Horror Express

0:00 Lee Good evening, and welcome to horror. I'm Lee.

0:00 Adam I'm Chris.

0:00 Chris I'm Adam.

0:00 Lee And we are here this evening to discuss the 1972 movie Horror Express.

0:00 Adam 50, 50 years ago.

0:00 Lee Yes.

0:00 Chris Yes.

0:00 Lee I think you know how long it took me to watch this film.

0:00 Lee we, this is the first of our listener request month, of which there are two movies. This is the first, chosen by Pinball Bobby.

0:00 Lee there will be spoilers, there will be swearing, and regardless of what I think of this film, I love you very much, Bobby. I'd just like to put that out there.

0:01 Adam And I'd like to say, I love you even more.

0:01 Lee Oh, well, there you go.

0:01 Adam There will be fights a-plenty coming up, I think.

0:01 Chris Bobby has been pressing for some time for us to cover Horror Express.

0:01 Chris So clearly the gods were in his favor.

0:01 Adam Yes.

0:01 Chris And when that it got picked.

0:01 Adam The alien gods perhaps.

0:01 Chris Yes.

0:01 Chris I think you'll appreciate this, Bobby, when I say that we choose you.

0:01 Lee Okay. So, as this is your first viewing of it, Chris, what did you make of Horror Express?

0:01 Adam Well, I think I may have given a little hint there, but for me, right, you know, so I, I think I heard you mention a little bit of what we were to expect, so I think Adam said something like a monkey alien on a train.

0:01 Adam He probably said it better than that, but that's kind of what was left in my head.

0:02 Adam It was it was something like that. And, and so I thought,

0:02 Chris I think he was like an alien Yeti on a train.

0:02 Adam Oh, could have been, yeah. Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, and then Telly Savalas turns up.

0:02 Adam Oh, I don't know Telly Savalas, but I got to say I, I definitely like a lot of these actors, right?

0:02 Adam But so yeah, so I'm thinking, it's it's it's roughly 50 years ago. I didn't know it was exactly 50 years ago, roughly that. How good are they going to make something that's a bit sci-fi, a bit horror, on a train?

0:02 Adam it's got Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. They could probably play golf for an hour, and I'd be happy watching them. I'm not a big fan of sport. No, no dissing golf anyone, but I just don't watch much sport. Right, anyway.

0:02 Adam So I thought, it'll be fine.

0:02 Adam Yeah, I thought it'd be fine. I can watch that. It doesn't matter.

0:02 Adam And I was very pleasantly surprised.

0:02 Adam It's got a little bit of everything.

0:02 Adam It's it's definitely got a bit of comedy in there, it's got some I think decent enough gore for the time.

0:02 Adam it's got a fascinating cast of characters and the way they play off each other, and a bit of rivalry between Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee.

0:03 Adam But, you know, then they get on and they're the British gentlemen trying to be noble till the end and getting whacked in the stomach for their efforts.

0:03 Adam It's just it covers everything.

0:03 Chris Can I just, can I just say at that point, Chris, you've just reminded me.

0:03 Chris How oddly shocking is that?

0:03 Adam What, when they get whacked?

0:03 Chris When Telly Savalas, Christopher Lee gets whacked, butt of a gun to the stomach, and then Peter Cushing gets one to the fucking small of the back.

0:03 Adam I did think if I didn't know beforehand, I won't be messing with any Kosaks.

0:03 Adam It's because and, and that, the, the captain, what was his name, Kazzan? I mean, he is a character.

0:03 Chris Well, yeah, well, Telly Savalas is a character.

0:03 Chris I think that's it, he's really.

0:03 Adam Right, okay. Telly Savalas turns up. I'm not sure if Captain.

0:03 Chris Right, well.

0:04 Adam Well, I got to say, we need to watch something else with him in it then.

0:04 Chris Oh, well, there's, there's plenty I can recommend, definitely.

0:04 Chris We'll get into that.

0:04 Adam So it's I'm going to say, yeah, this is a definite great fun.

0:04 Chris I'm so glad you, I'm so glad you enjoyed this, Chris, because yeah.

0:04 Chris I read I'll, I can't remember the name, but of the author, but I read there's a series of books called The Midnight Movie Monographs.

