The Paris Express

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.

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.

I enjoyed this little, quiet movie enough to watch it twice in a row, despite the bad quality of the print I was watching. Claude Rains is heartbreaking as an obedient, flawlessly accurate little bookkeeper so devoted to his boss (Herbert Lom)that he is blind to the fact that he's an adulterer and a thief that has ransacked the companies funds, and is planning to declare bankruptcy and run away with his little floozy (Marta Toren). Of course, Lom is not too clever about what he's doing, and Inspector Lucas (Marius Goring) is already sniffing around long before Rains does anything or knows anything. The story is modestly interesting, although there are some bits and pieces that are a little hard to swallow. The real value of the film is in the characterizations. Rains is convincing as a man repressing his impulses and desires until everything he understands about life and his place in it comes apart, and he lets go of all control. I love the quiet conversations between Goring's detective and Rains trembling, stammering suspect, as they enjoy a game of chess. We believe the detective is genuinely concerned about the little bookkeeper, and knows that something important is breaking down in this essentially good man. Unfortunately, the telling climactic scenes were so dark that I almost had to guess what happened. This film needs to be restored. Somehow the director made it seem like the only people in Paris were Rains, Goring, and a handful of miscreants. Nice claustrophobic feel. Worth a look.

Claude Rains plays Mr. Popinga, a loyal and relatively dull man who has worked for the same firm for many years. He wouldn't seem to have a vicious bone in his body nor any sort of larcenous attempt. One day, however, he comes upon his boss...and the boss was embezzling the company's funds! They struggle and the boss falls into the river--presumably to drown. His briefcase with all the money, however, is still there and Popinga takes it and flees the country. His plan is kind of nutty...to introduce himself to his ex-boss' sexy mistress and take up with her. This doesn't work out, however, as she laughs in his face....at least until she later learns he's got the money. How did she learn this? From a Dutch detective who is following Popinga.

The idea of a meek man turning like this is very interesting. What isn't as interesting is how dopey Popinga acts during a few portions of the film...at least when it comes to this mistress and hiding the stolen money. You wonder how long he'll team up with her and if he'll ever get wise to the fact that she is bad through and through.

Overall, a good film...nearly earning a 7 but I couldn't help but think they should have had Popinga behave more consistently clever as well as rotton once he got the money. Instead, it was if the writers weren't exactly sure to go with the character.

It was a surprise to see this title on the shelves at the local video store: although Claude Rains is one of my favourite actors, and this film features other fine actors such as Herbert Lom, Marius Goring and Felix Aylmer, the story line didn't seem to be the usual fare rewarded with a video release. And indeed it is the story that both fascinated me and left me flat at the end.

Rains' meek company clerk is nicely judged; cunning but not worldly-wise, and seduced by the lights of Paris, in contrast to his small home town. The contrast, though, is poorly made - Rains' clerk suit looks perfect throughout, even at Maxims - and we don't see a return to family or their reaction to his plight. Even so, the story's unfolding was interesting enough to keep me watching, (as well as for the technicolor exterior shots of Paris in the early 50's).