Von Ryan's Express (20th Century Fox) (1965)

“Von Ryan's Express, WW Il Action-Adventure, Stars Frank Sinatra and Trevor Howard as POW's The film version of ‘“‘Von Ryan’s Express,” David Westheimer’s novel about a mass POW escape via railread, stars Frank Sinatra and Trevor Howard and opens ....... . at the oe ee eo © © ww ow Theatre. Filmed in CinemaScope and DeLuxe Color under the direc tion of Mark Robson, the production was filmed on location in Italy with a cast that includes Raffaella Carra, Brad Dexter, Sergio Fantoni, John Leyton and Edward Mulhare. The story centers around Colonel Joseph Ryan, an Air Force officer played by Frank Sinatra, who is captured after being shot down over Italy, and sent to a POW camp in Central Italy. Shortly after his arrival all prisoners are put aboard a train bound for Austria, but with the aid of British Major Fincham (Trevor Howard), Ryan and the prisoners subdue their German captors, and then try to fight and bluff their way through 400 miles of Nazi-controlled Italy to the safety of Switzerland. Two vintage trains, one for the escapees and one for their Nazi pursuers, were acquired by director Robson for filming. After receiving permission from the Italian government, Robson, his cast and his crew, actually rode the trains over the 400 mile journey described in the story, filming the picture along the way in railroad stations and the surrounding countryside. After filming the train sequences, the entire cast and crew returned to Hollywood where the POW camp was constructed to exacting detail on the 20th Century-Fox back lot. Covering 400,000 square feet, the camp was one of the most ambitious and expensive backlot sets ever constructed in Hollywood. Frank Sinatra, who played a sailor in his recent “None But The Brave,” is promoted to a Colonel in the Air Force for “Von Ryan’s Express.” No stranger to military roles, he won an Academy Award for his performance as Private Maggio in “From Here To Eternity,” and has been a military man in such pictures as “Kings Go Forth,” “Never So Few,” and “The Manchurian Candidate.” Trevor Howard, who has also been seen on the screen numerous times as a military man, plays the role of Major Eric Fincham, the tough-as-nails British infantry officer who first despises Ryan, and then helps him lead the escape. “Von Ryan’s Express” introduces Raffaella Carra, the young Italian actress, in her American motion picture debut. She was chosen in a competition among 200 Italian actresses for the role of Gabriella, the German officer’s mistress riding on the train captured by the POW’s. For her performance, she was rewarded with a five-year contract froin 20th Century-Fox and the fame that a Frank Sinatra picture can bring. Included in the cast are Edward Mulhare who replaced Rex Harrison in the Broadway production of “My Fair Lady”; Sergio Fantoni, who is second only to Marcello Mastroianni in popularity polls of Italian actors; John Leyton, a highly popular British singer who recently appeared in “Guns at Batasi”; Brad Dexter and Wolfgang Preiss. TREVOR HOWARD Mat 1B INSPECTION—Frank Sinatra, as a POW escapee masquerading as a Nazi soldier, is stopped and inspected by a Gestapo agent in this scene from “Von Ryan’s Express,” a 20th Century-Fox release in CinemaScope and DeLuxe Color opening ......... Theatre. Trevor Howard is also starred. atiGNe: ee coe. Heroism Depends on Circumstances, Says Screen Hero, Frank Sinatra Hollywood is undoubtedly the home of the hero. In hundreds of films, the movie colony’s leading actors have depicted the derringdo, devotion to duty and stiff upper lip of both real and fictitious heros. But, according to actor-entertainer Frank Sinatra, heroism on the battlefield is almost 100% accidental—a point he is attempting to weave into his characterization of Colonel Joseph Ryan, the fictional hero of David Westheimer’s “Von Ryan’s Express,” the best-selling novel now being released in a CinemaScope and DeLuxe Color film version by 20th Century-Fox at the..... THEAtre ON... «e's oes “Ryan is the perfect example of a real wartime hero,” says Frank Sinatra. “He’s a highly paid commercial pilot who earns his rank through the ‘ninety-daywonder’ program because the country needed experienced flyers. When Ryan is shot down and captured over Italy, his inclination is to ride out his internment and wait for the war to end. The fact that the rest of the POW’s in the camp are anxious to escape and get back into the fight —strikes Ryan as stupid. “But when Italy surrenders and the Nazis move in, Ryan, still reluctant, asserts his authority as senior officer and engineers a mass escape. But he makes a crucial mistake and the POW’s are soon recaptured and herded onto a freight train bound for Austria. Many POW’s are killed in this action and the survivors christen our hero ‘Von Ryan.’ “Now Ryan is fully committed. He’s a lone wolf by choice, but as soon as he takes the first step as a leader, responsible for the men he commands, he got to go all the way.” The rest of “Von Ryan’s Express” is devoted to the incredible escape plan masterminded by Colonel Ryan. The POW’s take over their own prison train and then bluff and fight their way across 400 miles of Nazi-controlled Italy. Sinatra and the senior British officers, portrayed by Trevor Howard, Edward Mulhare and John Leyton, masquerade as German troopers to pull off the escape, which is climaxed by a running battle in the Italian Alps between the escapee’s train, a pursuing German troop train, and German fighter planes. Sinatra points out that Ryan, aside from being unpopular with his men, committs a few necessary but distinctly unheroic acts in the course of the escape. This, he insists, is one of the main differences between Colonel Ryan and the traditional Hollywood war hero, “It goes without saying that the ending of this story is not a glorious one for Ryan,” Sinatra adds. “There are no medals or pretty girls waiting for him at the end of the line. And that’s the way it usually is in real life.” Frank Sinatra's Busy Career Forces Him to Use Helicopter With his hectic schedule as a full-time actor, singer, director and business executive, Frank Sinatra constantly searches for ways to squeeze more time out of each day. One of his most effective time-saving devices is to follow the rule of never walking or riding when he can fly. This device was used to the utmost during filming of ‘Von Ryan’s Express,” 20th CenturyFox release in CinemaScope and DeLuxe Color opening GRO esis a erdte Theatre. During his four months in Italy Sinatra commuted between his villa in Via Appia Antica to his location sites by helicopter. The job of keeping Sinatra in the air belongs to former Air Force pilot Don Lieto. During trips in the helicopter, Lieto follows main highways as much as possible, so he’s always close to a flat landing area in case of an emergency. One day he and Sinatra flabbergasted workers at RAFFAELLA CARRA Mat 1C “Von Ryan's Express’ Was Filmed On the Run from Rome to the Alps Director Mark Robson knows what he’s talking about when he describes his “Von Ryan’s Express” as “the running, jumping, never-standing-still film.” During ten weexs of filming in Italy, Robson and his unit were constantly on the move, changing location sites every two days and covering hundreds of miles of countryside in short hops. Opening at the Theatre, “Von Ryan’s Express” was filmed in CinemaScope and DeLuxe Color starring Frank Sinatra and Trevor Howard. Adapted from the best-selling novel by David Westheimer, it tells of a mass escape enginneered by six hundred British and American prisoners-of-war who capture a freight train and then fight and bluff their way across four hundred miles of Nazi-controlled Italy in an attempt to reach the Swiss border. Locations for the $6,000,000 epic follows the route of the escaping POW’s, from the Adriatic coast of central Italy, through Rome, Pisa, Florence, Bologna, Milan and the Italian Alps which lead to Switzerland. Many key scenes were enacted in railroad stations, and these were filmed by conventional methods. Aboard the speeding train, Robson had to utilize techniques which introduced the element of danger to his task. A camera jeep was fitted out with special wheels to enable it to ride on the tracks at speeds up to 90 miles per hour. Robson and his camera crew were perched in a rostrum atop the jeep as they chased after “Von Ryan’s Express.” Scenes showing hand-to-hand eeesvee AL UIT acerca combat between German guards and POW’s atop the moving boxcars were shot from a special aparatus which was loaded onto a flatcar in the center of the train. Several close-ups of guards sitting atop the boxcars were filmed as both cast and crew hung on for dear life as “Von Ryan’s Express” careened around hairpin turns at top speeds. To facilitate the logistics of filming-on-the-run, the train itself was turned into a film studio on wheels. Sealed boxcars supposedly containing POW’s actually housed wardrobe, make-up and prop departments, plus a specially cooled compartment to protect film from the Italian summer heat. “Von Ryan’s Express” was regarded as an ordinary train by the government-owned Italian Railways, and it had to keep out of the way of passenger or freight trains. Despite hours of advance planning, Robson often had to get out of the way of speedy, modern trains. After the train sequences were filmed in Italy, the