Avalanche Express

Avalanche Express
Directed by	Mark Robson
Produced by	Mark Robson
Screenplay by	Abraham Polonsky
Based on	novel by Colin Forbes
Starring	Lee Marvin Robert Shaw Linda Evans Maximilian Schell
Music by	Allyn Ferguson
Cinematography	Jack Cardiff (uncredited)
Edited by	Garth Craven
Production company	Lorimar Productions (Ireland) Ltd.
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release dates	August 30, 1979 (1979-08-30) (Netherlands) October 19, 1979 (1979-10-19) (United States)
Running time	88 minutes
Country	United States Ireland
Language	English
Budget	$12 million

Avalanche Express is a 1979 cold war adventure thriller film produced and directed by Mark Robson (his final film as he died the previous year), 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 novel by Colin Forbes. Both Shaw and Robson died near the end of shooting.

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

• Lee Marvin as Col. Harry Wargrave
• Robert Shaw as Gen. Marenkov
• Linda Evans as Elsa Lang
• Maximilian Schell as Col. Nikolai Bunin
• Joe Namath as Leroy
• Horst Buchholz as Julian Scholten
• Mike Connors as Haller
• Claudio Cassinelli as Col. Molinari
• Kristina Nel as Helga Mann
• David Hess as Geiger
• Günter Meisner as Rudi Muehler
• Sylva Langova as Olga
• Cyril Shaps as Sedov
• Vladek Sheybal as Zannbin
• Arthur Brauss as Neckerman
• Sky du Mont as Philip John
• Richard Marner as Field Marshal Prachko
• Arnold Drummond as Commissar (Maxim Gorky)
• Paul Glawion as Alfredo
• Dan van Husen as Bernardo

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 criticised 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.

See also

• List of American films of 1979

External links

• Avalanche Express at IMDb