The Paris Express

Several years earlier this Technicolor film would have been filmed in b&w at Warner's or RKO instead of an English studio. Nonetheless, it's still noir all the way, with Rains as the fall guy, Toren as the spider woman, and trains as fate symbolizing the life that's passing Rains by. His dull company clerk, Popinga, has a bland conventional life in Holland with a wife and two kids. Oddly, he's fascinated by the sound of passing trains, knowing many are going to Paris, and a glamorous life he can only dream about. Then one day, fate takes over and soon the repressed Popinga is on that Paris train with his dreams appearing at last to come true. But then this is noir.

Rains is ace in his aging role, a long way from his usual sinister master-minds. In fact, the flick amounts to a Rains showcase as he spotlights about every scene. Good thing that there's leggy relief for us guys with the sexy likes of Toren and Anouk in their slinky outfits. Anyway, to me, it's an underrated noir, maybe because of its often bright coloring and European provenance. After all, American studios had wide avenues of movie distribution not so available to European others. Thus, the flick remains largely unknown to fans of noir, and qualifies as a possible sleeper; that is, if you can get past some of the plot stretches that may not pass you by, (especially the cat-and-mouse between Rains and Lucas). Also: I expect the morally ambiguous drowning accounts for the rather ambiguous ending that I wasn't expecting. Anyway, give it a try, especially if you would like to catch that passing train.

This is a rarity, an obscure colour film starring Claude Rains late in his career (he was 63), in a film noir. Rains plays a quiet and respectable Chief Clerk of a Dutch manufacturing firm which is owned by Herbert Lom and his aged father. Unknown to everyone, Lom has been obsessed for some time by a scheming and criminal Parisian tart, played tempestuously by Marta Toren. He has looted the company of all of its cash and left it a bankrupt shell, prior to running off to Paris to a new life with his beloved. This is discovered at the last minute by Rains, who has sunk his entire family's savings in the company, and hence lost them. Rains snaps and turns on Lom, pushing him into a canal in a rage, where Lom drowns. Rains takes Lom's suitcase containing all the company's remaining cash and runs off to Paris, which he has always wanted to visit. He has been a train-spotter all his life, and for years has been noting the passage of the Paris Express. Now at last he is on it. Marius Goring is a Dutch policeman who suspects Lom, and now trails Rains. When he arrives in Paris, Rains wants to find Marta Toren and he asks directions of a young prostitute in the street, played by the 20 year-old Anouk Aimée. She is listed in the front credits as Aimée Anouk, and in the end credits simply as 'Anouk'. So she was clearly having difficulty making up her mind her she was, or who she was to be, at that time. Like so many interesting mature actresses, she was very boring as a 20 year-old and makes little impression in her small role. (Another example of a fascinating mature actress being boring when young is Juliette Binoche, as I remarked in my review of RENDEZ-VOUS, 1985.) Eventually, Rains meets up with Toren, who at first laughs at him as a ridiculous old man and throws him out. But her attitude towards him changes when she realizes he has Lom's money. Things go from bad to worse, as Rains sinks deeper and deeper into delusion and intrigue. The film is not particularly convincing, and is only mildly interesting in itself, but the performance of Claude Rains is masterful, and truly makes something out of nothing, or should I say genuinely produces a silk purse out of a sow's ear. Admirers of Claude Rains will like watching this. But my goodness, Simenon has had a rough time of it, with films called THE MAN …, because his novel made as the film THE MAN FROM London (A LONDONI FERFI, 2007, see my review) is simply appalling, being 'the slowest film ever made'. Why do people buy the rights to Simenon novels and then not take proper trouble over filming them correctly?

Filmed in Europe, the story is about a meek little clerk working for a respectable Dutch company who, by happenstance, finds himself with a suitcase full of stolen funds on a train to Paris.

He abandons his wife and children (the latter laughing at him behind his conservative, respectable back) to indulge in a life of excitement and adventure such as he had never dared dream. Yet, beneath it all, once he gets to Paris, he is still a mouse in many ways ready to be laughed at and exploited by those of the underworld that he encounters. But, as these people will also find out, the mouse can turn.

