| Avalanche Express | |
| Director: | Mark Robson |
| Producer: | Mark Robson |
| Screenplay: | Abraham Polonsky |
| Starring: | Lee Marvin Robert Shaw Linda Evans Maximilian Schell |
| Music: | Allyn Ferguson |
| Cinematography: | Jack Cardiff (uncredited) |
| Color Process: | Color by De Luxe |
| Editing: | Garth Craven |
| Studio: | Lorimar |
| Distributor: | 20th Century-Fox |
| Runtime: | 88 minutes |
| Country: | United States Ireland |
| Language: | English |
| Budget: | $12 million[1] or $11 million[2] |
Avalanche Express is a 1979 adventure thriller film starring Lee Marvin, Robert Shaw, Maximilian Schell, and Linda Evans, and produced and directed by Mark Robson. The plot is about the struggle over a defecting Soviet general. The screenplay by Abraham Polonsky was based on a 1977 novel by Colin Forbes. It was the last film for Shaw and Robson, who both died during production in 1978.
Soviet General Marenkov (Robert Shaw) decides to defect to the West. He is in charge of Operation Winter Harvest, a plot to poison crops in the West. CIA agent Harry Wargrave (Lee Marvin) leads the extraction team. Marenkov meets the team in Milan at La Scala where a rehearsal of Nabucco is underway.
Wargrave's team hustles Marenkov onto the Atlantic Express train to travel across Europe. During the extraction, Wargrave is killed, but his death is a ruse. He reappears on the train's crew, and he is using Marenkov as bait to lure Soviet agents out of hiding. Wargrave knows they will attack the train and expose their identities.
KGB spy-catcher Nikolai Bunin (Maximilian Schell) leads the Soviet agents who try several ways of stopping Marenkov's defection. They trigger an avalanche. Wargrave detonates the gangway connection between the front and the back of the train, which allows the lead cars to escape to the safety of a tunnel. At another point, the train is hijacked, but the attempt is foiled. The film ends with Marenkov safely on board a jet headed for his debriefing in the West.
The film was based on a novel by Colin Forbes which was published in 1977. The Guardian called it an "irresistible adventure yarn."[3] The Evening Telegraph praised it as an "extremely satisfying modern adventure story... told in razor sharp style."[4]
In June 1977 it was announced film rights had purchased by Lorimar Films, the filmmaking arm of Lorimar Productions, best known for its work in television. Mark Robson, who had just made Earthquake and had made another successful train set movie (Von Ryan's Express), signed to produce and direct. Jerry Gershwin was the Lorimar executive originally responsible.[5]
Abraham Polonsky wrote the script. Robson called the novel "rather sprawly for film" and "very difficult to synthesize into a motion picture. What Abe brought to it was unity. He has given the characters better motivations which means the total work is better motivated." Robson added the film "does make a political statement in a way... The movie will really come out for those who want to live in peace and co operation."[6]
Shooting started in Munich, Germany, on 27 February 1978 and also took place in Milan and Venice. Filming was physically tough, complicated by increased security caused by terrorism in Europe, and Robson's health deteriorated. The movie had been filming for 65 days in Europe, with ten to go, when Robson fell ill. He was flown to a hospital in London where he died of a heart attack on 20 June 1978. "He sure went with his boots on," said Marvin.[7] Mike Connors said Robson's death "was not unexpected. We could see him go downhill from day to day. The lack of communication on a European picture is terribly exhausting."[8]
Lorimar Films' President Peter Bart called in Monte Hellman to finish the direction and Gene Corman (Roger Corman's brother) was enlisted to complete Robson's duties as producer.[9] Hellman had recently helped complete The Greatest after the death of its director, Tom Gries. He had worked a number of times for Gene Corman, who was preparing another film for Lorimar, The Big Red One. John Dykstra was hired to stage an avalanche using models. Then on 28 August 1978 Robert Shaw died of a heart attack in Ireland.[2]
Robert Rietti was hired to re-record Robert Shaw's dialogue in the opening scene, as it was decided to redo that scene in Russian with English subtitles instead of having the Russians speak broken English. As a consequence, for continuity, all of Shaw's dialogue throughout the film was re-recorded by Rietti.[2]
Hellman later said he worked on the film for a year and estimated he directed around ten percent of the principal photography, plus all the special effects.[10] "We had to shoot three new live action scenes plus all the special effects scenes and all of the avalanche stuff, and so it was a pretty complicated," he said. "It was the biggest picture I had worked on. I learned a lot on shooting really complex special effects, with miniatures and so forth, combining miniatures and live action."[11]
Hellman, Corman and Rietti were not credited for their work, but the film's end credit contains a note stating: "The producers wish to express their appreciation to Monte Hellman and Gene Corman for their post production services."
Dorothy Spencer, Robson's long time editor, was reportedly replaced by Garth Craven. She is not listed on the credits nor is the original cinematogapher, Jack Cardiff.
Vincent Canby of The New York Times criticized the film's tackiness, suggesting it was copied from The Cassandra Crossing and likening it to the work of exploitation filmmaker Lew Grade, criticising the actors as appearing "at a loss".[12]
Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times called it "handsome but routine."[13]
Time Out called it "awful", "formulary" and "hammily acted" but explained its curious editing as resulting from the production problems.[14] The Radio Times gave it 2/5 stars, noting its disjointed quality but praising the acting and snowy special effects.[15] Leonard Maltin's annual publications "TV Movies" and "Movie Guide" give the film a BOMB rating and were especially critical of the cast.[16]