For those who have seen Shanghai Express, Peking Express is a remake of that film. It is actually a second remake, as Night Plane from Chungking was made in 1943. Peking Express is a 1951 crime action thriller with a great director and a marvelous cast.
Doctor Michael Bachlin (Joseph Cotton, Shadow of a Doubt, The Third Man), is in Shanghai investigating a missing shipment of medical supplies for the United Nation’s World Health Organization. He must travel from Shanghai to Peking on the express train with a pair of passengers Father Joseph Murray (Edmund Gwenn, Miracle on 34th Street, Foreign Correspondent, Them!), Kwon (Marvin Miller, Forbidden Planet, Johnny Angel), a sinister businessman and a reporter, Wong (Benson Fong, Charlie Chan and the Chinese Cat, Dark Alibi, Our Man Flint) to learn more about the shipment. His former lover, Danielle Grenier (Corinne Calvet, Rope of Sand, The Far Country) is also on board to make things interesting for Dr. Bachlin. The train the cast is riding on also is full of refugees that are avoiding Communist China rule, but Kwon, showing his true colors, holds up the train, and all the passengers become his prisoner, holding them hostage, causing the mission the Dr. Bachlin is on to become sidetracked!
Peking Express doesn’t get much in the way of notoriety, and there are folks like me who hadn’t heard of the film. After watching it, I can say that the movie is a terrific picture with excellent direction, great pacing, some great action sequences, and superb performances by the cast. It was great to see Benson Fong in a non-Charlie Chan film. He’s been in many films but seeing him outside of being a goofy son in the Charlie Chan films was a first for me. Marvin Miller, as many are aware of, spent much of his career as a narrator for films that included The Deadly Mantis, King Dinosaur, Godzilla Raids Again (the US cut), Sleeping Beauty and Sampo! He was also the voice of Robby the Robot in both Forbidden Planet and The Invisible Boy!
Kino Lorber releases William Dieterle’s Peking Express on Blu-ray advertised as being “Remastered in HD by Paramount Pictures – From a 4K Scan of the 35mm Camera Fine Grain”. The video quality for this black and white release is impressive, with outstanding textures and great details to the scenery. Characters faces in close-ups show a lot of detail as well. The cinematography by Charles Lang looks marvelous in 4K! The greyscale looks stunning with rich blacks and strong, crisp whites. Film grain is present during the presentation. No DNR appears to have been applied on the Blu-ray.
For the audio, the English DTS-HD master audio 2.0 track is excellent with clear dialogue and strong action sounds which is mainly gunshots going off. The background sounds are perfectly balanced with the dialogue without any hissing or crackling. Optional English Subtitles are offered for this release!
Kino’s Blu-ray offers a commentary track by Film Historian Eddy Von Mueller who provides plenty of information about the film.
The Blu-ray also has theatrical trailers for Peking Express, Detective Story, Lady on a Train, I’ll be Seeing You, Under Capricorn, Portrait of Terror and The Turning Point
I think that classic film collectors should seek Peking Express out for their collections as it really is a damn good movie. I can’t imagine the film getting a better release than what Kino has delivered here! Highly recommended!
Peking Express
Director- William Dieterle
Cast- Joseph Cotton, Corinne Calvet, Edmund Gwenn, Marvin Miller
Country of Origin- USA
Distributor – Kino Lorber
Number of Discs – 1
Reviewed by – David Steigman
Date –11/26/2022