The clerk who goes on a spree is played by Claude Rains in, shockingly, one of only six motion pictures in which he appeared during the '50s. A woman of questionable morals that he meets and with whom he becomes obsessed is played by Marta Toren, a dark haired beauty whose appearance always reminded me of the gorgeous Alida (The Third Man) Valli.

Also in the cast are Marius Goring as a police inspector who wants to catch up with Rains before he really gets himself into even more serious trouble, and Herbert Lom, as his employer of the company for whom the clerk has been the perfect accountant for 18 years. All four actors give solid interpretations of their roles. Watching Rains and Lom together made me think of a former Phantom of the Opera working with a future one.

But it's Rains who is the primary source of interest in this drama, and it's his performance that brings many of the small pleasures to be found in this film which, at times, is also noteworthy for its lovely Technicolor. Rains plays a man who, by circumstances, stumbles into crime after a life of total boring respectability, and there are unsettling scenes in which an inner demon suddenly springs upon the face of an otherwise docile little man. There's a wickedness, suppressed for years, that bubbles to the surface, only to suddenly disappear again.

The change in character might be a little too sudden for complete conviction, at times, but it's such a pleasure to watch a seasoned professional like Rains at work here that I'm ready to forgive this little film for its weaknesses.

In the final analysis, The Man Who Watched Trains Go By (the title is explained by the film's opening scene, which shows Rains on his bicycle day dreaming about the exotic destinations of a train passing by him) is a minor drama. However, it is distinguished by the strong work of its cast and, in particular, the performance of the silken haired, elegant Claude Rains.

One of the great character actors of the studio system days, Rains' best work was behind him after leaving Warner Brothers in 1947. Here, however, he is given an opportunity to bring his subtle art to the screen once again in this independently produced European production.

Kees Popinga (Claude Rains) is an uninteresting man who has been senior clerk with the same firm for 18 years. When police inspector Lucas (Marius Goring) turns up to question his boss Julius de Koster (Herbert Lom) about money laundering, it sets off a chain of events which sees Kees travelling to Paris with a suitcase of the firm's money to live out his fantasy. De Koster has drowned and Lucas is investigating the case. For the rest of the film, he pursues Kees who goes to De Koster's Parisien lover Michele (Marta Toren) in order to take her away with him for some excitement in life. However, she is after the money from him so that she can take off with her lover Louis (Ferdy Mayne). She protects Kees, who has hidden the money, from Lucas so that she can get hold of the money herself........how do things work out?........How will Kees's rigid moral code of integrity and loyalty cope with betrayal..?...

Its a well acted film, my favourite character being Marius Goring who plays a sympathetic policeman who genuinely cares about Kees and wants to protect him. The colour adds to the spectacle and its an enjoyable film......... It was nice to see that even boring people have got some cunning inside them!

The Paris Express gives Claude Rains a truly outstanding starring role where a meek little clerk who's devoted almost a couple of decades to the firm he was employed catches his employer Herbert Lom running off with the company assets. When Lom is accidentally killed, it's Rains on a mad impulse takes the money that Lom had in his possession and runs off to Paris.

Detective Marius Goring had been for some time investigating the firm and when Lom turns up dead he catches on quickly that Rains has the stolen money. This man never had so much as parking ticket in his life and Goring tries very hard to get him to return the money and return to being a model citizen.

But Rains has had a taste of adventure and there's a chance for him to live like a playboy. He doesn't have it in him though.

He does however have a suspicious nature about people wanting to be a new friend. That paranoia degenerates Rains into madness. In this it's a lot like the performance he gave in Phantom Of The Opera without the acid burns. Also not unlike his scientist in the Invisible Man.

Helping him along is Marta Toren, a French prostitute with whom Lom was entangled and she'd like to entangle herself with Rains long enough to part him and his loot. Toren is a truly evil woman of the streets. She died young and the screen lost a great talent.

Rains was never a traditional leading man, but his was an ability to really get inside a character's skin. He truly blends into his role as the clerk gone mad with paranoia and middle age hormones pulling him in different directions. Check him out in his final scene with Marius Goring. His closeups tell all.

The Paris Express is a must for fans of Claude Rains and his art.