Sam Waterston

Zero Mostel

Yvette Mimieux

Ian McShane

Joseph Wiseman

Scott Marlowe

Shelley Winters

Stanley Holloway

Donald Pleasence

Vincent Price

Jackie Cooper

Miera Shore

Dimitris Papaioannou

Christos Natsios

Alicia Ammon

Michael Collins

Alan Rose

Charles Logan

Franz Russell

Joseph Golland

John H. Meyer

Claudine Melgrave

Tommy Wright

Daniel Mann

L. John Creery

Trevor Wallace

Alex North

Harry Waxman

John McSweeney Jr.

Cameron Porteous

John Stark

Bill Warrington

Eric Ambler

Jack Cooper

Thriller

Journey into Fear

New World Productions

CinemaSerf

Swap a train for a boat, oil for some bullets and we have a rehash of the 1943 Orson Welles version of this story - only this is nowhere near as good. It doesn't really help that the casting lacks for any great clout. Sam Waterston is weak in the lead as "Graham" - the scientist who gets caught up in a Turkish conspiracy after he discovers that there might just be oil in them thar desert. This information is proving quite dangerous for the man and he needs to get out before he succumbs to one of the plentiful - but not very efficient - assassins out to kill him. He manages to make it onto a train on which he hopes to escape - but are the passengers all they seem to be? We know from fairly early on that "Banat" (Ian McShane) is his biggest danger and therein lay my first problem. He has all the menace of a cucumber sandwich. Zero Mostel's duplicitous "Kopelkin" fares little better and though the supporting cast boats some A-list names, they feature too sparingly to make much difference with this rather far-fetched and procedural attempt at a thriller that's just, well, very light on thrills. I did quite like the last few scenes as things flare up, but otherwise this is a pretty unremarkable television movie that you'll very readily forget.

English

journey into fear cdn