HORROR EXPRESS (1972) Blu-ray
Director: Eugenio Martin
Arrow Video USA

Arrow Video hops aboard the HORROR EXPRESS for the film's second go round on Blu-ray.

In 1906, British anthropologist Sir Alexander Saxton (Christopher Lee, HORROR OF DRACULA) discovers the frozen remains of what he believes to be a missing evolutionary link, and crates it to take it back to England with him aboard the Tran-Siberian Express. The crate arouses curiosity and suspicion when a thief who tried to break into it turns up dead with blank eyes. Also on board the train is Saxton's colleague Dr. Wells (Peter Cushing, THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN), his assistant Mrs. Jones (Alice Reinheart, RAT FINK), the Count Petrovski (George Rigaud, MURDER MANSION), his young wife Irina (Silvia Tortosa, THE LORELEY'S GRASP), their confessor Pujardov (Alberto De Mendoza, A LIZARD IN A WOMAN'S SKIN), engineer Yevtushenko (Angel del Pozo, THE PASSENGER), slinky stowaway spy Natasha (Helga Line, HORROR RISES FROM THE TOMB). Curious Dr. Wells – never averse to bribery – pays the baggage man (Victor Israel, THE DEVIL'S KISS) to take a peek inside Saxton's crate only for the attendant to also wind up a blank-eyed corpse while the defrosted and ambulatory ape man is on the loose. More deaths follow before the creature is shot down by Inspector Mirov (Julio Peña, CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT) whereupon the British scientists make the discovery that the creature was able to absorb the contents of its victims' brains through its eyes – indeed the fluid from its eyes contains pictures of the Earth as seen from space – and Saxton wonders how such a creature could ever die. When more passengers continue to die, Saxton and Wells realize that the creature has managed to transfer itself into one of the passengers and has plans that include keeping the train from making its appointed stop. Telly Savalas gives a showy "special guest star" performance as the ruthless Siberia-banished Captain Kazan who boards the trip with his ruthless soldiers during the third act.

Blacklisted American writers Arnaud D'Usseau (LADY SCARFACE) and Julian Halevy (CRACK IN THE WORLD) - who also scripted the British production PSYCHOMANIA during this period - either added a science fiction angle to the basic plot of MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS or simply selected a speeding train as the isolated setting on which to pit earthlings against a monster, and the result is a memorable and highly-entertaining Spanish horror picture (technically, it is a Britsh/Spanish production produced by a blacklisted American writer/producer). The set-up does not simply allow for a run-of-the-mill monster on the loose B-pic, the script is tightly-plotted and the revelations are well-timed and bear reflection (even if it seems like most of the monster's targeted victims simply stumble across it). There is also quite a bit of humor that one usually does not encounter in Spanish horror films: the Countess Irina threatens to have the already-exiled Captain Kazan sent to Siberia, and Wells' balks at the accusation that either he or Saxton could be the monster ("We're British!"). The film was shot on the leftover train sets from PANCHO VILLA – blacklisted producer Bernard Gordon's previous collaboration with director Eugenio Martin (A CANDLE FOR THE DEVIL), writer Halevy, and actor Savalas – and features an interesting mix of Spanish, British, and American talent including Faith Clift (who would go on to appear in CATACLYSM/THE NIGHTMARE NEVER ENDS / NIGHT TRAIN TO TERROR, the much-reworked terror train anthology directed by Philip Yordan, who had fronted some of Gordon's scripts during his blacklisted years), Allen Russell from Martin's western BAD MAN'S RIVER (scripted by Yordan), and Spanish horror regular Barta Barri (WEREWOLF SHADOW). John Cacavas (MORTUARY) provides an effective score, building upon a haunting whistled main theme, and the cinematography of Alejandro Ulloa (THE DIABOLICAL DR. Z) is a mix of elegantly photographed studio interiors and quick and dirty exteriors.

Released theatrically by Scotia International (more about that later), HORROR EXPRESS seemed to fall into the public domain in American and rivaled NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD for the most VHS releases during the eighties from companies like United American, King of Video, and Video Home Library with apparently licensed editions Prism Entertainment and Media Home Entertainment featuring the best-looking covers and the better transfers if only due to their duplication standards. The film had a similarly PD-glutted release history on DVD despite a poor-quality 1997 DVD from Simitar Entertainment that was actually copyrighted by Yordan. A DVD release from Image Entertainment in 2000 featuring a non-anamorphic 1.66:1 transfer along with English and Spanish tracks and an isolated music and effects track – which oddly substituted different music for the countess to play on piano making no sense of her playing along to the whistling of the creature – that was licensed from TV Matters who licensed a number of Scotia titles to Image and then Geneon. Successor company Ignite Films licensed the film with an HD master to Severin Films in 2011 – which featured a Spanish title sequence that credited de Mendoza before the title card following Lee and Cushing – and it was a significant improvement visually but encoded at a low bitrate that introduced compression artifacts.

