Night Train to Paris (1964) is a bit short on the thrills or intrigue, in fact, it really has neither. The director was more interested in filling up the time with useless 60's music and boring drunks. Aliza Gur is dull as an actress. Leslie Nielsen exhibits no tough rawness as he does in television as in Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1958–1961), Thriller (1960) or Kraft Suspense Theatre (1963-1965).He wears plastic black horn-rimmed glasses with attached eyebrows, large plastic nose, bushy moustache as a disguise. Yeah, stupid.For train buffs, it has a train ferry (a ship or ferry designed to carry railway vehicles). It was probably the Dover to Dunkirk line, from Britain. (It stopped in 1992 due to the opening of the Channel Tunnel).There's some cool jazz music and the intro is a nice assemblage, but that's it.Also recommended: Night Train to Munich (1940) Night Train (1959) Night Train to Lisbon (2013) Night Train to Terror (1985) Terror Train (1980)

Although he directed numerous TV assignments, actor Robert Douglas directed only the one theatrical feature. This is it! And it's a must- see for train buffs, of course, even though it was mostly filmed in the studio. I tend to mostly agree with my colleagues at the Monthly Film Bulletin and The New York Times – though not about Dorinda Stevens. For me, Edina Ronay, who played Julie, was the truly nifty number in the film. I thought Miss Stevens a bit past her prime and Aliza Gur nowhere near as attractively costumed as she is at the climax and one or two other places. Despite its "B" budget, there are some other pleasing touches in the film which vindicate the producer's decision to release it theatrically instead of sending it straight to the box: The climax in the Dunkirk waterworks, for example. Eric Pohlmann plays the villain with his usual aggressiveness. Available on a very good Fox DVD which includes both the widescreen and full screen versions.

Long before Leslie Neilsen flew the funny skies of "Airplane" or packed heat as Det. Frank Drebben, he rode the rails of one of the dullest railroads on this planet. Yes, he appeared in an ultra cheap spy versus spy melodrama that took place on a train bound from London to Paris filled with New Year's eve revelers. One of the other spy guys, the main one, was an enormous fat freak who eventually dons a grizzly bear costume instead of the usual fright wig and Groucho glasses. Nielsen spends a good part of the 64 minute running time bolting in and out of 3 or 4 sleeping compartments on the anything, but convincing cardboard cutout train trying to recover a packet of a tape recording the French Sortie deem priceless. We're never told what's on the tape, but ultimately, so what, right? We do get to hear the refrains of a couple of nauseating and fake early 1960's tunes while the party goers dance the night away.Another fine train drama comes to mind which could gave been a big influence on this, the immortal "Night Train to Munde Fine". Surely, the baritone inflections of its theme song, proudly sung by John Carradine, might have influenced the party songs here. Both films deal with the adventures of the spy trade and, as such, are certain hallmarks of what came to be known as "the Swinging 60's".As the London to Paris Night Train winds its way to conclusion, Leslie Nielsen and his attractive co-star, Miss Israel of 1960, learn what true love can mean. Suffice it to say, the likes of this enchanting train ride will not come this direction again!

This is a real "sleeper" (no pun intended), a tight, compact suspense film that really keeps moving throughout its economical running time. The cast is uniformly superb, the direction is assured and fluid, and the film is a reminder of just how many quality low-budget films were made even into the 1960s, before the collapse of the double-bill and the end of black and white as a commercial medium. Well worth looking for; I don't know if the film is available on tape. It should be.