WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema: Horror Express 0:00:03.080 --> 0:00:06.120 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:13.200 --> 0:00:16.479 All right, all aboard, Welcome to Weird House Cinema. This 0:00:16.600 --> 0:00:17.680 is Rob Lamb. 0:00:17.720 --> 0:00:21.840 And this is Joe McCormick. And actually I was just thinking, Rob, 0:00:21.960 --> 0:00:26.560 is this technically our first Weird House Cinema episode of 0:00:26.600 --> 0:00:30.160 the Halloween season? Or are you counting Absurd the movie 0:00:30.160 --> 0:00:32.720 we did last week even though it wasn't October yet. 0:00:32.960 --> 0:00:34.600 I'm gonna go ahead and count absurd. 0:00:34.680 --> 0:00:36.920 Yeah, Okay, you were jumping the gun a bit, but 0:00:37.159 --> 0:00:37.760 that's okay. 0:00:38.120 --> 0:00:40.720 If Lowe's and Home Depot can do it, then so 0:00:40.880 --> 0:00:42.040 can so can we? 0:00:43.000 --> 0:00:46.479 Have I told you about how my daughter has been 0:00:46.479 --> 0:00:47.720 getting Halloween brained? 0:00:49.479 --> 0:00:51.120 You've told me a little bit about this. I've seen 0:00:51.159 --> 0:00:53.920 some some curious illustrations from your house as well. 0:00:54.120 --> 0:00:57.200 Oh yeah, Rachel may have showed you. Okay, So, my 0:00:57.320 --> 0:01:01.080 daughter is almost two years old, and I didn't do 0:01:01.120 --> 0:01:03.360 this on purpose. I don't know how this happened. She 0:01:03.440 --> 0:01:07.600 has become obsessed with skeletons, and so one of her 0:01:07.600 --> 0:01:10.720 favorite activities over the past I don't know, probably two 0:01:10.760 --> 0:01:15.480 or three weeks now, has been demanding that that my 0:01:15.560 --> 0:01:18.560 wife and I draw skeletons for her and extend, you know, 0:01:18.600 --> 0:01:21.520 any friends or family visiting the house. Also, they are 0:01:21.560 --> 0:01:24.480 supposed to draw skeletons. So we have big pieces of 0:01:24.959 --> 0:01:28.160 cardboard on the back porch and she'll she'll like lead 0:01:28.200 --> 0:01:31.400 you out under the porch and say, draw sketon. Draw sketon, 0:01:32.080 --> 0:01:34.720 and so we do, and then she wants another one, 0:01:34.760 --> 0:01:36.920 and another one and another one, and the demand for 0:01:37.040 --> 0:01:40.400 skeletons is unlimited. She will keep asking you to draw 0:01:40.480 --> 0:01:43.039 them until you just say no, I am done, no 0:01:43.120 --> 0:01:46.199 more skeletons. And then she also likes to name them. 0:01:47.440 --> 0:01:49.920 The other day, I think I drew four of them 0:01:49.960 --> 0:01:54.600 and they were named teeth, teeth, big teeth, and teeth, 0:01:55.360 --> 0:01:58.800 and so somehow, I don't know if it's genetic or whatever, 0:01:58.840 --> 0:02:01.520 but she she has got Halloween on the brain. 0:02:02.280 --> 0:02:05.040 Oh that's awesome. Yeah, you guys got to bust out 0:02:05.080 --> 0:02:07.560 some skeleton based media here. 0:02:08.040 --> 0:02:10.440 Yeah. I don't know if there are any child friendly 0:02:10.639 --> 0:02:12.200 skeleton movies. 0:02:13.520 --> 0:02:16.280 Now. I haven't watched it in a while, so I 0:02:16.320 --> 0:02:19.000 can't speak to anything that might be inappropriate in it. 0:02:19.040 --> 0:02:20.800 Because this is the case when you get into some 0:02:20.800 --> 0:02:24.840 of these older cartoons. But the nineteen twenty nine Skeleton 0:02:24.960 --> 0:02:29.919 Dance Silly Symphony from Walt Disney Dancing Skeletons. That is 0:02:30.080 --> 0:02:32.600 a lot of fun and pretty tame unless there's something 0:02:32.639 --> 0:02:34.960 that I am not remembering. At the top of my head, 0:02:36.200 --> 0:02:38.920 I think it's on Disney Plus, so maybe that's a 0:02:38.919 --> 0:02:41.960 good sign that maybe it's and there's nothing objectionable in it, 0:02:42.080 --> 0:02:42.600 But I'm not. 0:02:42.560 --> 0:02:45.720 Sure technically, I don't even know if she knows that 0:02:45.800 --> 0:02:48.440 skeletons are supposed to be scary. Maybe just no one 0:02:48.480 --> 0:02:51.160 has communicated to her that this is frightening material. 