Song of the Day: Von Ryan’s Express (“Medley”) [YouTube link], composed by Jerry Goldsmith, includes themes that heighten the suspense in this 1965 World War II POW-escape adventure, starring Frank Sinatra. Goldsmith’s tense, rhythmic score with its shifting meters is only one of the film’s many highlights. On this date in 1929, the great Jerry Goldsmith was born.
For me, the score isn’t the only memorable aspect of this film. When I first saw this movie as a 5-year old kid, I was doubly traumatized. The family had traveled to the Sunrise Drive-In Theater in Valley Stream, New York. Being at a Drive-In was a big thrill back then. You could go and buy popcorn and never miss any part of the movie (indoor theaters didn’t have waiter service at that time). Drive-Ins are built so that cars can be perched at an upward tilt, on mini-gravel hills. When I went with my sister to get the requisite popcorn, I was running up one of those hills (H/T Kate Bush), got tangled in my sneaker laces and went flying down the hill, ripping open my right knee for the umpteenth time of my youth. Seeing my wounded knee, I couldn’t fight back the tears. Mom and sister cleaned me up, and we all returned to the car to watch the epic climax of the film.
SPOILER ALERT! Sinatra, playing the role of Colonel Joseph Ryan, leads a POW train escape to Switzerland across Nazi-occupied Italy. In those final scenes, Sinatra is running frantically behind that last railway car, trying desperately to escape the SS troops in pursuit and is shot down. Well, this was just too much for my traumatic night. I started crying again, until I was reassured that it was only a movie and that Sinatra had not been murdered.
So, when I hear the Jerry Goldsmith soundtrack for this film, it brings me right back to that night. And that scar is still visible on my knee!
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