During his acting career, Frank Sinatra took a lot of hits from people who thought he couldn't act. While his early films are a tad rough, I've always thought this criticism was entirely undeserved. With films like SUDDENLY, MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM, THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE and this film, he proved pretty conclusively that in addition to singing, he was a heck of an actor. I wonder if some of the criticism of Sinatra was more a criticism of him as a person. Sure, he was in many ways difficult, but say what you want about this--he still could act.
In VON RYAN'S EXPRESS, Frank plays the leader of a huge group of soldiers who escape from an Italian prison camp. The Italian government is in shambles and the soldiers have no desire to press the war, but when an entire camp of Allied soldiers bolts, the Germans come in force to stop them and save face.
This is a big scope picture--with exciting prison camp scenes, chases, railroad scenes, etc. While not the best prison film I have seen, it's among the best and apart from a small handful of films (such as THE DIRTY DOZEN and THE GUNS OF NAVARONE), it's one of the best of the genre made in the 1960s. Give it a look--you won't be disappointed.
