Rome Express (1932)

A disparate group of people are traveling from Paris to Rome. Among them: a movie actress (Esther Ralston), a penny pinching millionaire (Cedric Hardwicke) and his browbeaten secretary (Eliot Makeham), an adulterous couple (Harold Huth, Joan Barry) running away from their spouses, a thief (Donald Calthrop), a French police inspector (Frank Vosper), a spinster (Muriel Aked) and two shady characters (Conrad Veidt, Hugh Williams) searching for someone on board. Directed by Walter Forde, except for the very beginning and the very end, the film takes place entirely on the train as it speeds from Paris to Rome with its ensemble cast. I'm a huge fan of movies that take place on trains and I can't help but wonder if Alfred Hitchcock or Sidney Lumet had seen ROME EXPRESS before they made their train movies, THE LADY VANISHES and MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS respectively. Forde's camera (Gunther Krampf was the cameraman) is surprisingly fluid for an early pre-code sound film and his camera prowls and wanders through the train corridors as easily as a snake. This is not a stagnant movie. Quite enjoyable and if you like train movies as much as I do, you'll be in movie heaven. Remade in 1948 as SLEEPING CAR TO TRIESTE.