Casablanca Express: The Churchill Kidnap

source: Casablanca Express: The Churchill Kidnap

Trailer—Casablanca Express

Casablanca Express

While this is nothing extraordinary perhaps, it is a worthwhile piece of cinema for many reasons. The basic plot is sound, there are some fine actors involved, and it relates a sideshow of the war which might have had very far-reaching consequences had things panned out otherwise. I also thought the female lead was excellent, and that surprised me, in a movie of this type. Jason Connery is a believable commando and it would probably surprise some people to learn that just this type of operation was carried out on more than one occasion in the Second World War. Altogether, a good entertainment, with very nice touches from Donald Pleasance and Glenn Ford, and a highly efficient (Nazi) villain to boot.

Yeah, like the other reviewers write, this is one lousy movie. Featuring big star children Jason Connery and Francesco Quinn, it's hard to imagine being able to take a promising premise (Churchill taken by the Germans on a train) and turn it into absolute garbage. The only acting worse than Jason Connery's was Francesco Quinn's. Man, they are lousy. Even known actors don't fare well. Glenn Ford and Donald Pleasance seem old, tired and disinterested. French actor Jean Sorel looks bemused throughout, and the whole thing is lifeless and oh-so-boring. I could forgive the mass historical and military inaccuracies if it was entertaining, but it doesn't (IMO) even rise to the 'so bad it's good' level. It's just bad. Oh, I did state that there was about 30 seconds of film that was worthwhile. That would be the scenes early in the film where Jinny Steffan, who's kinda hot, is showing her * :)

Its amazing how an actor of Sean Connery's charisma can have passed on zero percent of his ability to his son Jason. This spagetti WWII film is notable for Jason Connery's complete lack of acting ability. Much better is Francesco Quinn who though in a thankless role manages to give the film some much needed charisma. The plot is about as daft as you can get. German paras attack a train carrying Churchill and Connery sets about saving the day. Donald Pleasence and Glenn Ford have little to do, but show glimmers of past succeses. The rest of the cast are typically terrible and authenticity-wise the film has more holes than a colander. Having said that its one of those "so bad its good" films, but don't take it seriously. For a better film about attacking a train stick to Von Ryan's Express.

Despite its many negative reviews, I quite enjoyed this movie. It's full of action, moves at an admirably brisk pace from start to finish, and was obviously shot on some really exotic locations. Admittedly, I'm a train buff and any movies featuring a train – especially an exotic train such as this one – immediately get my vote! I'm also a Glenn Ford fan and it was good to see the Alpha DVD going all out to promote him on the cover ahead of everyone else. Incidentally, while I have the DVD in front of me, the cover maintains that the film "contains nudity." I don't remember any nudity. Maybe I slept through that scene, but I could have sworn I had my eyes glued to the set from start to finish. Getting back to Ford, true, Glenn is too old for the role (and so is Donald Pleasence for his part), but why quibble? Any movie with Glenn Ford is a good movie – and this one is tops! Available on a very good Alpha DVD.

I can only guess some of these actors were looking for paychecks and they are the only ones who profit from this. Nothing is good ; the camera-work is poor, the script is poor, there is no closed captions, and the sound really sucks. you can almost see 20 foot booms with mics dangling from them, instead of mics on the actors. Alright, the scenery is OK. And this is proof that just because you have actors as parents doesn't mean you get any talent from the genes. This was one of the last movies for Glenn Ford, an iconic actor from the 40's and 50's. Even Donald Pleasence is in this, the same year he shot Halloween 5. Some of the chase scenes were overly long and not necessary to the story. Unnecessary nudity and "love scenes" used as filler.

The plot is a WWII attempt by Axis powers to kidnap Winston Churchill. What we have is an epic style film here, one of those larger than life Indiana Jones type flicks that isn't meant to be taken seriously, and goes instead for the thrills and bangs. And it pretty well does that. We have mega stars Pleasance and Ford doing the older officer bits, and we have young action heroes doing quite well in the "not to be taken seriously" action. Of course it is off the wall action, but there really isn't any attempt by the director to disguise this. This is James Bond or Indiana Jones style escapism. The characters are not overly deep, but more intended to convey comedy. Again, there is no attempt to disguise this. We have some surprises, especially in the identity of the spy. Nothing big, just enough to make it entertaining. Lots of needless shooting and silly action scenes. If you like Bond flicks, you'll like this, though. Same thing.

It is difficult to find enough bad things to say about this movie. It is even more difficult to imagine why Glenn Ford and Donald Pleasance would agree to be in this movie. As far as realism and historical accuracy: Non-existent. The only way a person could find this movie realistic is if they just moved here from another planet. Here are just a few technical examples of the poor quality of this film: The U.S. Army personnel are wearing uniforms that are currently in use (issued in the early 1980s). The soldiers use helmet liners instead of complete helmets (liner and "iron pot"). The U.S. flags that are shown have 50 stars (instead of the 48-star flag which was in use from 1912 until 1960). I rated it two stars because unfortunately, I have seen worse movies.