0:02:51.480 --> 0:02:53.359 Does she know that there's one inside each of us. 0:02:54.120 --> 0:02:56.160 We've talked about this. I don't know if the fact 0:02:56.160 --> 0:02:58.480 has really sunk in, but yeah, we've told her that 0:02:58.520 --> 0:03:01.120 she has a skeleton, and we all have skeletons. They're 0:03:01.120 --> 0:03:02.000 all under the skin. 0:03:02.560 --> 0:03:03.600 Such an exciting time. 0:03:04.960 --> 0:03:08.240 Oh but sorry to divert us along the Baby Looked 0:03:08.280 --> 0:03:12.560 at Me track. Today on Weird House Cinema, we are 0:03:12.600 --> 0:03:16.440 going to be talking about the nineteen seventy two train 0:03:16.720 --> 0:03:21.840 horror thriller Horror Express, Daring, Christ fh Lee, Peter Cushing, 0:03:22.120 --> 0:03:27.560 Sylvia Tortosa, and Telly Sivalis. Now you might automatically think 0:03:27.680 --> 0:03:31.600 based on the cast list, especially the first two names, 0:03:31.880 --> 0:03:35.720 that this is a Hammer Film production, but actually it 0:03:35.840 --> 0:03:38.920 is not. I have no proof of this, but I 0:03:38.960 --> 0:03:43.000 would suspect the filmmakers were consciously trying to get some 0:03:43.160 --> 0:03:47.080 Hammer special sauce on their product by casting both Lee 0:03:47.320 --> 0:03:51.440 and Cushing. That's your classic, you know, Dracula movie or 0:03:51.520 --> 0:03:54.960 Mummy movie, whatever it is. The Hammer Film's pairing. Usually 0:03:55.040 --> 0:03:58.920 Christph Lee is Dracula, Peter Cushing is van Helsing. Here 0:03:59.120 --> 0:04:02.080 they play with formula a little formula a little bit. 0:04:02.160 --> 0:04:04.160 Neither one of them is the villain of the film, 0:04:04.160 --> 0:04:05.559 but you do get both. 0:04:05.600 --> 0:04:09.680 That's right. Yeah, yeah. This was actually a British Spanish 0:04:09.720 --> 0:04:12.320 co production. On the British side of things, we have 0:04:12.520 --> 0:04:16.000 Benmark productions. They would go on to make or they 0:04:16.080 --> 0:04:19.919 made Psychomania, which came out this following year. Wonderful film 0:04:19.920 --> 0:04:21.640 that we've discussed in the show before. 0:04:22.360 --> 0:04:25.680 I think about Psychomania all the time. That was one 0:04:25.680 --> 0:04:28.440 of our supernatural biker movies. It is the one where 0:04:28.440 --> 0:04:33.480 the a British biker gang does witchcraft and realizes they 0:04:33.480 --> 0:04:36.800 can come back from the dead. I think, what's the catch? 0:04:36.880 --> 0:04:39.440 They just have to like really believe that it'll work 0:04:39.560 --> 0:04:42.720 or something, and so they get to come back from 0:04:42.800 --> 0:04:46.640 the dead and be undead biker revenants and ride around 0:04:46.760 --> 0:04:50.560 like knocking things over in grocery stores and terrorizing motorists. 0:04:51.080 --> 0:04:54.960 Yeah. It's a wonderful film with a nice grim sense 0:04:54.960 --> 0:04:56.840 of humor at the heart of everything. 0:04:57.120 --> 0:04:57.360 Yeah. 0:04:57.760 --> 0:05:00.520 So yeah, Ben Mar Productions. On the British side, and 0:05:00.560 --> 0:05:03.320 then on the Spanish side of things, we have Granada Films, 0:05:03.920 --> 0:05:06.640 which I'm not one certain on this, but as best 0:05:06.680 --> 0:05:10.160 I can tell, this is a separate entity from Granada Television, 0:05:10.560 --> 0:05:13.839 which was a British company named after a city in 0:05:13.920 --> 0:05:17.000 Spain that the founder had just visited on holiday. It 0:05:17.080 --> 0:05:19.640 was like Granada, That's that's what I should name my 0:05:19.720 --> 0:05:22.520 television production company. That'll go on to make Trelock Comes 0:05:23.360 --> 0:05:26.640 TV and so forth. This would be a separate Granada 0:05:26.680 --> 0:05:27.800 as far as I understand it. 0:05:28.080 --> 0:05:31.680 Yeah, and also separate from the Hello Matta, Hello Fata. 0:05:31.880 --> 0:05:35.919 Oh yes, of course. So Horror Express is a film 0:05:35.960 --> 0:05:38.560 we've been looking to do for a while and we 0:05:38.640 --> 0:05:41.000 just kind of wanted to line it up with core 0:05:41.040 --> 0:05:42.760 episodes of stuff to blow your mind that had to 0:05:42.760 --> 0:05:46.760 do with trains. So it finally worked. But This movie 0:05:46.800 --> 0:05:49.640 is a lot of things. It is a splendid looking 0:05:49.720 --> 0:05:53.600 period horror film and the hammer tradition set in Imperial Russia. 