Avalanche Express

Avalanche Express Information

Avalanche Express is a 1979 cold war adventure thriller film produced and directed by Mark Robson, about the struggle over a defecting Russian general. It starred Lee Marvin, Robert Shaw (in his last performance), Maximilian Schell, and Linda Evans. The screenplay by Abraham Polonsky was based on the novel by Colin Forbes. Both Shaw and Robson died near the end of shooting.

Plot

Russian general Marenkov (Robert Shaw) decides to defect to the West, and CIA agent Harry Wargrave (Lee Marvin) leads the team that is to get him out. Wargrave decides that Marenkov should travel across Europe by train, on the fictional "Avalanche Express". The idea is to lure the Russians into attacking the train, and thus discover who their secret agents in Europe are. Consequently, during the train journey they must survive both a terrorist attack and an avalanche, all planned by Russian spy-catcher Nikolai Bunin (Maximilian Schell).

Production problems

During production in Ireland, both director Mark Robson and starring actor Robert Shaw died of heart attacks within weeks of each other. Monte Hellman was brought in to finish the direction, and Gene Corman (Roger Corman's brother) was called in to complete Robson's duties as producer.

Robert Rietty was hired to re-voice 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-voiced by Rietty.

Neither Hellman, Corman or Rietty were 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."

Cast

Lee Marvin as Wargrave
Robert Shaw as Marenkov
Linda Evans as Elsa Lang
Maximilian Schell as Bunin
Joe Namath as Leroy
Horst Buchholz as Scholten
Mike Connors as Haller
Claudio Cassinelli as Molinari
Kristina Nel as Helga Mann
David Hess as Geiger
Günter Meisner as Muehler
Sylva Langova as Olga
Cyril Shaps as Sedov
Vladek Sheybal as Zannbin
Arthur Brauss as Neckerman
Sky du Mont as Philip John
Richard Marner as Prachko
Arnold Drummond as Commissar (Maxim Gorky)
Paul Glawion as Alfredo
Dan van Husen as Bernardo

Avalanche Express

Avalanche Express Information

Plot

Production problems

Cast

See also