User reviews

Inside a military train convoy, the lieutenant Alberto Lauri (Rossano Brazzi), sick, remember the relationship with Clara (María Mercader),a post office girl, and the opposition of his mother (Ada Dondini), horrified with his choose. Clara had a baby without marriage, and both were refused by Alberto's mother. When the train stops quickly in the city of Alberto, his faithful subordinate (Carlo Romano) leaves them to meet Alberto, that just recover of a blood transfusion. Perhaps from the cycle of war films produced in Italy during fascism that one be the most melodramatic. Its maudlin situations are in the extreme opposite of "La Nave Bianca" (1941), by Roberto Rossellini and its fiction built upon a documentary style. Although the first minutes could provoke a mistaken hypothesis of a more traditional war movie, that is far from be the case. All the apparent Army and medical hierarchy and prescriptions are nullified by the generous and paternalist official, a figure very common in this cycle of movies, represented here by Captain Bianchi. This movie seems more a compensatory fantasy for its white lead character. All important things rounds about him: the paternalist Captain, the idiotic subordinate, the unrestricted love of woman and mother. All dramatic or comic element that aren't linked to him, like the guy that get his dog with himself in a clandestine way or even the sister that is killed in the air attack to the convoy (in a involuntary humorous scene) are superfluous. Their tricks are very precarious, simulating the convoy advances with a very fake toy train and amateur props.

Although this war film, made in the middle of the war at its most critical moment in 1943, starts most regularly like all war films with a great battle, extremely well filmed, but this dramatically violent introduction leads to a totally different side of the war: a hospital train transporting wounded away from the war up to the mountains, and one of the wounded is Rossano Brazzi, here still very young. The main story of the film is about the patients and the personnel of this train, with many human and poignant moments and scenes, Rossano Brazzi himself dreaming away of his love and his baby, and his forbidding mother who wouldn't accept their union nor allow any marriage, and his wonderful subordinate (Carlo Romano), the only humorous or comic character of the film. The music of the film is very sparse but offers some unforgettable moments, like when all the wounded sing together to pass the time while waiting for a bomb attack to fade away. The mood of the film is very similar to the Russian classic "Ballad of a Soldier" 14 years later, it's the same kind of total concentration on just humanity as a contrasting opposite to the war, and humanity ultimately prevails - the end is simply glorious. It's a great story of another side of warfare with fascinating and skillful cinematography all the way, and all the actors are convincing, even the stern professor.