cast and crew returned to Hollywood for the sequences in the Italian POW camp, which covered 400,000 square feet and was built to exacting detail on the 20th Century-Fox back lot. It is here that Frank Sinatra as Colonel Ryan, and Trevor Howard as Major Fincham, first meet and plot to stage a mass escape. “Von Ryan’s Express” was produced by Saul David from a screenplay by Wendell Mayes and Joseph Landon. The cast also includes Raffaella Carra, Brad Dexter, Sergio Fantoni, John Leyton and Edward Mulhare. a gasoline station on an Italian highway by dropping out of the sky to buy fuel for the helicopter. When Sinatra left for a tenday yacht tour of the French and Italian Rivieras, he flew directly from Hadrian’s Villa near Tivoli, where he filmed sequences for “Von Ryan’s Express,” to the deck of his chartered 207-foot yacht, which was moored in Anzio harbor. Pilot Lieto considers the yacht deck to be his most difficult and dangerous landing field. When the “Von Ryan’s Express” production company moved north to Cortina in the Italian Alps, Sinatra continued to use the helicopter. A tennis court at the Hotel Cristallo was converted into a landing area and platforms were built on location sites in the mountains. “Von Ryan’s Express” stars Sinatra and Trevor Howard with Raffaella Carra in her American motion picture debut. Directed by Mark Robson from David Westheimer’s bestselling novel, it is the story of a mass escape from an Italian prisoner-of-war camp in 1943. Movies Are Hard Work For Actor Trevor Howard British star Trevor Howard, who spends most of his time making movies, likes to pop into a stageplay or TV drama every now and then—for a rest. Howard, who’s currently starring with Frank Sinatra in 20th Century-Fox’s “Von Ryan’s Express,” regards film-making as the hardest grind of all. “T won an ‘Emmy’ award for my portrayal of the ‘Invincible Mr. Disraeli’ on the Hallmark Hall of Fame television series,” notes Howard. “The whole works, including rehearsals and taping, took three weeks, which is unusually long for a television play. “When I do a stage play, I always have a three-month ‘out’ clause written inte my contract. After doing a play eight times a week for that period, I usually get bored and sloppy. I don’t think that’s fair to the play, the other actors, or the audience, so I move on to something else. “Actually, motion pictures take the longest time to make nowadays. I was all over Europe for four months with ‘Von Ryan’s Express,’ and I don’t think I’ve ever had to do as much physical work in my life. For ‘Mutiny on the Bounty,’ I spend eight months sweating in the South Seas. It just seems to be too long for one project.” FRANK SINATRA Mat 1A Italy's Raffaella Carra In “Von Ryan’s Express” All the young actresses in Rome were agog when they heard one of their number would be chosen to play opposite Frank Sinatra and Trevor Howard in 20th Century-Fox’s “Von Ryan’s Express,” the WW II adventure in CinemaScope and DeLuxe ColorzOMENIM vacclec.see erie; at the PO, sae Theatre. The choice role fell to 21-yearold Raffaella Carra who blends a resemblance to Sophia Loren with the charm of Audrey Hepburn. “Von Ryan’s Express” is her first American picture and she is the only woman in a cast of British, Italian and German stars. In spite of her youth, Raffaella has already made ten motion pictures in Europe with such stars as Marcella Mastroianni and Valentina Cortese, and _ has worked on locations all over Italy, in France, the Canary Islands and Yugoslavia. She is also very popular on Italian TV where she is a regular on the popular variety series, “I] Paroliere.” Director Mark Robson saw “Il Paroliere” on the TV set in his hotel in Rome, and invited Raffaella to audition for the role, along with 200 other young Italian actresses. Two weeks later, through the process of elimination, Raffaella was notified of her selection for the role. After four months of location filming in Italy, the cast and crew had to return to Hollywood, for interior sequences. This afforded Raffaella with her first trip to America, and at the Twentieth Century-Fox studio, she was awarded a five-year contract. With her career in Hollywood off to a rip-roaring start, and with five years to go Raffaella Carra’s future looks very rosy indeed. PASSENGERS ON “VON RYAN’S EXPRESS”—Trevor Howard plays a POW masquerading as a German soldier and Raffaella Carra portrays an Italian collaborator in this scene from “Von Ryan’s Express,” a 20th Century-Fox release in CinemaScope and DeLuxe Color opening . . at the eevee eee Theatre. Frank Sinatra stars as Colonel Ryan, an American officer who engineers a mass POW escape via train from Italy to Switzerland. Mat 2A Page 7