Richard Chatten Leslie Nielsen spends most of the final third of this film pursued by a hit man while disguised in joke spectacles with a false moustache; but it's not a comedy!The jaunty credits sequence suggested more light-hearted fare than we actually get; and despite the fact that four people get murdered the British censor still only gave it a 'U' certificate. Maybe the producers didn't let director Robert Douglas - best remembered by film buffs as a cold-eyed villain in Hollywood swashbucklers, recently turned TV director - in on the joke. This was the only feature film Douglas ever directed - plainly shot on a shoestring even by British 'B' movie standards - and I suspect this was also originally intended for TV as well; especially as the handsome fellow he brought with him from Hollywood to play the lead was also a TV mainstay at the time. (At odd moments he suggests a certain goofy comic flair that might have flourished in more adroit hands; I wonder what became of him?)Much of the film resembles a rather talky and sub-par British 'B' of the period with the usual obtrusively loud jazz score, redeemed as usual by considerable period charm and occasionally enhanced by excellent location photography by Arthur Lavis and featuring the usual suspects like Eric Pohlmann as a ruthless killer and Cyril Raymond as a detective; neither wearing their usual moustaches, ironically.The era it evokes now seems as remote as the silent era; with the McGuffin taking what then seemed like the incredibly high-tech form of a spool of magnetic tape containing sensitive political information.

Oslo Jargo (Bartok Kinski) Night Train to Paris (1964) is a bit short on the thrills or intrigue, in fact, it really has neither. The director was more interested in filling up the time with useless 60's music and boring drunks. Aliza Gur is dull as an actress. Leslie Nielsen exhibits no tough rawness as he does in television as in Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1958–1961), Thriller (1960) or Kraft Suspense Theatre (1963-1965).He wears plastic black horn-rimmed glasses with attached eyebrows, large plastic nose, bushy moustache as a disguise. Yeah, stupid.For train buffs, it has a train ferry (a ship or ferry designed to carry railway vehicles). It was probably the Dover to Dunkirk line, from Britain. (It stopped in 1992 due to the opening of the Channel Tunnel).There's some cool jazz music and the intro is a nice assemblage, but that's it.Also recommended: Night Train to Munich (1940) Night Train (1959) Night Train to Lisbon (2013) Night Train to Terror (1985) Terror Train (1980)

edwagreen This 1964 film would have fared far better had it been a comedy. We know that Leslie Nielsen could do drama, but a comical interpretation of the film would have enhanced it, especially when on board on New Year's Eve, Nielsen puts on an outfit where he practically looks like Groucho Marx.Instead, this film, clumsily down, becomes one where people are trying to smuggle a tape out of England to France, and two of the people are immediately killed by a heavy-set man using gadgets on his prey.There is very little plot here if any, and of course, one of the ladies turns out to be in with the bad guys.

dbborroughs Leslie Nielsen stars in a smart breezy film about an important magnetic tape that has to go to Paris on New Years Eve. Nielsen goes to the aide of a friend and ends up in murder and espionage as he boards the title and is forced to avoid a mad killer.Its just over an hour and is a fine mix of the silly Nielsen and the very serious one. Its nice to see that he could be both a man of action and a smart mouth fellow. If there is a problem its that its almost too slight a film, the plot propelling things along at such a speed that the film forgets to generate enough suspense. Its kind of a spoiler to say, but you really do know that Nielsen is going to be okay in the end. Its not bad, but when I got to the end of the film I was still hungry for more.Recommended but have a second film ready