0:04 Adam Okay.

0:04 Chris And I read they've done one on this, and I read that like in prep for this.

0:04 Chris Because it was like, I bought it. I've actually now finally got to read it. And it's brilliant.

0:04 Chris I like the fact because I've read it. It's the first book I've read in probably like almost like half a year.

0:04 Chris It's, yeah.

0:04 Chris And but he has this sort of, one thing that he talks about in it,

0:04 Chris is that it's kind of this weird parallel that it's like Hammer, the same year Hammer do, To the Devil a Daughter, which he'll eventually, will probably eventually see.

0:05 Adam We will.

0:05 Chris But it's, but it's considered to be the last Hammer horror film, or the like the last of the original run.

0:05 Adam Yeah.

0:05 Chris because obviously I know they've done other stuff and Woman in Black and things like that.

0:05 Chris But yeah, so that's like, so the same year that Hammer finish doing horror, you get this where you've got the two Hammer stars.

0:05 Chris And but then like in terms of the horror genre, you start getting a lot of the stuff coming in from Europe and Italy, a lot of which is actually older, but is finally getting a release and so people are seeing these things and stuff like that.

0:05 Chris And also just horror in general goes a bit grimy and a bit more gory and just a bit more, yeah.

0:05 Adam Okay. Yeah, I could see that. I suppose.

0:05 Chris And it's like a weird, like interesting, sort of transition point.

0:06 Chris But, yeah. Now I'm, and I think to be honest, it's that element, that sort of 70s element more like Death Line or the say. I think that's probably Lee's least favorite aspect of the film.

0:06 Adam Yeah, in fact, in fact, I remember when we watched Death Line, Lee was like, I like this a lot more now we've talked about it.

0:06 Adam I'm pretty sure that was Death Line.

0:06 Chris I think Death Line, you just need to never take Death Line seriously.

0:06 Adam Yeah. I reckon if we watched this together, you'd get a lot more from it.

0:06 Adam But like, look, let's let's give you a chance, go on.

0:06 Lee I was going to say, funny enough, so this film I've tried to watch the first time, so in the last 10 years, I've tried twice to watch it.

0:06 Lee I've got about 15, 20 minutes in and just been bored shitless.

0:06 Lee and then last year, I finally managed to make it all the way through because I watched it with Lady Jennifer and we just took the piss out of it all the way through, so I got right to the end.

0:07 Lee Today, I'm not exaggerating, it took me five hours to watch this film.

0:07 Lee I watched 20 minutes and I was like, oh, thank God I didn't buff the dog yesterday. Right, that's it, I'm going to go out and buff the dog. So I paused it. I went outside and I buffed the dog.

0:07 Lee Then I came in, I put it back on for 15 minutes, then I stopped it. I had a bit of lunch, I took the bottles to the bottle bank. I went to the furthest bottle bank I could find, so I could drive drive aimlessly about.

0:07 Lee I was like, right, I'm going to sit down, I'm going to finish this. I got maybe another 20 minutes in and I was like, oh, screw this, I'm taking the dog for a walk now. So I stopped it, and I took the dog for a walk. It took me five goes. I watched this film in five segments.

0:07 Adam Well, no one can doubt your tenacity, Lee.

0:07 Adam That, that is.

0:07 Lee Honestly, it got to the point where I was like, how pissed off are they going to be if I said, I'm happy to talk about this film, but I only watched half of it and I could not finish. But I thought, no, we have listeners, they have requested this movie, so I shall stick it out. But God, I hated every minute of it.

0:08 Adam So look, I'm I'm trying to think the first 20 minutes, not a lot happens, as far as I can remember, but you get hints at what's going on. I liked, straight away, I liked a bit of rivalry between Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee there.

0:08 Adam And, and yeah, you're seeing the characters. You get an idea about what's going on.

0:08 Adam And then it somehow it just kept building for me all the way through to the end.

0:08 Chris I think you'd have to agree, Lee, that it's Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee are particularly fucking good in this.

0:08 Adam Oh, they are astonishing.

0:08 Chris They are really, really good.

0:08 Chris And but also their sort of playing off each other is really.

0:08 Adam Yeah.

0:08 Chris Right.

