HORROR EXPRESS—-“Are you telling me that an ape that lived two million years ago got out of that crate, killed the baggage man and put him in there, then locked everything up neat and tidy, and got away?”  1906: the Trans-Siberian express plows along, bearing some rival anthropologists and a crate that has some ‘find’ in it. The find gets loose, and raises all sorts of mischief.

Done for $300,000 this cheapjack 1972 Spanish-made monster flick inexplicably has a decent reputation. I guess it stems from the presence of chill veterans Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, as well as Telly Savalas, and that the story is loosely purloined from “Who Goes There?”, the John W. Campbell novella that was the genesis for the various versions of The Thing.  The rep can’t reside on the direction from Eugenio Martin, the bad dubbing of the three stars or the cheese-whiz special effects.  I’d heard a lot about this, and was tres bummed when I beheld how lame it actually was. 90 minutes.