***SPOILERS*** Fictional war movie about a real event in how British Prime Minister Winston Churchill,John Even, got to meet US President Frankie "D" Roosevelt at Casablanca to talk over strategy in how to defeat the Nazis in WWII. It seems that there wasn't any secure transportation for Churchill to get to Casablanca so the allies, British US & Free French, had to devise a secret plan to sneak him into the city and keep the Nazis from kidnapping or killing him. It's US Major General Williams played by a bored and wishing he were somewhere else Glenn Ford who's job it is to get Churchill safe and sound to Casablanca and has his two top men British commando Alan Cooper, Jason Connery, and US Secret Service or OSS Agent Captain Franchetti, Francesco Quinn, recruited to get the job done.In a game of cat and mouse Gen.Williams has it known through the allied grapevine that Churchill is being flown to Casablanca to fool the Nazis headed by North African intelligence chef Col. Otto Von Tiblis, Manfred Lehman. It's Tiblis' job to capture Churchill dead or alive, alive preferable, and use him to embarrass the British by forcing Churchill, by him being drugged juiced with booze or at gunpoint, to tell the British people via Radio Berlin to give up the fight against the Germans. It's both Cooper and Franchetti's job to make sure that doesn't happen! Better then you would expect action scenes with a squad of German elite paratrooper capturing the train that Churchll in on with Cooper Franchetti as well as pretty British secret agent Lorna Fisher, Jinny Steffan, doing their best to fight them off. The German paratroopers who are known for refraining in doing the horrible things that their fellow Nazi SS storm troops did in WWII are about the most criminal bunch of Nazis ever seen in a WWII film. That includes even those those made by Hollywood and the British during WWII where in a life and death struggle with Nazi Germany it was open season to show the Germans in the worst light possible. We have these kill crazy German paratroopers gunning down civilians Catholic priests and even young children with total impunity for no reason at all! That made it impossible to have the usual good German who hates Hitler and the Nazis but loves his Fatherland, that was very popular in post-WWII movies, among them.****SPOILERS**** After all the killing and shooting is over were all in for a big surprise in what's behind all this secrecy in getting Churchill by train to Casablanca. And it's not in just his meeting with Roosevelt in discussing strategy to defeat the Nazis and win WWII. Which when you hear what's really behind it makes all the killing and carnage in the film a total moot point! But it still makes for a good & exciting action war movie!

The plot is a WWII attempt by Axis powers to kidnap Winston Churchill.What we have is an epic style film here, one of those larger than life Indiana Jones type flicks that isn't meant to be taken seriously, and goes instead for the thrills and bangs.And it pretty well does that. We have mega stars Pleasance and Ford doing the older officer bits, and we have young action heroes doing quite well in the "not to be taken seriously" action. Of course it is off the wall action, but there really isn't any attempt by the director to disguise this. This is James Bond or Indiana Jones style escapism.The characters are not overly deep, but more intended to convey comedy. Again, there is no attempt to disguise this.We have some surprises, especially in the identity of the spy. Nothing big, just enough to make it entertaining.Lots of needless shooting and silly action scenes. If you like Bond flicks, you'll like this, though. Same thing.

Other than the fact that Casablanca Express is actually filmed in Morocco and in Casablanca itself, there isn't all that much to recommend it to viewers. I'd stick with the Warner Brothers Casablanca made quite well on their back lot.This film involves an attempt to kidnap Winston Churchill while on the way to Casablanca for that conference with FDR. It's a combination of The Lady Vanishes and any of the Indiana Jones films in that last half. Our Nazi friends hear that Churchill is traveling by train to Casablanca and set up a paratrooper raid. No doubt they got the idea from the folks who planned that raid that freed Mussolini after the Fascist government in Italy was overthrown. Possibly Churchill was riding the Marrakesh Express.Leading the effort to save Winston Churchill are the sons of a pair of movie legends, Jason Connery and Francesco Quinn. Also helping our intrepid heroes out is Jinny Stefan who wields one mean machine gun against the paratroopers.Standing around and looking like they were waiting for the checks to clear the bank are Glenn Ford and Donald Pleasance playing an American and British officer in charge of Churchill's safety.Well, we all know Churchill made it to Casablanca intact. But why isn't this in the history books? Well if you're curious you'll see the film.There's not much other reason for doing so.

This could have been a fairly engaging WWII adventure - it deals with a Nazi attempt to kidnap/eliminate Winston Churchill aboard the titular train - but, being a product from the tail-end of the Euro-Cult style, it's a tired ride (excuse the pun!) with little panache and a cast made up of equally worn veterans (Glenn Ford, Donald Pleasence and Jean Sorel) and totally uncharismatic newcomers - both of whom happen to be the offspring of a famous international star - in the form of Jason Connery and Francisco Quinn! Apart from the venerable "danger-on-a-train" theme, the ingredients are there for 90 solid minutes of entertainment - exotic locations, action, romance, treason, a decoy flight, an impossible one-man mission, a violent corpse-strewn climax, and even a clever (if predictable) twist ending - but, as I said, the film never really takes off and Martino handles the proceedings in lackluster fashion, with none of his trademark stylistics. Besides, the relentless and highly irritating synthesizer score is wholly inappropriate and seems to have been discarded from badly accompanying a Silent film...