The Last Train from Madrid

Moviecut—The Last Train from Madrid

Why Hollywood placed a story amid the Spanish Civil War is beyond me. They couldn't commit to either side; consequently, we don't know who is on whose side or what the sides are. Pathetic. The Loyalists occupy Madrid, but you won't get that from the movie. They surrendered Madrid and the Nationalists won. You won't get that either The Last Train From Madrid concerns the last train leaving the city before the tracks are destroyed. You need a pass in order to board. And people are desperate to get them. An incredibly young Anthony Quinn plays Alvarez, who helps a friend, de Soto, to escape capture. De Soto is apparently on the opposite side that Alvarez is supposed to be on. Alvarez is then accused of being a traitor by his superior, Col. Vigo (Lionel Atwill). De Soto runs to the home of his former lover Carmelita (Dorothy Lamour), only to learn that she is otherwise engaged and not leaving Madrid alone. He then has to find another way to escape. Cummings plays a young soldier, Ramos, who can't bring himself to execute a man; when he is transferred to the front line, he deserts. Lew Ayres plays a newspaperman who gives a female hitchhiker, Maria (Olympe Bradna) a ride - she's also a deserter. De Soto's pass finally comes from a woman (Karen Morley) who pays a high price for getting him one. Someone compared this to Grand Hotel. In a way, yes, with a war as the background, albeit a confusing one.

Seeing this film over 75 years after it came out you had to wonder about how Hollywood treated this film as history. During the time we cannot tell who's occupying Madrid and who's being a traitor to who. That word is flung about in The Last Train To Madrid. But if you know nothing about the Spanish Civil War you would not know it was the Loyalists that occupied Madrid. Loyalists/Republicans held the Spanish capital and two years later the surrender of Madrid signaled the end of the War in a Nationalist triumph. Two years after this film was seen by our movie-going public. In 1936 the war started as a revolt of the army against the duly elected Republican government. It is discussed by historians to this day as to whether they were justified. But they did it and when Lionel Atwill calls Anthony Quinn a traitor I'm not sure who was betraying what. Part of the plot calls for Quinn to aid his old friend Gilbert Roland who's with the other side escape Madrid. But I can only guest that Atwill is part of the army Nationalist Revolt and Quinn has betrayed it and Roland even more so by being loyal to the Spanish Republic. The Last Train From Madrid has the city besieged and there will be a last train going out before the tracks are destroyed. Passes will be issued on a limited basis and they become as valued as those famous Letters of Transit in Casablanca. The film is the story of those trying to leave Madrid and how successful they are. A bit of Grand Hotel, a bit of Shanghai Express is the best way to describe this film. It would rate higher with me if it was more explicit.

Most commentors on this make reference to the fact that sides are not taken in the war. From my perspective, the war is merely there to allow for great social turmoil and narrow military control, enabling a plot device. One last train is leaving before the military destroys the tracks. Being left behind is near certain death while getting on the train could mean escape to anywhere in the world. This setup allows us to follow a half dozen unrelated stories. The production values are remarkably high, and the acting rather effective. Most viewers will consider the stories overly dramatic in shape. What impressed me wasn't any one of these stories, but the amazing variety. These were not just different situations and characters, they were stories told in different manners. I see the credits, but the impression you get from this is that eight or nine of the studio's senior writers were each given an opportunity to write a situation. The shifting from one to the other in the film is artless, having no significance. What I mean by being told differently: each couple (usually a couple) has different internal causal drivers. Each of these stories comes to us by leveraging those drivers in different ways. It is really quite remarkable and overall gives the feeling of complexity and human depth. One story is worth mentioning by itself. A female soldier is among a group being sent to certain death. She runs from her unit and talks someone into driving her to see her father. He is in prison and scheduled to be executed that day for political reasons. Her ride, as it happens, is an American reporter. He does take her to the prison and arranges a visit. But he is able to fool the daughter into believing that her father has gotten a reprieve. They have a quiet visit until he is called away, unbeknownst to her to be killed. The couple leave and get holed up overnight in a wine cellar. The American gets sweetly drunk. The couple has been slowly falling in love. When he awakes, he is told that he confessed his love and they got married. He tries to undo the error. She leaves, heartbroken. He has discovered a letter she wrote while he was asleep telling her father about her new love and the shared future of the three. Eventually they are reunited; he obtains the rare passes for a seat on the train and they rail off to a happy future. She may never know what happened to her father, we think. She is played with effective endearing innocence and we all simply fall in love with her and her simple earnestness. There are other idealist qualities in the other stories, but this is the only one that is sweetly attractive. Meanwhile, the good wishes of the American confound us. He is whip smart, and capable of protecting even this slight girl who fell into his field of vision. But the love affair is unbalanced: he as paternalistic decisionmaker with a broader field of knowledge She as a true human, deliberately content with just that. Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

