Sleeping Car to Trieste *** (1948, Jean Kent, Albert Lieven, Alan Wheatley, Paul Dupuis, David Tomlinson, Rona Anderson, Derrick de Marney, Grégoire Aslan, Bonar Colleano, Zena Marshall) – Classic Movie Review 4,022

Jean Kent stars in the quirky and amusing 1948 British thriller film Sleeping Car to Trieste about spies, art thieves and blackmailers aboard a trans-Europe express train.

Director John Paddy Carstairs’s 1948 British thriller Sleeping Car to Trieste is a quirky and amusing remake of the granddaddy of all train thrillers, 1932’s Rome Express, about spies, dastardly art thieves and blackmailers aboard an intercontinental trans-Europe express train travelling between Paris and Trieste.

Though it is not as plush or express as the esteemed original, it is not too bad at all, quite engaging in fact.

Among the actors having a jolly good time are Albert Lieven (in the old Conrad Veidt role as the mysterious Zurta), Alan Wheatley as the shifty Karl, and Paul Dupuis as the French detective inspector Jolif, with Jean Kent as Valya, David Tomlinson, Rona Anderson, Derrick de Marney, Grégoire Aslan, David Hutcheson, Bonar Colleano and Zena Marshall.

And this time Finlay Currie (who was in the original as the film star’s publicist) is the horrid rich man, Alastair MacBane, who gives a hard time to his meek little minion Mills (Hugh Burden).

Jean Kent as Valya.

Also in the cast are Claude Larue, Leslie Weston, Michael Ward, Eugene Deckers, Dino Galvani, George De Warfaz, Gerard Heinz, Michael Balfour, Tony De Lungo, Tony Etienne, Christina Forbes, Armand Guinle, Joy Harrington, Henrik Jacobsen, Andreas Malandrinos, Sheila Martin, Primrose Milligan, Oscar Nation, David Paltenghi, Marcel Poncin, Boris Ranevsky, Gaston Richer, Victor Robinson, John Secret, John Stevens, Merle Tottenham and Michael Yannis.

Allan MacKinnon and William Douglas-Home adapt the story Rome Express by Clifford Grey.

Sleeping Car to Trieste runs 95 minutes and was released on 6 October 1948.

Rona Anderson.

Rona Anderson (1926–2013), who makes her film debut and plays Joan Maxted, was married to Gordon Jackson. She recalled: ‘I did enjoy doing it. It was a film full of nice little cameo performances. Paddy Carstairs had a good way of relaxing you and I think he had a very good way with actors.’

But that was not how Jean Kent (29 June 1921 − 30 November 2013) remembered it. She said she didn’t like the film and didn’t get on very well with Carstairs. ‘You never knew where you were with him. I don’t remember enjoying it. I had silly clothes. I wanted to be very French in plain black and a little beret but I had to wear these silly New Look clothes. I was playing a superspy of some kind. But who was I spying for?’

Presumably the train was originally bound for Vienna as the film was originally called Sleeping Car to Vienna.

The cast are Jean Kent as Valya, Albert Lieven as Zurta, Derrick De Marney as George Grant, Paul Dupuis as Inspector Jolif, Rona Anderson as Joan Maxted, David Tomlinson as Tom Bishop, Bonar Colleano as Sergeant West, Finlay Currie as Alastair MacBain, Grégoire Aslan [Coco Aslan] as the chef Poirier, Alan Wheatley as Karl/ Charles Poole, Hugh Burden as Mills, David Hutcheson as Denning, Claude Larue as Andrée, Zena Marshall as Suzanne, Leslie Weston as Randall, Michael Ward as Elvin, Eugene Deckers as Jules, Dino Galvani as Pierre, George De Warfaz as Chef du Train, Gerard Heinz as Ambassador, Leslie Weston, Michael Balfour, Tony De Lungo, Tony Etienne, Christina Forbes, Armand Guinle, Joy Harrington, Henrik Jacobsen, Andreas Malandrinos, Sheila Martin, Primrose Milligan, Oscar Nation, David Paltenghi, Marcel Poncin, Boris Ranevsky, Gaston Richer, Victor Robinson, John Secret, John Stevens, Merle Tottenham and Michael Yannis.

Trieste is a seaport in northeastern Italy and the capital city of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia. It was rated one of the 25 best small cities in the world for quality of life in 2020 and one of the ten safest cities in the world in 2021. Curiously, it has the highest percentage of researchers in Europe in relation to population.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4,022

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Rona Anderson was married to Gordon Jackson.