0:08 Lee They're they're doing the they're playing their perfect roles.

0:08 Lee Peter Cushing is being absolutely sweet and a lovely darling.

0:08 Lee Christopher Lee is being an absolute pompous belly the entire film.

0:08 Chris But also, but I love the fact, although Peter Cushing is an absolute darling, he's also a bit like, he's like when he's like, I do want to see her, what's in that crate, so I'll bribe the and when he bribes his way onto the train.

0:09 Lee Yeah.

0:09 Adam And also, also when he's asked if he's a doctor or something.

0:09 Chris Just corruption.

0:09 Adam But when he's asked if he's a doctor as well, and he's like, well, I'll finish my meal first.

0:09 Adam It's like, is that how things used to be? I kind of don't think they would happen now.

0:09 Lee I do like that, I did like the line when they were saying, you know, we need to work out who the monster is, and he said, well, how do I know? He said, you're not a viewer, and he said, we're British.

0:09 Lee Monster.

0:09 Chris We're British.

0:09 Chris It's, I mean, yeah. And that's kind of what they're offering in a in a lovely way.

0:09 Chris But I mean, I, I know that I know we want to sort of like, I know we want to crack through this and everything, but I've really got to tell you the sort of tale of Lee and Cushing with this film.

0:09 Chris So, so Christopher Lee was the first one to come on board with it, and he suggested Peter Cushing to play Dr. Wells.

0:10 Adam Oh.

0:10 Chris And because January 1971, Peter Cushing lost his wife.

0:10 Chris And as we've discussed a lot of times on the show, that was absolutely devastating to him.

0:10 Chris He regularly sort of, all the way for the rest of his life, whenever he was interviewed, he would just describe himself as, well, I'm pottering along until I get to die so I can see my wife again.

0:10 Chris And and he's like, you know, he is utterly bereft.

0:10 Chris And Christopher Lee's like, oh, well, you know, I want to keep I'll keep him working.

0:10 Chris Because he thought that was the best method to keep him from further into depression, you know.

0:10 Adam Yeah, yeah, possibly.

0:10 Chris So and this was filmed in December of 19, sorry, January '71 was when he lost his wife. This was filmed in January, in December '71.

0:10 Chris So, in a way, it was like coming up to his first Christmas without her, very, you know.

0:10 Chris And I think, yeah, Christopher Lee was like, well, if he's working, he'll be thinking about that and, you know, it'll take his, you know, hopefully helping through it.

0:11 Adam Yeah, definitely.

0:11 Chris But then Peter Cushing then did try to pull out,

0:11 Chris and he rang the because obviously this is like a Spanish English co-production.

0:11 Chris And so it's mainly Spanish crew and then you've got the two British stars essentially.

0:11 Chris But the yeah, so Peter Cushing spoke to the agent for the British end of it,

0:11 Chris and said tried to pull out.

0:11 Chris And the bloke said, yeah, you can do that, but you've got to you've still got to make the journey and tell the producer to his face there.

0:11 Chris Because he thought, oh, you know, that'll probably.

0:11 Adam What he thinks?

0:11 Chris He he'll put him off, yeah.

0:11 Adam Yeah.

0:11 Chris So, so and the producer, Berman Golden, no one told him this was what was happening.

0:11 Chris So Peter Cushing, he went he went to collect Peter Cushing from the airport, just expecting Peter Cushing's here to start work.

0:12 Chris And then Peter Cushing explained to him that he didn't want to, you know, he didn't want to appear.

0:12 Chris So, so Golden then spoke to Christopher Lee and like asked him to sort of step in and organized a meal for the three of them to resolve the issue, or hopefully encourage Peter Cushing to stay.

0:12 Chris And this ended up being like a a monologue of Christopher Lee reminiscing over the previous films that him and Peter Cushing had worked on, and the other two were sort of sitting there not really talking, just eating eating the meal.

0:12 Chris But apparently it sort of the next day, Peter Cushing arrived on set, ready to begin.

0:12 Chris And as you can imagine after some profuse apologies for causing any trouble, he didn't mention it again.

0:12 Chris But and this is the key bit that gets me and it's it this I thought was just like, because again, Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, like you say, they're both fulfilling what you feel they are in real life.

