Talk:Von Ryan's Express

Clarification

Why do all the names appear again at the top of the page? It looks terrible. Bhumiya 03:24, 15 January 2006 (UTC)

Gabriella was not shot by Ryan

The article states...

"Ryan then has to reluctantly shoot Gabriella as she escapes, to prevent her betraying them."

This is incorrect. Ryan does not shoot Gabriella. She is shot by someone else (exactly who is unknown but most probably one of the fake German soldiers guarding the train).

Special effects: regarding the aircraft type

There seems to be some disagreement with regard to the attacking German aircraft near the end of the film. The aircraft are not Curtiss P-40's painted up as Luftwaffe planes, as one editor seems to insist. The planes are in fact either Meserschmitt BF-108's or the Nord Pingouin, which was a BF-108 that was a re-engined, French built version of the same plane. It was built by SNCAN (Société Nationale de Constructions Aéronautiques du Nord)in the years following WW2 (see Wikipedia article for details). To be certain, I took several screenshots of the attacking aircraft from the scene in Von Ryan's Express, and compared them side by side with the P40, the NORD, and the BF-108. I hope this clears up any confusion. J.Roth 24.113.206.15 (talk) 05:25, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

As the editor who reverted your change, I don't "insist" anything. In fact I inserted the citation request because it seemed dubious to me. There are two points to be made however:

1. If you make a change to an article, as an anonymous user, in which you leave no edit summary and open no discussion on the talk page of the article, then it is difficult to tell whether or not it is vandalism. So in future, please add an edit summary so that people know you are genuine.

2. I think, either way, a reference is required from a reliable source when making this assertion. Your observation is based on your own judgement, and unless you are a noted WWII fighter expert or similar, it is simply a matter of opinion and/or original research.

I don't dispute your assertion and I don't intend to revert it, but the citation request needs to stay unless you have a better reference than "it looks that way to me". SilentC (talk) 06:02, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Point well taken. Regarding the reference source, I would consider myself as a lifelong afficianado of military aircraft, especially those of WW 2- hence I was able to recognize the type in the film. While I am well read on the subject, I don't have much to offer beyond that in the way of an accreditation. Further, I have had no success in locating an actual source related to the film itself which would clarify the specific aircraft used. However, a good source that I can cite at least in the way of aircraft identification and information is Warbird Alley. See the following addresses for the BF-108 & NORD: http://www.warbirdalley.com/bf108.htm. Wikipedia also has superb articles on both craft. J.Roth

John van Dreelen

I fixed the John van Dreelen link in the cast link with a minor change, but wanted to note it here as well. His name is a bit tricky. IMDb lists him with the "v" capitalized and then notes exceptions in his filmography (including Von Ryan's Express). At least a third of his films have him listed with some variation on his name. Wikipedia lists him with the "v" in lower case letters and that's how I've changed it here. The website dedicated to him seems to concur. JimVC3 (talk) 23:42, 15 November 2008 (UTC)

A querstion

I am interested in how these men managed to escape the Swiss authorities. One of my relatives escaped up through Italy at about the same time as this event took place. He was put into a Swiss prison camp, where he remained for over a year. How come the people in this film got away with it in Switzerland? Why were they not interned too? Wallie (talk) 09:44, 2 January 2009 (UTC)