0:05:53.880 --> 0:05:57.159 It's a monster movie. It's a murder on a train story. 0:05:57.480 --> 0:06:00.920 It's also a science fiction tale with of the loosest 0:06:00.960 --> 0:06:04.839 and sloppiest sigh ever to back up some thigh but 0:06:04.920 --> 0:06:08.360 it also manages to stir the viewers' thoughts and imagination, 0:06:08.600 --> 0:06:11.600 even as it at times insults your understanding of science. 0:06:12.440 --> 0:06:15.320 It's a film built around the classically trained performances of 0:06:15.360 --> 0:06:18.440 Cushing and Lee, but it's also a showcase for native 0:06:18.480 --> 0:06:23.520 Spanish talent other international talent, and I guess the brasher 0:06:24.600 --> 0:06:27.960 acting style of America's Telly Savalis that's right. 0:06:28.080 --> 0:06:29.760 I'm excited to talk about his role. 0:06:30.480 --> 0:06:34.000 So again, there's a lot of things, but it is delightful, unique, 0:06:34.240 --> 0:06:38.360 and I think often highly effective as well. Like it 0:06:38.400 --> 0:06:40.680 does fill a little sloppy and loose in places, and 0:06:40.720 --> 0:06:43.560 can be a little confusing in places also, but I 0:06:43.560 --> 0:06:47.599 think largely succeeds, and that's why it's developed a cult 0:06:47.640 --> 0:06:48.920 following over the decades. 0:06:49.080 --> 0:06:52.839 It is known as ludicrous, but also I think it's 0:06:52.880 --> 0:06:58.280 super entertaining. The twists just keep coming, and they're very 0:06:58.680 --> 0:07:01.160 I don't know, to my mind at least very fun twists. 0:07:01.440 --> 0:07:04.400 It also, like you're saying, it has this excellent cast 0:07:04.440 --> 0:07:08.160 of unusual characters. I will say a limitation is the 0:07:08.279 --> 0:07:12.080 first time I saw it, my attention was slightly divided 0:07:12.160 --> 0:07:16.560 on first viewing, and I ended up mixing up several 0:07:16.600 --> 0:07:19.520 of the characters in my head and getting extremely confused 0:07:19.520 --> 0:07:22.120 as to who was who. I think I was mixing 0:07:22.200 --> 0:07:25.960 up Inspector Mirov and the engineer who knows about science 0:07:26.000 --> 0:07:30.200 and rockets and gravity, and then I was also mixing 0:07:30.280 --> 0:07:35.040 up Sylvia Tortosa and Helga Line possibly some other characters 0:07:35.080 --> 0:07:38.280 as well. Also, I showed this movie to some good 0:07:38.280 --> 0:07:40.960 friends last night, and I could tell it a couple 0:07:41.000 --> 0:07:43.520 of parts. I think they were confused because they had 0:07:43.560 --> 0:07:46.440 mixed up a couple of characters. Also, so warning it 0:07:46.560 --> 0:07:49.640 is one of those sometimes this happens, especially with older movies. 0:07:50.280 --> 0:07:53.160 But do not let that discourage you. Horror Express is 0:07:53.280 --> 0:07:55.240 just wonderful. Even if you get a few of the 0:07:55.320 --> 0:07:59.200 characters mixed up, it's gonna be okay. Also, despite the 0:07:59.240 --> 0:08:04.000 problems it creates with remembering all the different identities, the 0:08:04.800 --> 0:08:07.640 large cast of characters is useful for the plot because 0:08:07.680 --> 0:08:11.920 the monster really runs through them at a quite efficient pace. Yeah, 0:08:12.840 --> 0:08:15.800 a couple of other acting notes about this. I was 0:08:15.840 --> 0:08:18.440 thinking about this movie made me think about how there 0:08:18.480 --> 0:08:23.480 