0:13 Adam Yeah.

0:13 Chris And but this is just so lovely.

0:13 Chris So Peter Cushing was still deeply distressed and began to suffer night terrors.

0:13 Chris So Christopher Lee took to sleeping in his bed with him.

0:13 Lee Oh.

0:13 Chris So I mean, so he would awaken in unfamiliar because he was waking up in unfamiliar surroundings, so he thought, well if I'm there, he knows where he is.

0:13 Chris And it's just such a.

0:13 Lee That is a sweet story.

0:13 Chris Yeah, it's so sweet. They are just, you know, I think something about Peter Cushing brings out the absolute heart in Christopher Lee, it's just like really lovely.

0:13 Chris But also, I cannot help but picture them as Eric and Ernie.

0:13 Lee Yeah.

0:13 Chris Both sat there in pajamas like Morecambe and Wise and just,

0:13 Chris and just, you know, police car goes, he's not going to sell many ice creams going at that speed.

0:14 Lee I just, yeah, it was just such a lovely thing that I had to sort of like, it was of all the sort of background stuff on the film, it was like the most sort of like just really lovely. You know, I just thought, fantastic.

0:14 Adam But has that been enough to turn Lee?

0:14 Lee No, no, definitely not.

0:14 Lee But I mean, but watching it again, I can definitely see why Bobby loves it, because I think I said it when, when we covered this on the what you've been watching and I watched it.

0:14 Lee This is just the thing on a train.

0:14 Lee It's exactly the same as The Thing.

0:14 Chris Yeah.

0:14 Chris It's.

0:14 Lee Yeah, but badly shot with a terrible score that doesn't go with the film.

0:14 Adam You watch your mouth out.

0:14 Lee It's all shaky cam. It's, oh, yeah, it's just appalling, it's badly paced.

0:14 Adam I'll have you, I'll have you know that the composer worked on Columbo.

0:14 Lee Yeah.

0:14 Chris He knows how to do a 70s.

0:14 Adam That's that's what adds that extra little mystery element to it.

0:15 Lee But but this is, see, this is what I was thinking earlier as well. It feels like it should have been a mystery, except there was no mystery because we knew who the alien was in at all times.

0:15 Lee So it should have been like a bit like The Thing where you're like, well, who is it? Which one is it?

0:15 Adam Yeah, yeah, you get that ambiguity. We don't know more than them.

0:15 Lee Yeah, but with this, you know, And it's like, so there's no mystery to it.

0:15 Lee There's no like, and yeah, and it just yeah.

0:15 Adam So I could I mean, right sometimes that would bother me, but for some reason, with this, it didn't. I felt like it was still interesting to see it play out with all of them.

0:15 Adam And who who's going to trust who and.

0:15 Chris It was nice, it's nice to be in that omniscient position.

0:15 Adam Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I suppose.

0:15 Chris But also in a weird way, because I was thinking it's a bit like Agatha Christie's The Thing.

0:15 Adam Yeah.

0:15 Chris But again, with Agatha Christie, you don't know who's done it.

0:15 Lee Yeah.

0:15 Chris But then oddly enough with Columbo, you do, so that's again, that's the connection.

0:15 Adam That's it.

0:16 Chris It's I'm going to I'm going to mention this because we'll talk about it anyway, we've we've fucking got to.

0:16 Chris Oh, and another thing, I never knew this, the two writers of this wrote Psychomania, which is another one that Lee's not keen on, but I know that Bobby fucking is because it's dog mental.

0:16 Lee I cannot, cannot abide Psychomania. Oh, I'll gladly watch it and yeah, take what you can friends, but.

0:16 Chris And again that soundtrack, but yeah.

0:16 Chris but yeah, they, but the guy who did the music is a guy called John Kakavas.

0:16 Chris he bumped into Telly Savalas in London and was just sort of like they got talking.

0:16 Chris And Telly Savalas was like, right, you're a composer, come and have a listen to these recordings, because Telly Savalas did have a a singing career as well.

0:16 Chris He's kind of like, he was kind of like Bruce Willis in the 70s.

0:16 Adam Okay.

0:16 Chris In the, also sang.

