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The science-religion debate, on the Transsiberian Express in 1906 a visitor from the stars contemplates it mordantly. From Szechuan Province cave to Peking train station for the immemorial troglodyte, frozen in a chained crate as prized discovery of the Royal Geographic Society professor (Christopher Lee). (In the baggage department it moves swiftly from a hairy paw picking the lock to a crimson eye glowing within the box.) Along for the ride is the surgeon (Peter Cushing) with a knack for friendly rivalry, plus the Polish countess (Silvia Tortosa) who scoffs at evolution, the police inspector (Julio Peña), the safe-cracking spy (Helga Liné), and the feverish monk (Alberto de Mendoza) who feels "the stink of hell in this train." One look from the beast is enough to leave eyeballs bleeding and brains erased "like chalk from a blackboard," its essence leaps from body to body in search of knowledge. "But what if one of you is the monster?" "Monster?! We're British, you know." A particularly elegant condensation of Hammer horror for a pulsing Spanish view, with benefits for Cohen (God Told Me To) and Carpenter (The Thing). Eugenio Martín allows himself a dash of Sternberg with an ascending crane on the steaming locomotive, then proceeds to line its corridors with ghouls. The missing link's ocular fluid under the microscope provides a presentation of ancient images captured as if in amber, they're of little interest to the Cossack bear (Telly Savalas) ready to slaughter everybody on board. Rasputin and his caprichos, as Dalí would have it, he welcomes his new overlord and finds transcendence at last in an infernal gleam at the head of the barreling express, an image from Gance's La Roue. Passengers clamor and gasp in the dark, Lee of course recognizes them as the audience: "Madame, they crave excitement." With George Rigaud, Victor Israel, and Alice Reinhardt.
--- Fernando F. Croce |