Long before Leslie Nielsen re-casted his entire career as a comedic genius the guy was in a whole load of films and tee-vee series that I found way too grown up for my definitely ranch house fun and jamz free time. NIGHT TRAIN TO PARIS prob'ly would have been one of those kinda Nielsen vehicles had I happened to catch it on some local tee-vee station sometime in the early-seventies, but now that I'm older'n crotchetier all I can say is hmmmmmmmmmmm, this be a good 'un!
Nielsen plays this expat Amerigan living in London who, on New Year's Eve, takes a train to Paris (must be some sorta holiday express considering how the passengers seem to be there only to yuk it up) to deliver a rare reel of tape to the French Embassy which is so desperately wanted by a whole slew of foreign governments to the point where there's this guy who looks like Lol Coxhill without the cleft chin out to get it no matter how many people he has to strangle to latch onto the thing.
Nielsen plays this expat Amerigan living in London who, on New Year's Eve, takes a train to Paris (must be some sorta holiday express considering how the passengers seem to be there only to yuk it up) to deliver a rare reel of tape to the French Embassy which is so desperately wanted by a whole slew of foreign governments to the point where there's this guy who looks like Lol Coxhill without the cleft chin out to get it no matter how many people he has to strangle to latch onto the thing.
Nielsen plays it nice 'n cool throughout even showing signs of his future comedic career when he interacts with the frolicking passengers on the express, and for once you ain't wishin' that the badguy'd garrote him because the future POLICE SQUAD star doesn't come off like a total asshole unlike some male leads in the same kinda role most certainly would. Aliza Gur as Carolyn does pretty good as the opposite sex lead if only because she's a good twenny-years-old here and thankfully the de-feminization trend hadn't ruined everything with regards to testosterone bubbling to the point of blah. (Though I gotta complain about that forehead which woulda gotten her a lotta behind-the-back commentaries had she attended my high school...and you should have heard what they said about me to my face!) Heck, I even think that the soon-to-fade Dorinda Stevens as model Olive Davis was pretty snat or was that the french twist hairdo she was wearing? Looking at the kinda gals that were romping about back then you kinda get the feeling that they were total ladies who didn't smell like they forgot to wipe or used packing sponges for tampons like the examples of libbers you see these days.
The whole shebang had the right balance of humor, intrigue and suspense that goes to remind me about just how good these films (even these English ones which at times could get too "pip pip" for my tastes) could be. Another tip top recommendation for this particular piece of cinematic pounce that I somehow think's gonna fly over the heads of most of Nielsen's latterday fans (but I may be wrong).
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