A valuable Van Dyck painting has been stolen from an art museum in Paris and the thief (Conrad Veidt) is onboard the Rome Express heading to Italy. This sinister criminal is in search of a Mr. Poole (Donald Calthrop, Blackmail) who snatched the painting from him in an attempt to double-cross him.
There is also a motley band of characters onboard the train whose lives will all intertwine with this criminal during the course of their journey to Rome. There is Asta Marvelle (Esther Ralston) a beautiful American movie star; Alistair McBain (Cedric Hardwicke) a millionaire philanthropist who is traveling with his secretary Mills (Eliot Makeham); a pair of adulterous lovers (Harold Huth and Joan Barry); a golfing bore (Gordon Harker); and a beetle-hunting police chief (Frank Vosper).
Rome Express was one of the very first thrillers set on a train and it inspired a number of similarly themed films, including Alfred Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes (1935). Walter Forde beautifully directed this taut little picture and utilized a number of innovative filming tricks including long panning shots and fast cuts between scenes, but what makes it truly stand out is its snappy dialogue by Frank Vosper and Sidney Gilliat who, not surprisingly, also penned the scripts to The Lady Vanishes and Night Train to Munich (1940).
Conrad Veidt, who was making his English-speaking debut, is devilishly charming as the villain while Cedric Hardwicke is entertaining to watch as the penny-pinching philanthropist who delights in being demeaning to his secretary Mills. Also in the cast is Hugh Williams and Finlay Currie.
