As an actor Erich von Stroheim made some of his finest films in France. Sadly, this was not one of them and students of irony may well relish the fact that in that same year and with the same director (Christian Jacque) he made one of his finest, Les Disparus de St Agil. There was, in the 1930s, something of a vogue for films set in China - Frank Capra's The Bitter Tea Of General Yen, Lewis Milestone's The General Died at Dawn and perhaps the highest profile of them all by virtue of a Best Actress Oscar Sydney Franklin's The Good Earth. So Christian Jacque was merely following a trend and although he assembled a mouth-watering cast - Charles Vanel, Von Stroheim, Suzy Prim, Marcel Dalio and Simone Renant - for some reason he forget to hire a writer who knew his ass from third base, winding up with Oscar Paul Gilbert. There's a Boy's Own Paper element about the plot which has Charles Vanel - playing something of a cross between Pat O'Brien in Tropic Zone and Cary Grant in Only Angels Have Wings - trying to build a railroad in China under constant attack by bandits. It's a real joy to see the lovely Simone Renant who was woefully underused by the French cinema and she shares a great scene with Von Stroheim who punctuates the dialogue by slashes with his riding crop. Alas, that's about as good as it gets.
3 Reviews
Never marry a railroad man.
dbdumonteil28 July 2007
Among Christian-Jaque huge filmography there is an appreciable amount of works where the director pays a tribute to great men :"La Symphonie Fantastique" (Hector Berlioz),"D'Homme à Hommes " (the Red Cross)"Destinées" (3rd sketch:Lysistrata invents "make love not war" years B.C.) "Si Tous Les Gars Du Monde" (international solidarity).His last work was a documentary about his peer Marcel Carné (Carné ,L'Homme à la Caméra).
"Les pirates Du rail" is his first (lines warn the audience) attempt in that direction,and if it's not always successful,blame it on a desultory script.At the time ,writer Hergé did a much better job about China in his comic strip "Tintin:The Blue Lotus" .One should add he was helped by a Chinese student who knew what he was talking about.
The story revolves around the building of a railroad track across China,this country where "they kill our priests and burn down our missions "(Simone Renant's words).Charles Vanel portrays the big boss ,who would resist till death ,if those "trainjackers " tried to destroy this way to civilization.
There are good sequences: the train coming into the station,full of dead bodies;Suzy Prim becoming mad;Simone Renant entering the governor's office and realizing he is dead..
But there is drivel too: how could you believe that Erich Von Stroheim,made up as an Asiatic ,studied at West Point and wants to take over the dead governor's duties?
It's a fairly good adventures movie,but do not expect too much.
"Les pirates Du rail" is his first (lines warn the audience) attempt in that direction,and if it's not always successful,blame it on a desultory script.At the time ,writer Hergé did a much better job about China in his comic strip "Tintin:The Blue Lotus" .One should add he was helped by a Chinese student who knew what he was talking about.
The story revolves around the building of a railroad track across China,this country where "they kill our priests and burn down our missions "(Simone Renant's words).Charles Vanel portrays the big boss ,who would resist till death ,if those "trainjackers " tried to destroy this way to civilization.
There are good sequences: the train coming into the station,full of dead bodies;Suzy Prim becoming mad;Simone Renant entering the governor's office and realizing he is dead..
But there is drivel too: how could you believe that Erich Von Stroheim,made up as an Asiatic ,studied at West Point and wants to take over the dead governor's duties?
It's a fairly good adventures movie,but do not expect too much.
a boring Christian-Jaque
happytrigger-64-39051719 January 2020
This adventure movie has not much rhythm, and the settings are really poor when an adventure movie needs impressive settings. As a set decorator, Pierre Schild worked in France in the 20-30's, and went in Spain in 1940. He worked on the settings of "les Disparus de Saint-Agil", the next Christain-Jaque far far above this one. The other set decorator is Pierre Linzbach who worked with the producer Christian Stengel on two films he directed, "Je chante" and "la famille Duraton" (only 5 movies in his imdb filmo). This movie would have needed Georges Wakhévitch as a decorator. I saw two interesting scenes, better than the rest but not exceptional. But, there is a third unforgettable scene with of course Erich von Stroheim, when he speaks with Simone Renant : this scene is unique, I don't remember any strong dialogue like this one in the 30's, even if it's short.
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