This film is part of Rentals

Rome Express
A star-studded international cast boards the Paris-Rome express for this lavish comedy-thriller from Gainsborough Pictures.
Director: Walter Forde
Overview
The theft of a valuable Van Dyck painting sets in motion this delightful comedy-thriller, almost entirely set on the VIP-packed Paris-Rome express. With an ensemble international cast including Conrad Veidt, Esther Ralston and Cedric Hardwicke (prefiguring later starry train capers like Murder on the Orient Express) and boasting impeccable production credentials, Rome Express was at the time Gainsborough Pictures’ most lavish production.
The studio was rewarded with considerable international, both commercially and critically, with the film winning the American National Board of Review award for Best Foreign Film. Screenwriter Sidney Gilliat would later refine his train-based thriller template for further classics The Lady Vanishes (1938) and Night Train to Munich (1940), while the film itself was remade in 1948 as Sleeping Car to Trieste (also on BFI Player).
Related

Cloud Cloud
Drama 2024 124 mins Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
An online scam leads to deadly consequences in Kurosawa Kiyoshi’s chilling tech thriller.

The Crime is Mine The Crime is Mine
Thriller 2022 103 mins Director: François Ozon
François Ozon’s witty 1930s farce about a penniless actress who finds fame while on trial for murder, featuring a riotous performance from Isabelle Huppert.

Kathleen Is Here Kathleen Is Here
Thriller 2023 95 mins Director: Eva Birthistle
Riveting debut from acclaimed Irish actor Eva Birthistle, about a young care leaver on a destructive path to find a new mother figure.

The Critic The Critic
Thriller 2023 101 mins Director: Anand Tucker
Ian McKellen is in delicious form as London's most vicious critic, who strikes a Faustian pact with a struggling actor (Gemma Arterton).

Night Courier (Mandoob) Night Courier (Mandoob)
Comedy 2023 112 mins Director: Ali Kalthami
A desperate delivery driver gets caught up in the dark underworld of Riyadh in Ali Kalthami’s gripping, pitch-black satire.

Official Secrets Official Secrets
Thriller 2018 112 mins Director: Gavin Hood
Gripping political thriller with Keira Knightley as the intelligence officer who discovers a plot to rig a UN vote on the eve of the Iraq war.

Brown on Resolution Brown on Resolution
War 1935 71 mins Director: Walter Forde
Walter Forde’s 1935 war drama stars a young John Mills as the illegitimate son of a naval officer who brings down a German cruiser in WWI.

Time Flies Time Flies
Comedy 1944 88 mins Director: Walter Forde
Fast-talking funny man Tommy Handley visits Elizabethan England - and ends up teaching Good Queen Bess con tricks - in this snappy time-travel comedy.

When Autumn Falls When Autumn Falls
Drama 2024 104 mins Director: François Ozon
The ever-inventive François Ozon offers a bittersweet tale with a twist or two, about age, youth, the past and the art of breaking the rules.

Gholam Gholam
Drama 2017 95 mins Director: Mitra Tabrizian
An Iranian exile in London, who is haunted by his past, gets involved in the conflicts of a total stranger and has to see it through until the end, in this mesmerising slow-burn thriller.

When the Light Breaks When the Light Breaks
Drama 77 mins Director: Rúnar Rúnarsson
A young woman is forced to reframe the future she’d hoped for, in Rúnar Rúnarsson’s quietly breathtaking elegy of love, loss and acceptance.

Words of War Words of War
Drama 2025 117 mins Director: James Strong
Maxine Peake leads an excellent cast in this true story of journalist Anna Politkovskaya’s fight to expose corruption and abuse in Putin’s Russia.

The Return The Return
Drama 2024 116 mins Director: Uberto Pasolini
Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche are superb in this moody and poignant adaptation of the final sections of Homer's Odyssey.

E.1027 - Eileen Gray and the House by the Sea E.1027 - Eileen Gray and the House by the Sea
Drama-documentary 2024 90 mins Director: Beatrice Minger
A love triangle of jealousy in the Parisian art scene of the 1930s is brought to life in a stylish docufiction about the iconic artist and architect.