are really two different types of Christopher Lee Rolls. So 0:08:23.600 --> 0:08:26.200 Christopher Lee, I think you could argue, is the main 0:08:26.280 --> 0:08:30.480 protagonist of this film, though I don't know. It's more 0:08:30.520 --> 0:08:34.000 of an ensemble cast. I would say, but Christph Lee 0:08:34.120 --> 0:08:36.760 is like the person who speaks in the opening narration, 0:08:36.880 --> 0:08:39.880 so we're with him before anyone else. And so the 0:08:39.880 --> 0:08:43.400 two different types of Christopher Lee Rolls are the jolly, 0:08:43.600 --> 0:08:47.480 ironic Christopher Lee and the severe Christopher Lee. And in 0:08:47.480 --> 0:08:50.160 this movie we do get the severe christ fher Lee. 0:08:50.400 --> 0:08:53.400 I would say. The jolly Christopher Lee prototype in my 0:08:53.480 --> 0:08:57.200 mind is the Lord Somerle performance in The Wickerman. And 0:08:57.480 --> 0:09:00.240 there are two very different kinds of presences. And so 0:09:00.320 --> 0:09:02.680 maybe we can talk later on about, you know, what 0:09:02.800 --> 0:09:06.200 the difference in feeling is and why you deploy each one. 0:09:07.040 --> 0:09:09.000 But I thought that was kind of interesting because he's 0:09:09.040 --> 0:09:13.520 also with Peter Cushing in this film, and Peter Cushing 0:09:13.840 --> 0:09:17.880 kind of gets to be the more jolly or ironic 0:09:18.040 --> 0:09:22.720 version of Christopher Lee here Peter Cushing usually I don't know, 0:09:22.760 --> 0:09:29.800 he plays a slightly cheekier, jollier, more enthusiastic character than 0:09:29.840 --> 0:09:31.120 Peter Cushing often does. 0:09:31.840 --> 0:09:34.400 Yeah, I mean Peter Cushing and what I saw an 0:09:34.400 --> 0:09:36.520 extra with the director of this film pointed out that 0:09:36.600 --> 0:09:39.360 Peter Cushion could often play a warmer character. Now, at 0:09:39.360 --> 0:09:41.920 the same time, Peter Cushion could also play evil characters 0:09:42.000 --> 0:09:45.640 and could play you know, ridiculous and silly characters. He 0:09:45.679 --> 0:09:51.640 was a highly skilled and professional actor. But yeah, Christopher Lee, 0:09:52.040 --> 0:09:54.760 there's the jolly and there's the stern. Though it is 0:09:54.840 --> 0:09:58.640 clear which one of these two Christopher Lees, you know, 0:09:58.760 --> 0:09:59.760 cash the paychecks. 0:10:00.160 --> 0:10:01.319 Yeah, Yeah, it's the. 0:10:01.280 --> 0:10:04.080 Stern Christopher Lee that most people wanted to cast. And 0:10:04.120 --> 0:10:06.760 so there's even a spectrum there where you have like 0:10:06.800 --> 0:10:10.520 the stern hero side of things, like the lead character 0:10:10.559 --> 0:10:13.520 and the devil rides out, Yes, which. 0:10:14.360 --> 0:10:17.440 Simon, I'd rather see you dead than practicing black magic. 0:10:17.960 --> 0:10:20.680 Yeah, a character that is at once the hero and 0:10:20.720 --> 0:10:23.560 also so stern as to be thoroughly. 0:10:23.280 --> 0:10:27.400 Unlikable, constantly sending other characters to bed. Yeah. 0:10:27.640 --> 0:10:29.960 And in this film, we you know, we have a 0:10:30.000 --> 0:10:33.400 stern Christopher Lee. That also has a few wrinkles to 0:10:33.480 --> 0:10:35.120 the character that I think make it a little more 0:10:35.120 --> 0:10:38.400 interesting than that. And then of course there's a whole 0:10:38.400 --> 0:10:41.200 other realm of stern villain Christopher Lee, where you have 0:10:41.280 --> 0:10:45.640 the likes of Dracula and sorrow Man. So yeah, this 0:10:45.800 --> 0:10:48.920 is this is I think one of the more nuanced 0:10:48.920 --> 0:10:52.240 and human Christopher Lee performances we've discussed on the show before. 