late 1940s Robson joined Stanley Kramer's independent company and directed his biggest commercial hit to date with ¨The champion¨. Years later Robson made another good film about corruption in boxing world titled ¨The harder they fall¨ with Humphrey Bogart. In the late 1960s, his work did decline . His last movie was a jinx one titled ¨Avalancha express¨. Robson and his main star, Robert Shaw, died suddenly from heart attacks. And of course , ¨Von Ryan Express¨ was one of his best films . A top-notch cast , spectacular images , tense images and noisy action help make this one a superior effort of its kind . Well worth seeing , this is the ordinary War movie that Hollywood does so well . This one is certainly one of the best movies ever made about the WWII escapes . Rating : 7 . Two thumbs up , essential and indispensable watching for WWII lovers , a real must see.

All aboard the Freedom Train! Von Ryan's Express is an enjoyable, somewhat more than a waste of time prisoner escape movie. While Sinatra's acting was decent, I found his character to be not very believable -- but he did well with what he had in the script. Many of the characters were somewhat stereotypical but not too over the top in that regard, and the supporting cast was competent and entertaining. The story is of course not very credible, although it could have been more plausible had they been trying to fool civilian authorities in peace time rather than Nazi military and Gestapo officials during World War 2, as in the movie.The movie's strengths include the epic cinematography of a locomotive charging through a variety of genuine Italian scenery (an Italian railroad company was given thanks at the end, but their reward really was the free advertising for tourism and rail travel in that beautiful country), occasional bits of comic relief that worked (such the chutzpah of Sinatra stubbornly negotiating the sale of his shiny American watch with a Gestapo agent, a fact that should have given things away in the real world), and some picturesque air to ground combat scenes.