Avalanche Express (1979)

• Year: 1979
• Released: 19 Oct 1979
• Country: Ireland, United States
• Adwords: N/A
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078812/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/avalanche_express
• Metacritics:
• Available in: 720p,
• Language: English, Russian
• MPA Rating: PG
• Genre: Action, Thriller
• Runtime: 88 min
• Writer: Abraham Polonsky, Colin Forbes
• Director: Mark Robson, Monte Hellman
• Cast: Lee Marvin, Robert Shaw, Linda Evans
• Keywords: cia, kgb, avalanche, ski resort,

	4.9/10
	20% – Critics
	12% – Audience

Avalanche Express Storyline

At a gathering of high-ranking Soviet Union officials in Moscow, General Marenkov (Robert Shaw), the head of the government security agency K.G.B, reveals that there has been a breach of Project Winter Harvest, a plan to establish a Soviet network of biological warfare devices throughout Europe. After the meeting, Marenkov requests that the Project’s Director, Colonel Nikolai Bunin, travel to Zurich, Switzerland, to assist in trapping the suspected culprit, a spy known by the code name Angelo.At a train station in Switzerland, a team of American intelligence agents, led by Colonel Harry Wargrave (Lee Marvin) and his associates, Elsa Lang (Linda Evans), Leroy (Joe Nameth) and Neckerman (Arthur Brauss), retrieves the latest cassette tape sent by their Soviet informant Angelo. The tape is discreetly transferred among Wargrave’s team until it reaches the hands of Haller, the superior officer, who is waiting on a private jet. After decoding the recording, Haller, Harry and Elsa listen as Angelo announces that this tape will be his final one and requests that the Americans meet him next Friday in Milan, Italy, during the noon tour at the La Scala opera house. Angelo explains that the position of the militarist hardliners is becoming more powerful in the Soviet Union, and subsequently Project Winter Harvest has been reactivated under the leadership of Bunin. With his cover threatened, he plans to defect immediately.Three days later during the opera house tour, Harry and Leroy wait for the rendezvous with Angelo whom they have never met. Suddenly, from behind the curtain of a private box, Marenkov reveals himself to be the informer, Angelo. While escorting Marenkov to a safe house in Milan, the Americans subdue and foil enemy agents who try and stop them. Because Marenkov is the third most powerful official in the Soviet Union, Haller suggests they need to bury him in a missile site to protect him. On the contrary, Marenkov wants to give the Soviets and Bunin a chance to come after him, which will expose the Soviet network of elite undercover agents and provide the Americans with a chance to defeat Bunin and Winter Harvest.Meanwhile at a covert location in Zurich, Bunin receives a telegram from Moscow reporting that the attempt to trap Angelo in Milan failed; therefore, Bunin must assume control of the European clandestine network consisting of Soviet agents planted under the deepest cover. Bunin updates Rudi Muehler, who has nurtured this network for years and is reluctant to hand it over, that Marenkov is the spy Angelo. Since Marenkov possesses the most classified information, his defection is not a routine intelligence operation but a political crisis. In order to kill Marenkov, Bunin must have access to Muehler’s elite agents and issues orders for them to be war-ready.Back at the Milan safe house, Harry proposes that they accompany Marenkov on the Atlantic Express train from Italy to Holland. Despite the risks, Harry persuades Haller that the scheme could flush out Soviet agents who have been in reserve for over twenty years, as long as they can keep Marenkov safe as bait. Through a series of decoys, the American agents sneak Marenkov on the train at the Milan station and keep him under close guard; however, Soviet agent Olga (Sylvia Langova) soon delivers intelligence to Bunin about the plan. Bunin orders Muehler to organize an attack, and confidently tells Olga that he already has two undercover agents positioned in separate cars of the Express.After crossing the Swiss border, Harry and his team encounter a unit of Soviet agents who have seized a signal tower along the route, but they defeat the Soviets in an exchange of gunfire that knocks out most of the compartment windows. As the train nears a Swiss mountain pass, an area helicopter communicates with the Express about possible inclement weather.On the Wasserhorn summit, the pilots notice skiers, but they are actually Soviet agents who set off explosive charges, creating an avalanche. The pilots warn Harry that the only option is to take shelter in the upcoming tunnel, but the train operator cannot increase speed and make the tunnel in time unless three wagons are dropped. Meanwhile, the avalanche crushes a nearby village. Using explosives, Harry successfully separates the last three cars before they are buried in the avalanche’s path. The rest of the Express enters the safety of the tunnel.Disguised as Professor Heinz Golchak, Bunin checks into a Swiss hotel and meets with Geiger, the leader of a German terrorist cell. In exchange for providing Geiger’s associates in hiding with an escape route via a Soviet freighter, Bunin wants the terrorist group to destroy the Atlantic Express, wearing their customary black uniforms and masks. That evening, after passing through tight security at the Zurich train station, Bunin boards the Atlantic Express in disguise, along with Geiger and Geiger’s female associate, Helga Mann.In the morning, the Atlantic Express arrives in Maastricht, Holland, and Dutch intelligence officer Scholten goes on board to assist the Americans for the remaining journey. Scholten informs Harry that a Soviet freighter, The Maxim Gorky, is suspiciously lingering in the waters off the coast of Rotterdam, Holland. Meanwhile, Bunin notifies Geiger that one of his men planted weapons in the bathroom ceiling, located behind the engine room. Geiger collects the stash and distributes grenades to Bunin and Helga. As the train is nearing a river bridge, Helga opens the operator compartment and threatens to trigger the grenades if the train does not slow down. As the locomotive comes to a stop, the Geiger Group waiting in the adjacent meadow attacks with machine guns. Grabbing Helga, Leroy leaps overboard into the water, setting off her grenade away from the train. Bunin throws a grenade towards Marenkov’s compartment, but the Soviet defector and Elsa escape the blast and jump off the train. Harry shoots Geiger dead and Scholten’s men kill the remaining terrorists, but Bunin gets away on a motorboat standing by to take him to the freighter.Harry explains to Scholten the importance of intercepting The Maxim Gorky since it will not only provide refuge for Bunin, but also for valuable Soviet undercover agents. To deceive Bunin, Harry, Marenkov, Elsa and Scholten disguise themselves in the uniforms of the Geiger Group, and proceed to the freighter’s location in a torpedo boat. As they approach, Bunin is surprised that these terrorists survived the train assault, but instead of picking them up, he orders the Soviet officers on the freighter to shoot. To counter the attack, Harry and his group fire torpedoes, setting off a series of explosions that destroy everyone on the ship including Bunin.Later, on a plane to the United States, Haller informs Marenkov that Bunin’s death and the exposure of the Winter Harvest agenda has weakened the militant hawks in the Soviet government. Content, Marenkov hums a song on his way to a new life in America.