0:16 Chris But, you know, but was mainly turning up in action and tough roles and stuff like that, you know.

0:17 Adam He he does look the part for it.

0:17 Chris Yeah. But he so he played this he played John Kakavas's, like his solo stuff that he was recording, and he was like, what do you think of it? But not much.

0:17 Chris And he was like, well, if you can if you can do better, could you record me?

0:17 Chris And it was like, yeah, if you get me a gig on like in the film industry, like if you get me on some project. Yeah, we'll and that's how they cut the deal.

0:17 Chris And that's the reason he's the composer on this, because, yeah.

0:17 Chris And then but this guy then went on to do, like I say, he did like loads, mostly television, but he also did Kojak, which was obviously Telly Savalas's like most famous role, like the cop, who was a cop show from the 70s, Chris.

0:17 Adam Yeah, where I'd heard of it. I have never seen one.

0:17 Chris But yeah, it's just it's just Captain Kazaan walking around in shades and a lollipop saying, who loves you baby?

0:17 Adam I think I might have to check one of those out.

0:17 Lee What I love is he just turned up and out pricks Christopher Lee. Christopher Lee is such an obnoxious belly, and then it's like, yeah, but not as much as this massive wanker just turned up.

0:18 Chris It is, it's like, oh, I've been putting, because I think it's also lovely because you kind of get to this point where they've kind of muddled through.

0:18 Adam Yeah.

0:18 Chris And they're like, they're getting to the point where it's like, right, I've and clearly Christopher Lee has worked out, well if I turn the lights off, we'll punch the guy whose eyes are glowing red.

0:18 Adam Yeah.

0:18 Chris So like, but he's just they're sort of kind of just about to do that.

0:18 Chris And like I say, up until this point, murder on the Orient Express.

0:18 Chris And Chris, have you ever seen Blazing Saddles?

0:18 Adam No.

0:18 Chris Right, because at the very end of Blazing Saddles, the Mel Brooks film,

0:18 Chris the the a fight that's taking place in Blazing Saddles crashes through into another set of another film, of like a musical.

0:19 Adam Okay.

0:19 Chris And like the the director of the musical was going, stop, stop, stop. how dare you come onto my set.

0:19 Chris And one of the cowboys just guns up to him and just goes, piss on you, I work for Mel Brooks, and then punches him.

0:19 Chris And it's kind of what happens in this.

0:19 Chris Is it's like Telly Savalas was in another film.

0:19 Adam Yeah.

0:19 Chris And he just turned up and thought, oh, I'm going to take care of business in this film for the 16 minutes before I get killed.

0:19 Adam I can definitely see how it would look like that if, yeah, if you've seen him playing this kind of role elsewhere.

0:19 Chris Not only that, but it's also I looked, it's dead on an hour.

0:19 Lee Yeah, I I noticed that as well.

0:19 Lee It's an hour when he turns up.

0:19 Chris It's dead on the hour that it's like the first time you see Telly Savalas.

0:19 Chris And it's just sort of, you know.

0:19 Lee And he is funny. He turns up and starts slagging all these rich people off and calling them peasants. And it's like, I've just seen you sleeping on the floor next to a fire in a shed with a prostitute. Don't start coming in here and acting the big I am with all these rich people.

0:20 Adam I get the impression that he makes his own reality. He does not care what the real one is. It's whatever he says it is.

0:20 Chris I'm I'm now thinking of like having Captain Kazaan just as that, like a sort of metafictional character who creates his own realities and therefore just blips through into other people's films.

0:20 Chris And just like, you know, you just be halfway through Four Weddings and a Funeral and they're just doing like, you know, like the wedding speech or whatever like that. And then Kazaan turns in, beats a few people up, steals all their vodka, then fucks off.

0:20 Lee But it wasn't just him, it was Rasputin.

0:20 Lee Why was Rasputin in this film?

0:20 Lee What was that all about?

0:20 Lee That was definitely Rasputin.

0:20 Lee I know they called him something else.

0:20 Chris Oh, no, it is purely that is the character that he is there to be.

0:20 Chris If if they could have called him Rasputin, I think he's probably too, there might be people who could sue.

0:21 Lee Yeah.

0:21 Chris It is it is sort of, yeah, he is a very Rasputin-like figure.

0:21 Chris interestingly enough, because it's a lot of Italian and Spanish films, because they were going to be dubbed for various markets.

0:21 Chris Like they to make money, they had to do an English dub, so they just didn't record the sound and then dub the, dialogue and sound effects afterwards.

0:21 Chris but for this, Telly Savalas did his own voice, and Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing did their own voices.

0:21 Chris So although they weren't recorded, they did go and record their own dubbing.

0:21 Chris but the guy who plays who dubs for the Rasputin.

0:21 Chris is a guy called Robert Rietti.

0:21 Chris Who basically was indistinct foreign voice for years. He was just he just overdubbed anyone who was basically non-Caucasian in any sort of films or whatever like that.

0:22 Chris But, and you'll know him because he's very much he's like about eight different fucking Bond villains for a start.

0:22 Chris And it's it's, that is what you say, Mr. Bond.

0:22 Chris It's that voice.

0:22 Adam Yeah.

0:22 Chris And yeah. And suddenly but again, when I'm watching this, I'm like, yeah, I can hear it. I can really hear that through.

0:22 Chris But yeah, no, Rasputin is an interesting choice.

0:22 Chris And I also like the fact that, I mean, this is how deeply I was watching it.

0:22 Chris I was like, so, is the priest following him because although he's a man of God, this character as far as he is concerned is Satan. And so therefore Satan is the only thing that has ever proved to him of supernatural that would imply that there is a God.

0:22 Chris And that just takes him to work. And then I was like, no, I think I might be overthinking Horror Express.

0:22 Adam Possibly.

0:22 Adam Because there's no plot so you've got loads of time to think because there's this all going on.

0:22 Lee I sat like I I the thing is, I got to the end and I've written it down with a big ring around it, why was the alien killing everybody? It was never explained what it was doing, to kill.

0:23 Adam Well, wait, wait, wait, look, look, here's in fact, this is where we could have that argument of I might like to try and understand the alien.

0:23 Adam And you'd be like, no, just kill it. It's killing people, kill it, right?

0:23 Adam But I would say it's a little bit like, you know, we kill things without necessarily seeing that it's important.

0:23 Lee Yeah, yeah, but you wouldn't be like, I'm on a train, I've inhabited this body, I would like to go without being noticed. So what I'm going to do is boil lots of people's brains.

0:23 Adam Well, no, but but it didn't start with a sort of a modern intellect, did it? It essentially, because you if you take a human back, back when it was frozen, humans were useless practically. It's the only reason we're good is because we have we have books and yeah, so we would be primitive if we had no knowledge.

0:23 Lee But once he once he'd killed the guy on the platform, it would have been like.

0:23 Adam Well, maybe maybe he was not he was not fully appreciating the complexities of a train filled with.

0:24 Chris It does mean that you get a Siberian alien snow Yeti picking a lock.

0:24 Adam Yeah.

0:24 Chris Which is just.

0:24 Adam Yeah, well, that's the bit he learned. There you go.

0:24 Chris But but no, but I love the fact that that is supposedly literally all he's learned from that fate.

0:24 Adam Yeah.

0:24 Chris That's why he was so good. He just he never thought about anything else.

0:24 Chris He was a he was like a sort of top-level athlete of, lock-picking.

0:24 Lee And and just like, I guess it's a horror film, I guess it's the 70s, there is some shaky science going on in the 70s, in film in general.

0:24 Lee But the idea that everything that the eye has seen is saved in the liquid, and if you look in the eye, you can see everything it's ever seen.

0:24 Adam Yeah.

0:24 Adam Yeah.

0:24 Adam Like it's ridiculous.

0:24 Lee Like it's a human eye. Like I know it's got an alien inhabiting that body, but.

0:25 Adam But but it was quite a nice like it made no sense, but it was quite a nice.

0:25 Chris It's it's a weirdly enough, it's actually based on a myth.

0:25 Chris That has been.

0:25 Adam Wasn't that like homeopathy?

0:25 Chris It was it was around the like there was this theory because loads of people kept trying to do it.

0:25 Chris like loads of sort of doctors and coroners and stuff were trying to photograph people's eyes because they were convinced that the final image would be recorded on the not not like.

