Avalanche Express
4.8 /10 1 Votes
Director Mark Robson Music director Allyn Ferguson Duration Language English | 4.8/10 IMDb Genre Action, Thriller Producer Gene Corman Country United States
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Release date August 30, 1979 (1979-08-30) (Netherlands)
October 19, 1979 (1979-10-19) (United States) Based on novel by
Colin Forbes Writer Abraham Polonsky (screenplay), Colin Forbes (novel) Directors Mark Robson, Monte Hellman Cast Lee Marvin (Wargrave), Robert Shaw (Markenkov), Linda Evans (Else Lang), Joe Namath (Leroy), Horst Buchholz (Schotten), Maximilian Schell (Bunin)Similar movies Mission: Impossible , Mission: Impossible II , From Russia With Love , For Your Eyes Only , Mission: Impossible III , The Living Daylights Tagline The Fast Track For All-Star Adventure. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Avalanche express original theatrical trailer
Avalanche Express is a 1979 cold war adventure thriller film produced and directed by Mark Robson (his final film), about the struggle over a defecting Russian general. It starred Lee Marvin, Robert Shaw (in his last performance), Maximilian Schell, and Linda Evans. The screenplay by Abraham Polonsky was based on the 1977 novel of the same name by Colin Forbes. Both Shaw and Robson died near the end of shooting.
Contents
Plot
Russian general Marenkov (Robert Shaw) decides to defect to the West and CIA agent Harry Wargrave (Lee Marvin) leads the team that is to get him out. Wargrave decides that Marenkov should travel across Europe by train, on the fictional "Avalanche Express". The idea is to lure the Russians into attacking the train and thus discover who their secret agents in Europe are. Consequently, during the train journey they must survive both a terrorist attack and an avalanche, all planned by Russian spy-catcher Nikolai Bunin (Maximilian Schell).
Cast
Production problems
During production in Ireland, both director Mark Robson and starring actor Robert Shaw died of heart attacks within weeks of each other. Monte Hellman was brought in to finish the direction and Gene Corman (Roger Corman's brother) was called in to complete Robson's duties as producer.
Robert Rietty was hired to re-voice Robert Shaw's dialogue in the opening scene, as it was decided to redo that scene in Russian with English subtitles instead of having the Russians speak broken English. As a consequence, for continuity, all of Shaw's dialogue throughout the film was re-voiced by Rietty.
Hellman, Corman and Rietty were not credited for their work, but the film's end credit contains a note stating: "The producers wish to express their appreciation to Monte Hellman and Gene Corman for their post production services."
Critical reaction
Vincent Canby in The New York Times criticized its tackiness suggesting it was copied from The Cassandra Crossing and likening it to the work of exploitation filmmaker Lew Grade, criticising the actors as appearing "at a loss". Time Out called it "awful", "formulary" and "hammily acted" but explained its curious editing as resulting from the production problems. The Radio Times gave it 2/5 stars, noting its disjointed quality but praising the acting and snowy special effects. In contrast the Daily Mail praised it as a "highly effective Cold War thriller", singling out the claustrophobic train scenes for excitement.
References
Avalanche Express WikipediaAvalanche Express IMDb Avalanche Express themoviedb.org