0:10:52.640 --> 0:10:56.400 Yes, this severe Christopher Lee is very different than the 0:10:56.400 --> 0:10:57.880 one in The Devil Rides Out, the one in The 0:10:57.920 --> 0:10:59.840 Devil Rides Out. This is a good point you make, 0:11:00.040 --> 0:11:04.040 and the Devil Rides Out, he is moralistic and paternalistic, 0:11:04.080 --> 0:11:07.600 and that's not how he is here. Instead, he is 0:11:08.000 --> 0:11:12.080 very a cold and amoral and intellectual until he sort 0:11:12.080 --> 0:11:15.040 of has to have a heroic moment at the end. 0:11:15.480 --> 0:11:20.480 Yeah, and is also eventually self aware a little bit. Yeah, 0:11:20.520 --> 0:11:22.960 Like there's a part where a character asks him if 0:11:22.960 --> 0:11:26.439 he doesn't care about the people that have died so far, 0:11:26.640 --> 0:11:30.320 which at that point was like a thief and a 0:11:30.360 --> 0:11:32.960 man that worked in the baggage car, and he's like, no, 0:11:33.000 --> 0:11:36.280 I don't care, but I should. Like it's an interesting 0:11:36.480 --> 0:11:40.880 wrinkle to the character that he realizes that he's cold 0:11:40.960 --> 0:11:43.319 and insensitive, and he should strive to be better. 0:11:43.480 --> 0:11:46.640 I would be a better man if I did care. Yeah. 0:11:46.840 --> 0:11:49.240 But also on the acting front, I think this movie 0:11:49.280 --> 0:11:53.480 is interesting because it is part of a category of 0:11:53.520 --> 0:11:58.520 films that you might call the third act takeover films, 0:11:58.720 --> 0:12:02.079 in films in which a brand new character shows up 0:12:02.120 --> 0:12:05.640 in the final third of the movie and completely seizes 0:12:05.720 --> 0:12:07.800 command of the screen. I don't know if you would 0:12:07.800 --> 0:12:09.960 agree with me, but that's how I feel. That's what 0:12:09.960 --> 0:12:12.840 I feel Telly Savalis does in this movie. Once Telly 0:12:12.920 --> 0:12:17.000 Savalis shows up, the movie just becomes the Tellisavalis show 0:12:17.160 --> 0:12:20.360 until he is until he is dispatched by the monster. 0:12:20.960 --> 0:12:23.920 Yeah, yeah, absolutely, I agree. It's interesting too that he 0:12:24.440 --> 0:12:28.240 was clearly prominently featured in the promotional material for this movie, 0:12:28.640 --> 0:12:32.200 but he doesn't show up for an hour, and even 0:12:32.200 --> 0:12:35.360 then it's like he's not really he's not a major character. 0:12:35.400 --> 0:12:38.680 He plays an important role and when he is on 0:12:38.800 --> 0:12:43.480 screen thoroughly captivating. But yeah, definitely a third act takeover. 0:12:43.520 --> 0:12:45.199 I like that terminology. 0:12:45.040 --> 0:12:47.680 Listeners right in with other examples of this. I want 0:12:47.679 --> 0:12:48.640 to start making a list. 0:12:49.160 --> 0:12:51.880 Yeah, I mean, I guess one of the chief examples 0:12:51.920 --> 0:12:58.839 would be Kurts and Apocalypse Now another charismatic bald man performance. Yeah, so, 0:12:58.960 --> 0:13:01.360 I don't know how many third act takeovers are by 0:13:02.320 --> 0:13:05.720 charismatic bald men. I would be interested to know. Maybe 0:13:05.760 --> 0:13:09.080 it's just these two listeners. Let us know, all right, 0:13:09.160 --> 0:13:10.640 what's the elevator pitch here, Joe? 0:13:11.000 --> 0:13:14.720 Well, so, the official tagline on the poster is I 0:13:14.760 --> 0:13:17.280 think one of the worst I've ever heard. It says, 0:13:17.960 --> 0:13:21.560 your non stop ride to Hell boards at eight pm? 0:13:22.040 --> 0:13:26.679 Can it be stopped? I don't know. Is it NonStop 0:13:26.800 --> 0:13:28.960 or isn't it? I think that could. That could stand 0:13:28.960 --> 0:13:30.439 a bit of work shopping. 0:13:30.840 --> 0:13:32.719 But I do like that it gets into some of 0:13:32.800 --> 0:13:36.000 the ideas we discussed about train horror fiction on the 0:13:36.040 --> 0:13:37.840 core episodes of Stuff to Blow Your Mind this week, 0:13:37.880 --> 0:13:41.720 the idea that the train cannot be stopped, that the 0:13:41.760 --> 0:13:45.800 train is a journey of fate. Yes, and perhaps that 0:13:45.920 --> 0:13:49.000 fate is very much in question. What will happen to 0:13:49.080 --> 0:13:50.640 us at the end of this line? 0:13:51.160 --> 0:13:54.839 M Yeah, that's a good point. But what's our weird 0:13:54.880 --> 0:13:58.360 house cinema elevator pitch? I'm gonna say, climb aboard a 0:13:58.440 --> 0:14:01.280 human being, disembark with butt cheek brain. 