Arrow's new 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.66:1 widescreen Blu-ray is derived from a 2K restoration of "original film elements" and the upgrade is a worthy one. The film will always look a little rough, with the English-language credits sequence derived from another source – like the Severin, this transfer restores an opening shot of the train rushing past the camera that was only heard over a blacks screen on PD and licensed DVD transfers – and the opening Manchuria sequences looking a bit richer than before; however, the studio-lensed scenes improve quite pleasingly with the reds and blues of the English officers popping against gays and browns while the woodwork of the train is more textured and the period costumes look like they really may indeed have been repurposed from NICHOLAS AND ALEXANDRA as the enhanced detail gives them an elegance quite apart from costumes scrounged from studio wardrobe departments. On the other hand, the make-up effects are more apparent with the glowing and blank eyes reveled as appliances rather than the opticals one would see in Hollywood productions, and not all of the miniature shots hold up as well as before. The only audio option is an LPCM 1.0 encoding of the original mono English mix with clear post-synched voicing and a nice rendition of Cacavas' score. Optional English HoH subtitles are also included. There is a playback option to watch the film preceded by an introduction by Fangoria's Chris Alexander (6:50) ported over from the Severin edition in which he suggests that the film was as influenced by John W. Campbell's story "Who Goes There?" – previously adapted as THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD – as much as Agatha Christie's "Ten Little Indians."

Arrow has commissioned a new audio commentary by film historians Stephen Jones and Kim Newman, and the energetic track is a stimulating listen as the two convey their affection for the film (with Newman noting that the film may be a favorite because it not only provides Lee and Cushing with something different but also depicts them and their friendship in a manner that fans imagined it to be). They also discuss the film's mix of elements and the knack Martin and Gordon – perhaps more so than the screenwriters the film's real auteur – for balancing all of it; likening the film to DOCTOR WHO serial of the time or the pilot for some ideal Lee/Cushing series that never happened. Besides Campbell, they note the influence of Nigel Kneale as well as the more lowbrow TROG, but also suggest that one of the reasons why the film was so well-received by the British critics was because of its film buff homages, particularly the influence of Josef von Sternberg's SHANGHAI EXPRESS. They also are of the opinion that it is overall more British than Spanish, giving actors like Peña and particularly de Mendoza more to do than in Spanish horror films, suggesting that Line herself might have preferred the slinky spy role to the countess (Line and Tortosa would appear together again in THE LORELEY'S GRASP), while also noting that the monk is the sort of role Paul Naschy might had the film been helmed one of the Spanish directors more connected to the country's genre scene. They also note that de Mendoza was dubbed by Robert Rietty (THE OMEN) who had a dubbing studio in Italy during the period, while Peña was voiced by DOCTOR WHO's Roger Delgado.

Also new is "Ticket to Die" (8:31), an appreciation by film historian Steve Haberman, who puts the film in the context of changes undergoing the genre in the late sixties and early seventies when even conservative Hammer and American International had to stodgily adapt to the times, complementing the contrast between Savalas' over-the-top performance to those of Lee and Cushing, and the film's grab-bag of elements. He also discusses the film's American theatrical release and Joe Dante's review highlighting the poor condition of the print for a then-new film and suggesting that Scotia International may have run off prints from a workprint with splice tape lines baked into the print. "Night Train to Nowhere" (15:08) is a discussion with film historian Ted Newsom on producer Gordon who had been under contract with Universal when fellow writer/producer William Alland (TARANTULA) informed on him to the House Un-American Activites Committee, whereupon he could only get work under pseudonyms stateside while Yordan paid him to put his own name on his work abroad including DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS, winding up in Spain while working with Yordan on Samuel Bronston's production 55 DAYS AT PEKING and the later CIRCUS WORLD.

Ported over from the Severin release is "Murder on the Trans-Siberian Express" (14:03), an archival interview with director Martin in which he relays his recollections of Lee, Cushing, and Savalas (one wishes that he had been prompted about some of the Spanish cast members), the special effects, how the zombie actors’ difficulty of working with the blank contact lenses, and playing with the electronically-controlled model train with Cushing and Lee. "Notes from the Blacklist" (30:29) is an interview with producer Gordon on working in Hollywood during the McCarthy era. There is no discussion of HORROR EXPRESS since the interview was shot in 2005 for a box set of the Bronston productions that was eventually shelved. He discusses his early credits, his work to unionize screenwriters, being blacklisted (and leading the protest against Elia Kazan's honorary Oscar in 1999), working with Yordan and Bronston, and frank anecdotes about the egos of directors and actors (insisting that it was not Ava Gardner being difficult that lead to her early departure from 55 DAYS AT PEKING but Charlton Heston's behavior towards her). "Telly and Me" (8:09) is an interview with composer Cacavas whose actual first credit was writing the song sung by Savalas on PANCHO VILLA – co-production quota requirements prevented him from scoring the film – scoring HORROR EXPRESS and THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA (although not mentioning other prominent scoring assignments like AIRPORT 1975 and AIRPORT 77 or genre favorite MORTUARY) before moving on to KOJAK with Savalas. The film's original theatrical trailer (2:57) is also included. Not provided for review were the reversible cover featuring newly commissioned artwork by Graham Humphreys or the fully-illustrated collector’s booklet with new writing by Adam Scovell included with the first pressing. (Eric Cotenas)

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