The film is set during the Spanish Civil War which was being fought at the time and it centres around 3 unrelated groups of people trying to obtain a boarding pass for a train that will leave Madrid that night. It is the last train out of the city to freedom before the track is blown up. Destination Valencia. Everyone has until 11:00pm to obtain a boarding pass and these passes will be rigorously checked so it is bad news for anyone who is on the run. Every group we follow as at least one character who is wanted in this way. There is some good acting as well as some tiresome sentimentality - army deserter Robert Cummings (Ramos) and Helen Mack (Lola) get bogged down in trite dialogue with each other although their final journey to the train station has a good moment. Game over for someone. Similarly, army deserter Olympe Bradna (Maria) is too sickeningly sweet in some of her scenes with American journalist Lew Ayres (Bill). Dorothy Lamour plays the love interest for 2 friends - soldier Anthony Quinn (Alvarez) and escaped prisoner Gilbert Roland (de Soto) - but it is rather ludicrous how she is top billed. More could have been made of this love triangle but as things stand Lamour only needed to show up for one scene. She does not merit headlining this film. That privilege should go to Quinn and Roland. Also in the cast is a very effective Lionel Atwill who plays the military Colonel and Karen Morley who plays a wealthy lady and is the most interesting female character. Quinn, Roland, Atwill and Morley give the film the excitement and are the best of the cast. The film loses interest when these characters are not on screen because we just get lovey-dovey nonsense dialogue outside of the tensions relating to the build-up to the escape from Madrid at the film's climax. Not everyone makes it out.

Last Train From Madrid did something unusual for 1937: They cast actual Hispanics in the leads: Anthony Quinn ( Captain Alvarez), and Gilbert Roland ( Eduardo De Soto). While both actors are Mexican ( not from Spain), it helped with the authenticity of the film. The story takes place in Spain during the Spanish Civil War, and it is about people trying to get out on the last train. The best acting goes to Roland , Quinn and Lionel Atwill ( Colonel Vigo), but the best story ( and there are four in 90 minutes) involves Bill ( Lee Ayres) an American newspaper man, and Maria a soldier in the Spanish Republican Army who deserts so she can see her father before he gets executed. Note: Although a soldier, Maria is an innocent who does not know what she is fighting for? Bill is able to get her to see him one last time in prison, before he is executed ( she never knows). They start to fall in love, and because Bill is an American journalist ( and of course, the Spanish Government wants him out of the country), he ( unlike some others) can make the train, and by saying Maria is his secretary, he was able to bring her with him. Spoilers ahead: Bill and Maria do survive, but of course, she paid a price ( losing her father), as do everyone else in the movie (except Bill of course), survivors or not. Who else lives and who dies? That ( and the Bill and Marie story) is why you watch the movie ( and you can see it online). The only negative of the film is Karen Morley as a Baroness, and for that, I deduct a star. Why? Because like Ann Harding, and Kay Francis she is an actress I never liked. So 9/10 stars. Only Morley kept it from being great.

Hollywood tiptoed on eggshells when it came to the Spanish Civil War. This film is no exception. The plot is similar in style to MGM's "Grand Hotel" where separate stories are intermingled with the plot. The most interesting part of this film for me was the depiction of a woman's column marching to the front. But then one of the women sounded like she was from the Bronx and we never found out what happened to the column. Some of the acting is over the top like the dialog. But it is always fun to see Anthony Quinn,Lionel Atwill and Gilbert Roland. Bits of newsreel from the bombing of what appears to be Madrid are spliced in between the Hollywood back lot sets.

Before America's involvement in the Second World War, Hollywood's attitudes towards events in Europe were, to say the least, ambiguous… Greed (the fear of losing foreign markets), and the threat of backlash from powerful isolationist groups within the country meant that the films tended to avoid the controversial issues of fascism… Hollywood as a whole – though there were a few dedicated anti-fascists – prided itself on not taking sides Two films claiming to be about the Spanish Civil War somehow managed to evade mentioning who the combatants were and what the fighting was about 'The Last Train From Madrid' is a conventional melodrama about the plight of a group of people waiting to board the last train out of a besieged Madrid… The war has no other function here than to provide the element of suspense… More serious is 'Blockade,'1938 directed by William Dieterle… The film stars Henry Fonda as a Spanish peasant who reluctantly takes arms to defend his country

The 56 year old Cecil B. DeMille appeared as an extra in a crowd scene in this film. There were no big names to draw audiences to this film which means that the quick glimpse of DeMille was the only thing to watch in this film. Apart from that, I thought it was a waste of money.

source: The Last Train from Madrid