0:25 Adam Well, yeah, we had that with the Mark Hamill one that Lee hated as well.

0:25 Lee Yeah, see shaky science.

0:25 Adam Yeah. No normally I don't like that, but I completely gave that a free ride in this.

0:25 Chris Also shaky, if you want real shaky science, the bumps and creases of your brain are not, the bumps and creases don't disappear.

0:26 Adam Yeah, I've made a note of that as well. Don't you worry.

0:26 Adam But that's why I felt like this was it was fun enough that I didn't care too much about that.

0:26 Adam It was like, no, this this is not I don't I don't need to take this one too seriously.

0:26 Adam It's a fun alien train romp with a bit of horror and a bit of gore.

0:26 Chris I mean, in terms of the budget as well, for what it is, you know, it's clearly very low budget.

0:26 Chris But you've got some actually quite good.

0:26 Chris I like the alien eye effects.

0:26 Adam Yeah, the red eyes looks really good.

0:26 Chris They work better when they're on the actor who they obviously originally did them for.

0:26 Chris Because I'm pretty sure they just reuse the same ones on Rasputin, and it was a bit, yeah.

0:26 Chris But but also like you get that shot at the start of of the train.

0:26 Chris After that,

0:26 Chris this is all a model.

0:26 Adam Yeah.

0:26 Chris All the train, all the train in this is a model after that first shot.

0:26 Chris And it was a model left over from the director's previous film, a film called, Pancho Villa, but which had Telly Savalas in it.

0:27 Chris But yeah, he he just reused that.

0:27 Chris And they had, they had a corridor and a carriage, and they just had to redress it for for different parts of the train.

0:27 Adam Wow.

0:27 Chris So, and but they had blow-ups of train carriages on rollers. So at the end of each one, they would sort of swing and look like you could see beyond on the train.

0:27 Chris It's like really quite interesting little false perspective thing they did.

0:27 Lee This was my other thing that I made a note on. Sorry, just to pick more holes in it.

0:27 Lee At the end where they said, Moscow have said, can we change the points? And they said, well, it'll kill everyone. Who was in Moscow? How did they know what was going on in the train? Why did they want to kill everybody?

0:27 Lee Like if if they just wanted the the alien dead, but nobody in Moscow knew the alien was on the train. So what was all that about?

0:27 Chris I assumed it was when Christopher Lee goes in and finds the telegraph was not sent.

0:28 Chris I assume that Christopher Lee then telegraphs.

0:28 Chris Because they sort of just leave that and then nothing happens.

0:28 Lee Yeah.

0:28 Lee I assumed he called for the cops because they got on at the next station. So I assumed somebody had sent the message. But why that message was forwarded to Moscow, who then said, kill everyone on the train, is just a mystery that will never be answered.

0:28 Chris Well, it's a mystery because we're never quite sure, Christopher Lee is clearly funded by the Russian government.

0:28 Chris You know, that that expedition is on their money. So were they always, is it like when Yutani were like always trying to find like some alien, you know.

0:28 Adam To use as a weapon.

0:28 Chris I'm just going to give you, probably because it's the only time he's going to appear, I will give you a breakdown on Mr. Aristotle Savalas, they'll Telly Savalas.

0:28 Chris who was born to Greek immigrant parents in New York.

0:29 Chris He was 37 before he started had a an on-screen role.

0:29 Chris He sort of just drifted into.

0:29 Chris It sort of been a news, it sort of done loads of stuff and been a news vendor, a radio presenter, a lifeguard.

0:29 Chris During this time he tried to save a man who unfortunately drowned while the man's children stood by crying and, telling their dad to wake up.

0:29 Chris So he, that obviously stuck with him. So he became like a real campaigner on water safety and obviously, make sure he's going to switch.

0:29 Chris yeah, and he basically covered for a friend who couldn't make an audition and got the part.

0:29 Chris And that's how he ended up acting.

0:29 Lee Nice.

0:29 Chris And he sort of like so he,

0:29 Chris but he at one I think they were doing he was playing his pilot in The Greatest Story Ever Told.

0:29 Chris Which is when he first shaved his head.

0:29 Chris And then just stuck with it.

