The Cassandra Crossing is a 1976 British disaster/thriller film directed by George Pan Cosmatos and starring
Richard Harris, Sophia Loren, Martin Sheen, Burt Lancaster, Lee Strasberg, Ava Gardner
and O. J. Simpson. With the backing of the European media tycoon Sir Lew Grade and the
Italian film producer Carlo Ponti, the international all-star cast was expected to attract a widespread
audience, with rights sold prior to filming, to both British and American distributors.
Ponti also saw the production as a showcase for his wife, Sophia Loren.
Plot When the existence of a strain of plague is
revealed at the U.S. mission at the International Health Organization, three terrorists seek
to blow up the U.S. mission. Two of them are shot, one mortally, by security personnel
but one escapes. The surviving terrorist is hospitalized and quarantined and identified
as Swedish. Dr. Elena Stradner and U.S. Colonel Stephen Mackenzie argue over the nature of
the strain, which Stradner suspects is a biological weapon but which Colonel Mackenzie claims
was in the process of being destroyed. The third terrorist escapes and stows away
on a train bound from Geneva to Stockholm. Dr. Stradner believes that the train should
be stopped so that the terrorist can be removed and quarantined, but Col. Mackenzie is concerned
that all of the passengers on the train may have been infected. Mackenzie insists on rerouting
the train to an abandoned ex-Nazi railroad line to a quarantine camp in Janov, Poland.
However the line crosses a dangerously unsound steel arch bridge known as the Kaslindrliv
Bridge or Cassandra Crossing, out of use since 1948. Mackenzie understands that the bridge
might collapse as the train passes over it. The presence of the infected terrorist, and
the rerouting of the train, precipitates the second conflict, among passengers on the train;
they include Dr. Jonathan Chamberlain, a famous neurologist, his ex-wife Jennifer Rispoli
Chamberlain, and Nicole Dressler, the wife of a German arms dealer. She is embroiled
in an affair with her young companion Robby Navarro. Navarro is a heroin trafficker being
pursued by FBI agent Haley, who is traveling undercover as a priest.
Mackenzie informs Dr. Chamberlain of the presence of the stowaway, who is found, but attempts
to remove the stowaway via a helicopter are unsuccessful because the train enters a tunnel.
Chamberlain is also told that the plague has a 60% mortality rate. Mackenzie, however,
informs passengers that police have received reports of anarchist bombs placed along the
rail line, and that the train will be rerouted to Nuremberg. There the train is sealed with
an enclosed oxygen system and a U.S. Army medical team is placed aboard, with the now-deceased
stowaway being placed in a hermetically-sealed coffin. Dr. Chamberlain learns of the risk
of the Cassandra Crossing. He also begins to suspect the disease is not as serious as
originally thought: few of the passengers have become infected and few of those have
actually died. He radios MacKenzie suggesting the infected portion of the train be uncoupled
and isolated, but MacKenzie has no intention of stopping the train: if the expected Cassandra
Crossing collapse occurs, it will neatly cover the fact that the U.S has been harboring germ
warfare agents in a neutral country. Passengers on the train work alone to stop the train
before it reaches the Cassandra Crossing. The passengers manage to seize the back half
of the train roughly one km before the bridge and detach it, hoping that with less weight,
the front half will cross safely. But the bridge collapses, killing everyone aboard
the front half. The back end applies the brakes and stops just before reaching the downed
bridge. In Geneva, both Stradner and MacKenzie depart: she keeps hope of survivors while
he thinks the elimination of the train means no investigations. A guard on duty orders
both of them be watched.
Cast As appearing in The Cassandra Crossing,:
Sophia Loren as Jennifer Rispoli Chamberlain, Jonathan's ex-wife.
Richard Harris as Dr. Jonathan Chamberlain Burt Lancaster as Col. Stephen MacKenzie
Martin Sheen as Robby Navarro Lee Strasberg as Herman Kaplan
Ava Gardner as Nicole Dressler O. J. Simpson as Haley
Lionel Stander as Max Ingrid Thulin as Dr. Elena Stradner
Alida Valli as Mrs. Chadwick John Phillip Law as Major Stark
Ann Turkel as Susan Ray Lovelock as Tom
Thomas Hunter as Captain Scott Production
The Cinecittà studios in Rome were chosen for interiors with French and Swiss locales
providing most of the location footage. The steel arch bridge depicted in the film is
actually the Garabit Viaduct in southern France, built from 1880 to 1884 by Gustave Eiffel,
who later constructed the Eiffel tower. At the beginning of the film, passengers arrive
at Geneva railway station to embark on the train. The scenes were shot at Basel central
train station. Where Dr. Chamberlain enters the station, the green coloured trams, and
Basel's Central Station Square can be seen in the background. Many scenes were shot on
the railway line Basel – Delémont – Porrentruy; the railway viaduct at St. Ursanne can be
recognized most easily. Much of the film's special effects involved
models and rear screen work that was largely effective, although the studio artwork shows
a typical US diesel locomotive that doesn't resemble anything seen in the film, along
with a pantograph for overhead electric wires. Peter O'Toole was offered the lead role, but
he turned it down. Richard Harris played the part instead.
Reception The Cassandra Crossing did not fare well with
critics or audiences as disaster films were no longer a guaranteed box office success.
Planned as a star vehicle for Sophia Loren, the large international cast involved illogical
casting decisions that were noted by Richard Eder, The New York Times reviewer. Most contemporary
reviews also singled out the implausible plotline although praising the cinematography and Jerry
Goldsmith's musical score as noteworthy elements. Variety dismissed the film as, "... a tired,
hokey and sometimes unintentionally funny disaster film in which a trainload of disease-exposed
passengers lurch to their fate." The graphic scenes of the passengers being
killed at the end of the film had ensured an "R" rating in theatres and led to two "censored"
and "uncensored" versions being released for broadcast and home media.
However the movie still made money: the producers claimed that they recouped the production
costs of the film out of Japan alone. References
Notes
Bibliography
External links The Cassandra Crossing at the Internet Movie
Database The Cassandra Crossing at the TCM Movie Database