Mark Robson (“Bedlam”/”The Ghost Ship”) directs Avalanche Express straight in a formulaic way as a humorless and ineffective Cold War spy story. He’s not helped by the choppy script by Abraham Polonsky, who adapted it to the screen from a Colin Forbes novel. He’s also not helped by the incoherent execution of the film and the frozen acting from the noted ensemble cast. It should be noted that Gene (Roger’s brother) Corman filled in as producer, while Shaw’s lines were dubbed by the actor Robert Rietty. The world-weary Soviet general, the KGB head (Robert Shaw, died of a heart attack at age 51 before the film wrapped), his wife committed suicide, is defecting to the West and traveling by train across Europe before going to Washington to be de-briefed. On the train he becomes the target of a ruthless Russian spy, a war hawk, involved in a biological germ-warfare program, Colonel Bunin (Maximillian Schell). The general is under the protection of veteran CIA operative Colonel Wargrave (Lee Marvin), who is reunited on this mission with his former agent girlfriend Elsa Lang (Linda Evans). Wargrave also travels with his loyal crack team led by Haller (Mike Connors) and having on the team the brave agent Leroy (Joe Namath, the ex-NFL quarterback)… read more >
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