The Cassandra Crossing (1976)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Drama	Main Menu Audio
Rating
Year Of Production	1976
Running Time	123:26
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (64:09)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	George P. Cosmatos
Studio Distributor	Sir Lew Grade Magna Home Entertainment	Starring	Sophia Loren Richard Harris Martin Sheen O.J. Simpson Lionel Stander Ann Turkel Ingrid Thulin Lee Strasberg Burt Lancaster Ava Gardner
Case	Click
RPI	$19.95	Music	Jerry Goldsmith

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.66:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Cassandra Crossing has a number of positives going for it - a star-studded cast including Sophia Loren, Richard Harris, Martin Sheen, O.J. Simpson (well, okay, a former semi-star), Ava Gardner, and Burt Lancaster for a start. It is also a film about trains, and I love films about trains. Finally, you get to see some lovely Swiss, French and Italian scenery.

    But that's about it. The story itself is laughable and the some of the special effects (including of course the scene of the train crossing the bridge) can only be described as pathetic (honestly, I have seen model train layouts that look more realistic).

    A trio of peace movement protesters decide to infiltrate and bomb the "International Health Organisation" located at Geneva. Why? Who knows? In any case, two of them don't make it, but the third escapes carrying a deadly strain of plague. He boards a train leaving for Stockholm and starts infecting the other passengers.

    For some reason, a part of International Health Organisation belongs to Uncle Sam - in fact the plague comes from a sample belonging to Americans. We are not sure why the Americans have it - perhaps it is part of some secret biochemical research. Col. Stephen Mackenzie (Burt Lancaster) is dispatched to handle the crisis, working with local Swiss doctor Dr. Elena Stradner (Ingrid Thulin).

    His solution to the crisis is simple. Seal off the train at the earliest convenient opportunity, send in a troop of military personnel with orders to shoot the passengers if they try to escape, and divert the train to a former Nazi concentration camp in Poland in order to quarantine the passengers. And oh, by the way, route the train via an old rickety bridge called the Cassandra Crossing that's literally falling to bits. This way, if an "accident" happens, so much the better - problem solved. One last thing: pump up the train with oxygen to guarantee the train explodes leaving no survivors should the bridge collapse.

    The passengers consist of Dr. Jonathan Chamberlain (Richard Harris) - a brilliant surgeon who hates flying, Jennifer Rispoli (Sophia Loren) - his ex-wife and famous novelist, Herman Kaplan (Lee Strasberg) - an amiable old man who travels on the train fairly often and seems to be selling watches for a living, Nicole Dressler (Ava Gardner) - the wife of a munitions manufacturer, Robby Navarro (Martin Sheen) - her toyboy, a priest (O.J. Simpson) who later turns out to be more than just a priest, a Karen Carpenter look-alike and her boyfriend, a nun, a governess and a child, etc.

    One by one, the passengers start succumbing to the disease and Dr. Chamberlain becomes the hero of the day by single-handedly trying to save them. Suddenly, against all odds, the afflicted passengers start recovering. And when they find out about the Cassandra Crossing, they try and devise ways of stopping the train before the unthinkable happens.

    I think the film can't make its mind up whether it wants to be a disaster film, a thriller, an action movie, a love story, a government intrigue, or a love story. So it tries to be all of the above. Consider yourself warned.

Video

    The transfer is presented in widescreen 1.78:1 but is not 16x9 enhanced. IMDb states that the original aspect ratio is 1.66:1, so this transfer is probably over-masked. I also read a review of the R2 DVD that stated the intended aspect ratio was 2.35:1 but I'm not sure that's accurate as I did not notice any real framing cuts.

    The film source used for the transfer is not perfect. The opening title sequence exhibits a moderate amount of grain, shifting contrasts, film marks (white and black specks), and minor telecine wobble. Colours are a little drab. Detail levels and shadow detail are about average and the film could have done with some contrast enhancement.

    What saves the transfer is the consistently high bitrate used resulting in no visible MPEG compression artefacts that I noticed. Indeed, the only video artefacts present are some slight moire effects.

    There is an English For The Hard Of Hearing subtitle track which I turned on. The dialogue transcription is reasonably accurate, including detailing some auditory cues and Foley effects. I found it interesting that the odd smattering of foreign language dialogue lines spoken in the film (mainly French I think) are transcribed onto the subtitle track in the language spoken, with no corresponding English translation.

     This is a single sided dual layered disc (RSDL). The layer change occurs at 64:09 and is reasonably well-executed as I could detect only a slight pause.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There is only one audio track: English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (192Kb/s).

    The track is of acceptable quality. Dialogue was reasonably easy to understand at all times and there were no audio synchronization issues. I found it amusing that on a European train travelling from Geneva to Stockholm that all the passengers spoke American English.

    The original music score by Jerry Goldsmith consists of a whimsical Francis Lai-like melody played over and over again.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    There are no extras present on this disc. The main menu is static full frame and includes background audio.

    The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;

• 1.33:1 version (not sure whether this is pan&scan or full frame)
• Dolby Digital Stereo audio track

    The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on;

• 1.78:1 widescreen version (not 16x9 enhanced)
• Dolby Digital mono audio track
• English for Hard of Hearing subtitle track

    I'll be inclined to prefer the Region 4 version, but only just.

    Cassandra Crossing features a star-studded cast but not much else. A train carrying passengers infected with a deadly plague hurtles towards an unsafe bridge - you figure out the rest of the plot.

    The non-16x9 enhanced letterboxed video transfer is adequate but based on a less-than-perfect film source.

    The audio transfer of a mono soundtrack is adequate.

    There are no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall