Von Ryan's Express

Frank Sinatra stars in this implausible but relatively engaging WWII POW escape film, playing Col. Joseph Ryan, a downed US Army Air Corps pilot who leads 600 British and American prisoners in a dramatic escape through Italy aboard a commandeered train. Aided by some of their Italian jailers, who are anxious to jump sides as the 1943 Allied invasion gets under way, the POWs take over a train and, with some of their number masquerading as Germans guards, set off for neutral Switzerland. Initially called "von Ryan" by the other prisoners, who thought him too accommodating to the enemy, the American colonel proves his courage over and over again as the train makes its...