Rome Express (1932) | Blu-ray release - A rollicking vintage British comedy thriller | Movie Talk | What's on TV

This Grand Hotel on rails comedy thriller pulled in rave reviews on its release in 1932, with critics calling it the finest British film made to date, while it gave director Walter Forde his finest feature in his career.

On a Trans-European Rome Express train heading out of Paris, an assortment of passengers find themselves getting caught up in the theft of a Van Dyke painting, including a couple of adulterous lovers, a millionaire philanthropist and his downtrodden secretary, an overworked American screen starlet, and a couple of career criminals. But when the thief turns up dead, a vacationing French Police Chief has to sift through the secrets and lies to solve the case…

A hugely ambitious undertaking for Gaumont Pictures (and the first to be shot at the refurbished Shepherd’s Bush studios), Rome Express became a commercial and critical success, and helped put the wheels on genre thrillers like Alfred Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes (1938) and Carol Reed’s Night Train To Munich (1940). Presented here in a brand new high definition transfer from original film elements in its as-exhibited aspect ratio, this great addition to Network’s The British Film collection includes an image gallery and original promotional material (pdf) as the bonus extras.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EI2g31heJfs