Probably as a vehicle for his wife, star Sophia Loren, producer Carlo Ponti assembled an stellar cast in a film about a passenger train heading for doom on a rickety bridge spanning a huge gorge. Though the film has its share of clichéd action scenes and a stilted dialog, it benefits from over-the-top performances from Ava Gardner as a wealthy matron and a young Martin Sheen as her gigolo lover. Richard Harris plays Loren's estranged husband and their scenes together are adequate.
Burt Lancaster is appropriately menacing as an American general that will do anything to assure that knowledge of the biological weapon infecting the train remains a secret, even at the expense of the passengers' lives. Acting teaching legend Lee Strasberg is convincing as an old man reliving the horrors of Nazi Germany.
And a certain former Heisman trophy winner/murder suspect gets to run around in a priest collar as an undercover government agent.
If that wasn't a disaster, I don't know what one really is!!!
Burt Lancaster is appropriately menacing as an American general that will do anything to assure that knowledge of the biological weapon infecting the train remains a secret, even at the expense of the passengers' lives. Acting teaching legend Lee Strasberg is convincing as an old man reliving the horrors of Nazi Germany.
And a certain former Heisman trophy winner/murder suspect gets to run around in a priest collar as an undercover government agent.
If that wasn't a disaster, I don't know what one really is!!!