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Avalanche Express Movie Reviews

AVALANCHE EXPRESS (Mark Robson and, uncredited, Monte Hellman, 1979) **1/2

A film more famous for its behind-the-scenes double-jinx (the deaths, within months of each other, of both director Robson – who may have become involved to begin with in view of his work on the spy romp THE PRIZE {1963} and another train movie i.e. VON RYAN’S EXPRESS {1965} – and co-star Robert Shaw: in fact, it was completed by Monte Hellman, while much of Shaw’s dialogue had to be re-dubbed due to his being in poor health throughout!) than its actual theme or quality. That said, it is unworthy of Leonard Maltin’s BOMB rating, especially when considering that, apart from the talents already mentioned, we also got scriptwriter Abraham Polonsky and, making up the rest of the main cast, Lee Marvin, Maximilian Scell, Horst Buchholz, Claudio Cassinelli and David Hess (the appearance of the last two, who mostly dabbled in exploitation fare in Europe, was quite a surprise)!

It is a typically glum Cold War thriller (unfortunately, the joy seems to have been taken out of the espionage subgenre, Hitchcock imitations – like the afore-mentioned Robson effort – and the James Bond extravaganzas notwithstanding!) with whose plot, involving Shaw’s harassed defecting Russian protagonist, the formerly black-listed Polonsky – which had prevented him from working for 20 years! – must have felt a particular kinship (not that his script, adapted from the Colin Forbes novel, is particularly dense). Even more ironic is the fact that Shaw’s character’s wife is said to have committed suicide (which the actor’s real-life spouse, actress Mary Ure, had actually done in 1975!) and, when queried why the Kremlin has not yet announced the KGB official’s betrayal, he says they are probably waiting to proclaim his death (which Shaw may well have foreseen as being just around the corner for himself!).

