Swap a train for a boat, oil for some bullets and we have a rehash of the 1943 Orson Welles version of this story - only this is nowhere near as good. It doesn't really help that the casting lacks for any great clout. Sam Waterston is weak in the lead as "Graham" - the scientist who gets caught up in a Turkish conspiracy after he discovers that there might just be oil in them thar desert. This information is proving quite dangerous for the man and he needs to get out before he succumbs to one of the plentiful - but not very efficient - assassins out to kill him. He manages to make it onto a train on which he hopes to escape - but are the passengers all they seem to be? We know from fairly early on that "Banat" (Ian McShane) is his biggest danger and therein lay my first problem. He has all the menace of a cucumber sandwich. Zero Mostel's duplicitous "Kopelkin" fares little better and though the supporting cast boasts some A-list names, they feature too sparingly to make much difference with this rather far-fetched and procedural attempt at a thriller that's just, well, very light on thrills. I did quite like the last few scenes as things flare up, but otherwise this is a pretty unremarkable television movie that you'll very readily forget.

A dusty old Eric Ambler story in 1975?

Just look at the crime and spy dramas that were around either side of this film in the 1970s. There was Gene Hackman disconnecting the French from their drugs in "The French Connection", Marlon Brando and Al Pacino making the streets safe for The Family in "The Godfather" and Edward Fox changing his identity more often than his underwear in "The Day of the Jackal". Then there was Laurence Olivier performing unnecessary dental work on Dustin Hoffman in "Marathon Man".

1975s "Journey into Fear" just doesn't fit into the decade.

The 1943 version was a moody-looking number shot mostly on studio sets with Joseph Cotton and Orson Welles warming up for their roles in "The third Man".

An American geologist, Graham, played by Sam Waterston, with information about a secret natural resource in Turkey is hunted by those who want the secret to stay secret. And so it goes even after the head of the Turkish police smuggles him out of the country on an old freighter full of bizarre passengers.

Eric Ambler stories have made good films. I can always watch Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet peeking behind "The Mask of Dimitrios" and Jules Dassin's witty and clever "Topkapi" with its brilliant robbery sequence.

But the key to those was the vision of the filmmakers. This "Journey into Fear" has an interesting location, good action and an interesting cast of actors hovering just below star status, but script and direction are leaden. Only Vincent Price gets close to the urbane and suave villain the film needed more of.

Yvette Mimieux has a role that just fizzles out half way through. A fond movie memory is of her as Weena in George Pal's "The Time Machine". I stayed loyal through the decades finding any movie she was in better for her inclusion although even in a midriff top she has a hard time lifting this one.

The stodgy script of "Journey" doesn't measure up to TV crime shows of the 1970s such as "The Rockford Files", "Banecek" and "Columbo" to name a few.

I agree that the cast is the most interesting aspect of the film. However even composer Alex North seemed uninspired. The maestro who gave cinema some of its mightiest music gave this film a score that is surprisingly harsh and atonal.