0:14:03.800 --> 0:14:05.160 I feel like you're gonna have to go ahead and 0:14:05.160 --> 0:14:08.400 explain butt cheek brain. So people, No, you're not just 0:14:08.440 --> 0:14:09.280 being ann here. 0:14:09.559 --> 0:14:12.439 No, just wait, wait, the listeners will wait. We'll talk 0:14:12.480 --> 0:14:13.559 about it in the plot section. 0:14:13.720 --> 0:14:15.720 All right, it is related to the plot. It is 0:14:15.760 --> 0:14:18.240 related to the plot. All right. Let's go ahead and 0:14:18.240 --> 0:14:20.880 listen to just a little bit of the trailer audio 0:14:20.920 --> 0:14:25.240 from this picture because it has some fun narration boo. 0:14:28.040 --> 0:14:31.840 For two million years, in these subterranean caves, a creature 0:14:31.880 --> 0:14:35.520 of superhuman evil was entombed in a wall of ice, 0:14:37.920 --> 0:14:47.920 waiting to be free, waiting to live again. Travel with 0:14:48.120 --> 0:14:52.280 us on the journey into a world where nightmare. 0:14:53.520 --> 0:15:07.480 Becomes reality. Are you telling me that, at eight two 0:15:07.560 --> 0:15:10.600 million years ago, got off to that crate, kill the 0:15:10.640 --> 0:15:11.560 baggage man and put. 0:15:11.440 --> 0:15:11.840 Him in there. 0:15:12.240 --> 0:15:13.840 Yes, I am, it's alive. 0:15:13.960 --> 0:15:17.960 It must be. Travel with us if you dare on 0:15:18.120 --> 0:15:20.600 the Horror Express. 0:15:27.360 --> 0:15:30.920 All right, If you would like to go watch Horror 0:15:30.960 --> 0:15:34.200 Express before proceeding with the rest of this episode, we 0:15:34.280 --> 0:15:37.800 encourage it. Go watch it or rewatch it. It is 0:15:37.840 --> 0:15:41.240 widely available. I watched it on the excellent severin Blu Ray, 0:15:41.400 --> 0:15:44.920 rented from Atlanta's own videodrome here. There also seems to 0:15:44.920 --> 0:15:47.960 be an excellent Aero Films Blu ray with many of 0:15:47.960 --> 0:15:50.800 the same special features. I'm not sure which one is 0:15:50.800 --> 0:15:54.119 the most recent release and which one's more easily accessible 0:15:54.120 --> 0:15:57.760 if you're ordering this online, but as usual, we just 0:15:58.160 --> 0:16:00.520 urge you to watch it in the best quality find, 0:16:00.720 --> 0:16:03.400 be that physical or digital, because it's actually a great 0:16:03.440 --> 0:16:07.480 looking film, and I think it long circulated in subpar quality, 0:16:08.320 --> 0:16:10.480 so yeah, get as good of a cut as you 0:16:10.480 --> 0:16:10.960 can find. 0:16:11.480 --> 0:16:14.480 There. I think is a version streaming on Amazon Prime 0:16:14.560 --> 0:16:17.160 that does not look very good, So I don't know 0:16:17.200 --> 0:16:19.320 if there are multiple versions on there. Maybe there's a 0:16:19.360 --> 0:16:21.520 better looking one than the one I initially watched, but 0:16:21.640 --> 0:16:23.560 at least one of them on there is not the best, 0:16:23.640 --> 0:16:26.960 so yeah, seek it out in the good quality. Also, 0:16:27.880 --> 0:16:30.040 you know, we were talking about how the cast list 0:16:30.200 --> 0:16:34.000 seems to be trying to call to mind Hammer films. 0:16:34.440 --> 0:16:36.840 It also looks like a Hammer film, And did you 0:16:36.880 --> 0:16:41.760 notice that the use of the technicolor, the sets, the photography, 0:16:42.000 --> 0:16:46.720 the costumes, it's all. It has an extremely Hammer reminiscent 0:16:46.880 --> 0:16:47.600 visual style. 0:16:48.200 --> 0:16:50.560 Yeah. Absolutely, I think they do a great job of 0:16:50.600 --> 0:16:55.640 creating a like a period look that you completely buy, 0:16:55.960 --> 0:17:08.800 even as the film delves increasingly into speculative and wild territory. 