For no very good reason, the visibly-ravaged Marvin is made to rekindle his affair with much-younger agent Linda Evans but, predictably, their relationship runs far from smoothly – especially when he fakes his own death (again, this twist has no direct bearing on the plot!) and Shaw ‘flees’ from her custody when the titular vehicle is attacked by a terrorist group (yet another irrelevant, if undeniably topical, plot point). The avalanche, too, is just one of several incidents to be incorporated into the narrative – such as having Schell as Shaw’s ruthless former colleague don a disguise in order to board the train himself (recalling his previous turn as a Nazi in THE ODESSA FILE {1974}, he is the only one here to be seen having fun with the vaguely preposterous proceedings!).

Incidentally, I watched this on late-night Italian TV despite being available in English elsewhere since the latter is an edited version (shorn of 10 from its already slim 85-minute duration)! In the end, while essentially uninspired, the film is well worth-watching for its mix of forceful personalities, numerous action scenes and, well, the curiosity value that naturally arises out of its singular making.

Disappointing Espionage Caper

With a cast as talented and diverse as the one assembled for this espionage-cum-disaster caper, the expectations are great. The execution is sadly lacking. Robson’s last film concerns a Russian military defector (Shaw), aided by CIA agents (Marvin, Evans & Connors principally), pursued by a Russian patriot (Schell) determined to capture or kill his quarry. Amid all the frantic chases, double-crosses and narrative cul-de-sacs, an avalanche threatens to derail a train carrying the defector and his minders. Cobbled patchwork of a feature film, with erratic editing and a plot so riddled with contrivances, that you’re confounded by the fuss. Why it wasn’t made more simply is obvious – the storyline is so aimless and superficial, there’s just not enough material to sustain a feature length movie.

Disappointingly pedestrian performances from Shaw, Marvin, Evans and Connors lend very little to the quality of the picture, while Schell at least applies some effort in his stereotypical Cold-War silhouette. He also has the best of the uninspired dialogue. Former NFL star Joe Namath isn’t bad as one of the good guys, and Kristina Nel (where’s Marthe Keller?) makes a reasonable terrorist. With names like Horst Buchholz, Claudio Cassinelli and Vladek Sheybul in bit parts, the opportunities for success were endless. Sadly, none of it comes to fruition.

If you were expecting some improvement from the foreshadowed avalanche, you’ll be disappointed to learn that it’s anticipation is more exciting than the execution. Although there’s a few decent action sequences and colourful location work, mostly the film is just talky and pointless. Notwithstanding the well documented challenges encountered making this film (i.e. the death of both director Robson and star Shaw), it’s difficult to imagine how much better this film could’ve been had they both lived to see completion. Maybe better they didn’t, although it’s a great shame that this underachievement is their collective swansong.

Not A Great Film To Go Out On

During the making of Avalanche Express, Robert Shaw died and I’m sure the producers must have been in a quandary. They decided to salvage as much footage as they could with longshots and rears. Shaw’s voice was weak so whole scenes were dubbed.

The result was an 85 minute action adventure story with a lot of holes in the story about a Russian general, Shaw, defecting to the west. Lee Marvin, Linda Evans, Michael Connors and would you believe Joe Namath are the CIA agents bringing him out and for some reason decide train travel is best. This is an obvious homage to Alfred Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes, but I’m sure Hitchcock would not have been flattered with the comparison had the master of suspense saw this film before he died.

The rest of the players try their best and Maximilian Schell as the KGB guy assigned to kill Shaw before he makes it out of Europe is quite good. As an actor however Joe Namath is a great quarterback, in his few scenes he’s painful to watch dealing with the dialog, limited though it was in his case.

I do feel sorry for Robert Shaw because of the many fine performances he did give us on the big and small screen. My first memory of him was in a short lived British syndicated television series The Buccaneers and that had far more going for it than Avalanche Express.

Had Shaw lived and the movie going public got to see what would have been the story they wanted to bring us, would we have liked it? Hard to speculate, but I’d stay clear of this unless you want to see a nice big avalanche nearly engulf a train with nearly all the cast on it.