Horror Express

[wanderarbeiter]

I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. This was part of one of those Mill Creek 50 pack deals, so my expectations were already pretty low. The movie turned out to be surprisingly entertaining and competent. An archaeologist (Christopher Lee!) unearths a frozen ape-man, the ape-man thaws and runs amok on the train it is being transported on, although there may be more to the ape-man than meets the eye (no spoilers, sorry). Now Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing (who plays a rival scientist) must unravel the mystery before the train reaches its destination.

Inspector Mirov: The two of you together. That's fine. But what if one of you is the monster?
Dr. Wells (Peter Cushing) : [aghast] Monster? We're British, you know. 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068713/

[Eyesore]

I've loved this movie since I was a kid. Especially Telly Savalas' over the top Cossack.

[RCMerchant]

A great little movie!!!!
I always think of that line too...
The visuals ar quite striking...and in case you always wanted to know what it would be like to see it in Germany-here's a cool German trailer!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztgcUksBqWA

[peter johnson]

Yeah, Savalas shows his star power in this one -- It really is his film, despite Lee & Cushing together again.
It's a great film to show if you're doing a Horror Night at your local club, pub or TV station, as it's always in Public Domain, re. No rights or royalties concerns.  We ran it as part of "Movie Maesoleum" once upon a time, on local Colorado PBS.
peter johnson/denny crane

[Doc Daneeka]

Yeah, Savalas shows his star power in this one -- It really is his film, despite Lee & Cushing together again.
It's a great film to show if you're doing a Horror Night at your local club, pub or TV station, as it's always in Public Domain, re. No rights or royalties concerns.  We ran it as part of "Movie Maesoleum" once upon a time, on local Colorado PBS.
peter johnson/denny crane

How is it Savalas' film? He was in it for all of 15 minutes at most!

And yeah, PD films are nice , of course other than the fact that no one ever bothers to give them a decent SE DVD release!

[akiratubo]

This movie is ok.  I love how Lee's character tries to gloss over not knowing how the monk's chalk wouldn't write on the crate.

"Hypnosis.  Yoga.  A conjurer's trick."

When in doubt, toss out some buzz words and make a hasty exit.

[soylentgreen]

It's a great film to show if you're doing a Horror Night at your local club, pub or TV station, as it's always in Public Domain, re. No rights or royalties concerns.  We ran it as part of "Movie Maesoleum" once upon a time, on local Colorado PBS.
peter johnson/denny crane

And yeah, PD films are nice , of course other than the fact that no one ever bothers to give them a decent SE DVD release!

Sadly, this is the exact reason why, no matter when I've seen this or in what format, it's always been rough and cruddy.  I wondered what the Mill Creek quality was like.

[Jack]

The film has everything - Lee, Cushing, cool monster, great location, varied characters.  So why do I always get really bored during it?  I don't know what it is, I should be mesmerized by this, but I just never seem to get into it.

[Neville]

This one is classic. Not exactly great, despite the cast and the visuals, but lots of fun nevertheless. I had the greatest laughs with Telly Savalas OTT performance, and when the monk tempts the creature to posses him, to what he (it?) answers that he's got nothing in his head he could posibly use.

[Eyesore]

 I think that right from Capt. Kazan's (Savalas) entrance at the train station, you have the feeling that he is in charge in a maniacally confident sort of way. He is brash, charming with the ladies, and fearless.
Plus, he is believable when saying normally corny lines like;

"Little Papa, do you believe in the Devil?"
"Yes."
"Good, then tell him; 'I know that a horse has 4 legs, a murderer has 2 arms, and the Devil is afraid of one...honest...Cossack'.".

My second favorite performance is Miss Jones' (Alice Reinheart). Businesslike, yet tongue in cheek.

I've got the Geneon copy, and aside from a few lines in the early part of the movie, it is a great copy with Hammer-like vivid colors.

[Allhallowsday]

HORROR EXPRESS was a late night staple of CBS (channel 2) out of New York in the 70s.  I can relate to Jack with regards to having been bored by it in the past, as Neville put it, it's not exactly great but a lot of fun.  Plus, for me, I have a lot of nostalgia for this flick... and I think I should dig out my own DVD copy, which I have on some huge cheapo collection (that with just a few films watched already was worth the purchase price...)   
BELA, thanks for the trailer... I feel like I watched the whole damned movie, including the finale!!! 

[peter johnson]

Someone can own a film & only be on for a few minutes -- As others here note, it depends upon the strength of the performance.  I think Lee and Cushing play very subdued characters in this, not that they're bad or anything -- they never are -- , just that when Savalas comes on full of testosterone & rising from the furs wherein he has his latest nekkid gal, chomping the wooden scenery to bits, well . . . like I say, his star-power/his film.
Re. Picture quality -- Try getting a VHS copy from some video store trying to dump their VHS tapes.  I find that most VHS versions are cleaner than whatever they're using to strike the DVD-pack versions.  The one we used to use on "Movie Maesoleum" was clear as a bell, with only a few "moth-marks" -- and it was from a VHS copy.
Those red, red eyes simply cannot be bright enough!!
peter johnson/denny crane

[BoyScoutKevin]

The nearest thing to a Hammer horror never made by Hammer. Thus, if you like the Hammer horrors, you have to see this one.

[trekgeezer]

I had the greatest laughs with Telly Savalas OTT performance,

Telly's great in everything he's in. I think he was just an over the top kinda guy.

[soylentgreen]

Telly's great in everything he's in. I think he was just an over the top kinda guy.

Everyone snarks on it, but man, do I LOVE this movie...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8jJxKTFXPc

Pervert!