Avalanche Express is a 1979 Cold War adventure thriller film produced and directed by Mark Robson and starring Lee Marvin, Robert Shaw, Maximilian Schell, and Linda Evans. The plot is about the struggle over a defecting Russian general. The screenplay by Abraham Polonsky was based on a 1977 novel by Colin Forbes.
Plot[]
Russian general Marenkov (Robert Shaw) decides to defect to the West and CIA agent Harry Wargrave (Lee Marvin) leads the team that is to get him out. Wargrave decides that Marenkov should travel across Europe by train, on the fictional "Avalanche Express". The idea is to lure the Russians into attacking the train and thus discover who their secret agents in Europe are. Consequently, during the train journey they must survive both a terrorist attack and an avalanche, all planned by Russian spy-catcher Nikolai Bunin (Maximilian Schell).
Cast[]
- Lee Marvin as Col. Harry Wargrave
- Robert Shaw as Gen. Marenkov (Voice later dubbed by Robert Reitty.)
- Linda Evans as Elsa Lang
- Maximilian Schell as Col. Nikolai Bunin
- Joe Namath as Leroy
- Horst Buchholz as Julian Scholten
- Mike Connors as Haller
- Claudio Cassinelli as Col. Molinari
- Kristina Nel as Helga Mann
- David Hess as Geiger
- Günter Meisner as Rudi Muehler
- Sylva Langova as Olga
- Cyril Shaps as Sedov
- Vladek Sheybal as Zannbin
- Arthur Brauss as Neckermann
- Sky du Mont as Philip John
- Richard Marner as General Prachko
- Arnold Drummond as Commissar (Maxim Gorky)
- Paul Glawion as Alfredo
- Dan van Husen as Bernardo