0:17:10.720 --> 0:17:13.479 All right, let's talk about the people involved here, Beginning 0:17:13.520 --> 0:17:17.520 with the director. It's Eugenio Martin, who lived nineteen twenty 0:17:17.520 --> 0:17:21.639 five through twenty twenty three, Spanish director, probably best known 0:17:21.800 --> 0:17:25.320 internationally anyway for this film and a handful of other 0:17:25.440 --> 0:17:29.639 horror pictures. Nineteen sixty two's Hypnosis, nineteen seventy one is 0:17:29.680 --> 0:17:33.280 The Fourth Victim starring Carol Baker, nineteen seventy three is 0:17:33.320 --> 0:17:36.879 a Candle for the Devil starring Judy Gleeson, nineteen eighty's 0:17:36.960 --> 0:17:40.439 The House and the Outskirts, and nineteen eighty two's Return 0:17:40.480 --> 0:17:43.440 of the Poltergeist, which features one of the best bits 0:17:43.440 --> 0:17:45.359 of terrible VHS box art ever. 0:17:45.960 --> 0:17:49.360 Is that the one that looks like a like a 0:17:49.400 --> 0:17:51.760 werewolf aerobic exercise tape. 0:17:52.040 --> 0:17:54.879 Yeah, like it's scripping a bowling ball or something. I 0:17:54.880 --> 0:17:58.960 don't know, but it looks pretty wild. He also directed 0:17:59.000 --> 0:18:02.000 the nineteen sixty six western The Ugly Ones and the 0:18:02.080 --> 0:18:06.960 nineteen seventy two film Pancho Villa starring Telly Savas, and 0:18:07.320 --> 0:18:11.000 the film Panchovia is actually a key to understanding this film. 0:18:11.440 --> 0:18:14.959 So that was an Italian Spanish spaghetti western featuring several 0:18:14.960 --> 0:18:19.280 connections to this film, but most notably the train itself, 0:18:19.680 --> 0:18:23.760 which the producers had purchased for the production of Pancho Villa, 0:18:24.400 --> 0:18:27.640 and in order to maximize their investment, they said, well, 0:18:27.720 --> 0:18:30.040 what else can we do with this train? Let's do 0:18:30.119 --> 0:18:34.800 another train movie. Somebody get me another script, and this 0:18:34.880 --> 0:18:38.520 eventually led to the creation of the script for Horror Express, 0:18:38.920 --> 0:18:43.199 reusing the same train, so you know the slash location, 0:18:43.359 --> 0:18:48.040 slash train and presumably the really I thought excellent train model. 0:18:48.320 --> 0:18:52.080 So any of these external, moving wide shots of the 0:18:52.119 --> 0:18:54.360 train in this movie are model shots. 0:18:54.560 --> 0:18:57.000 Oh wow, I didn't realize that. I thought some of 0:18:57.000 --> 0:18:57.600 them were real. 0:18:58.080 --> 0:19:00.399 Yeah, same here. It wasn't until I went into the 0:19:00.440 --> 0:19:02.439 extras on the disc and there's an interview with the 0:19:02.480 --> 0:19:05.840 director here with Martin, and he's like, oh, yeah, we 0:19:05.840 --> 0:19:09.120 had a lot of fun with this train, Like Peter 0:19:09.200 --> 0:19:11.080 Cushion and Christopher Lee were there with me and we 0:19:11.119 --> 0:19:13.840 would just run this train around. But it's like a 0:19:13.920 --> 0:19:16.639 large scale model, so it doesn't look as small. And 0:19:16.640 --> 0:19:18.280 they did a I think a great job with the 0:19:18.359 --> 0:19:22.160 landscapes for it, so excellent model train, Like you don't 0:19:22.160 --> 0:19:24.240 even think about it being a model train until like 0:19:24.320 --> 0:19:26.399 one key scene towards the end of the picture. 0:19:27.000 --> 0:19:29.440 We were talking in our episode about the Green Slime 0:19:30.040 --> 0:19:33.080 about how I love miniature models even when they're bad. 0:19:33.119 --> 0:19:36.320 But these are good. These are like really realistic, solid, 0:19:36.560 --> 0:19:39.520 excellent looking crossing the Siberian landscape. 