0:29 Chris I think it was like, I'm going fucking bold.

0:29 Lee But.

0:29 Adam It works.

0:29 Chris And it it works. It's the, what's his name, Patrick Stewart.

0:30 Adam Yeah.

0:30 Chris You know.

0:30 Chris Stay bold, yeah.

0:30 Chris You just don't look any different.

0:30 Chris as well.

0:30 Chris But yeah, so he's in The Dirty Dozen.

0:30 Chris He's Blofeld in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, making him the only American to play the part and the first American Bond film.

0:30 Chris he's then portrayed the role of Lieutenant Theo Kojak in The Marcus Nelson Murders, which was a TV movie that then spun off to Kojak for five seasons.

0:30 Chris he also had a music career as we mentioned earlier.

0:30 Chris He had a UK number one with If.

0:30 Chris a cover, you know, cover.

0:30 Adam I'm going to have to look at this, yeah.

0:30 Chris Yeah.

0:30 Chris

0:30 Chris while in in the late 70s, whilst working a great deal in Europe, he provided narration for three UK travelogue shorts.

0:30 Chris

0:30 Chris Telly Savalas looks at Portsmouth, looks at Aberdeen, and looks at Birmingham.

0:30 Chris I've seen looks at Birmingham.

0:30 Chris died the day after his 72nd birthday.

0:30 Chris So I'm assuming that was a real party.

0:31 Chris

0:31 Chris but yeah, just stuff to check him out in. He's in Cape Fear.

0:31 Chris The Dirty Dozen, On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

0:31 Chris Film I think you'd love Lee.

0:31 Chris He's in a film called The Assassination Bureau, him, Oliver Reed, and Diana Rigg, and it's basically like a steampunk adventure across Europe, where

0:31 Chris Oliver Reed's the head of a assassin assassination bureau and then decides to get his team to kill him.

0:31 Lee Nice.

0:31 Chris Yeah, it's just yeah, really great film.

0:31 Chris He's El Sleazo Tuff in The Muppet Movie, Captain Kronos, a film called Bastard.

0:31 Chris and just loads of stuff.

0:31 Chris Look him up.

0:31 Chris But yeah, and

0:31 Adam I've just looked up If, and the top comment is this is the most outrageous song ever, it's pure 70s brilliance.

0:31 Chris It's very much in the, have you heard, what's his name, William Shatner's stuff?

0:31 Adam No.

0:31 Chris You need to.

0:31 Adam I'm have to look at that as well. No.

0:31 Chris Yeah. William Shatner's it's very much in that sort of vein.

0:32 Chris I can't think what his big one was, but sorry, that sounds wrong.

0:32 Lee It was a David Bowie one, wasn't it?

0:32 Chris Oh, he did a Common People quite yeah.

0:32 Chris That was in the 90s though.

0:32 Chris But yeah, he did, no, it was Rocket Man.

0:32 Lee Yes, I think it was, yeah.

0:32 Chris And he does it as a spoopy.

0:32 Chris Yeah.

0:32 Chris I'm not that.

0:32 Lee Dyer.

0:32 Chris Yeah.

0:32 Chris Very much so.

0:32 Lee Well, right. So, let's wrap it up, gentlemen.

0:32 Lee thanks very much for your recommendation, Bobby.

0:32 Lee lots to talk about there on the positives and negatives.

0:32 Adam Absolutely.

0:32 Adam A lot of positives.

0:32 Lee Positives, Bobby. Don't listen to him.

0:32 Lee It's always more entertaining when we don't agree anyway.

0:32 Lee Yeah.

0:32 Lee so we will be back in a fortnight's time, and we'll be covering our next movie, which is The Pit and the Pendulum, sent to us by Dave.

0:32 Lee and then we'll be doing what we've been watching, and then, I believe, we've got one more episode before 150, so we might have something planned for that.

0:33 Lee But we shall have to see.

0:33 Adam Yes.

0:33 Lee So, thanks very much for listening, everybody.

0:33 Lee And goodnight.

0:33 Adam Goodnight.

0:33 Chris Goodnight.

0:33 Lee And go and listen to Bobby's podcast, not for everyone.

0:33 Lee Ninja Dust.

0:33 Unknown Bo.