0:19:40.400 --> 0:19:42.920 All right, Moving on to the riders, we have Arnaud Dussau, 0:19:43.400 --> 0:19:47.480 who lived nineteen sixteen through nineteen ninety American playwright and 0:19:47.520 --> 0:19:51.720 B movie screenwriter, The son of noted Silent era screenwriter 0:19:51.880 --> 0:19:58.879 and director Leon do So and actress O'tala Nesmith. Arnault 0:19:58.880 --> 0:20:02.240 here wrote some serio plays. He wrote nineteen forty one's 0:20:02.280 --> 0:20:04.880 Lady Scarface as well as a handful of other projects, 0:20:05.080 --> 0:20:07.200 but his career seems to have been impacted by the 0:20:07.240 --> 0:20:10.400 Hollywood Blacklist in nineteen fifty. He was also a writer 0:20:10.480 --> 0:20:14.840 on nineteen seventy three Psychomania. Likewise, we should mention that 0:20:14.920 --> 0:20:17.920 this film, as with Pancho Villa, was produced by American 0:20:17.960 --> 0:20:21.480 writer producer Bernard Gordon, who was also forced to work 0:20:21.520 --> 0:20:24.639 in exile, mostly in Spain, due to the Hollywood Blacklist. 0:20:24.800 --> 0:20:28.160 His productions include Flesh and Fury from fifty two, Earth 0:20:28.240 --> 0:20:31.440 Versus The Flying Saucers from fifty six, fifty five, Days 0:20:31.440 --> 0:20:33.560 at Pee King from sixty three, and The Day of 0:20:33.600 --> 0:20:37.360 the Triffids nineteen sixty three. On some films he ended 0:20:37.440 --> 0:20:41.960 up working like uncredited due to his blacklisted status. 0:20:42.560 --> 0:20:46.560 Mmmm. Oh but wait, So with Dusseau here, it's not 0:20:46.680 --> 0:20:50.240 just the same production company on the British side as Psychomania, 0:20:50.240 --> 0:20:52.040 but literally one of the same writers. 0:20:52.400 --> 0:20:55.600 Yeah, yeah, okay, two very different films. Like they don't 0:20:55.640 --> 0:20:58.760 feel like spiritual siblings, but in a sense they are. 0:20:58.840 --> 0:21:00.480 I guess, can dgin. 0:21:00.359 --> 0:21:03.520 If Christopher Lee had been in Psychomania, how good it 0:21:03.560 --> 0:21:03.879 would be? 0:21:04.760 --> 0:21:06.560 Oh man, Yeah, yeah, I mean there was a role 0:21:06.640 --> 0:21:09.480 for him there, but yeah, it would have been a yeah, 0:21:09.520 --> 0:21:11.520 it would have been a different trajectory for that picture. 0:21:11.840 --> 0:21:13.480 I think, you know, if you get a name like 0:21:13.600 --> 0:21:17.080 Lee in there. Let's see, there's another writer credit, and 0:21:17.119 --> 0:21:20.600 that's Julian Zimmett, who lived nineteen nineteen through twenty seventeen, 0:21:20.680 --> 0:21:24.400 American born writer whose other screenwriting credits include Pancho Villa 0:21:24.440 --> 0:21:25.280 and Psychomania. 0:21:25.760 --> 0:21:26.080 Wow. 0:21:27.200 --> 0:21:29.280 Now getting into the cast here, we have a number 0:21:29.320 --> 0:21:32.240 of repeat performers for weird house. So as usual for 0:21:32.320 --> 0:21:34.480 names like this, we're not going to go add deep 0:21:34.480 --> 0:21:36.679 into their filmographies. We're just going to maybe try and 0:21:36.880 --> 0:21:40.400 put them in the context of this production. Starting at 0:21:40.400 --> 0:21:42.880 the top top build, we have of course Christopher Lee 0:21:43.160 --> 0:21:47.760 playing Professor Sir Alexander Saxton. Lee lived nineteen twenty two 0:21:47.800 --> 0:21:51.880 through twenty fifteen, British horror legend. I here cast as 0:21:51.880 --> 0:21:57.439 as we said, essentially the good guy scientist. He's, you know, 0:21:57.600 --> 0:22:00.760 but it's also again it's interesting because he's a bit cold, 0:22:00.800 --> 0:22:03.560 but he's he acknowledges that he's a bit too cold 0:22:03.560 --> 0:22:07.360 and unfeeling. He's also the guy who unleashes a murderous 0:22:07.400 --> 0:22:11.119 monster on everyone. And he's also I thought I enjoyed 0:22:11.240 --> 0:22:13.320 some of the details about him being a bit naive 0:22:13.359 --> 0:22:15.440 about the realities of international travel. 0:22:16.600 --> 0:22:19.320 Yeah. Yeah. When he first shows up at the train 0:22:19.440 --> 0:22:22.040 station at the beginning of the movie, you know, he 0:22:22.080 --> 0:22:23.879 can't get aboard the train and he's like, but I 0:22:23.960 --> 0:22:27.359 have arranged I have arranged passage, and they're like, yeah, sorry, 0:22:27.359 --> 0:22:29.280