Shameless films 9th release is one of the original "Video Nasties" banned back in 1984, when the department of public prosecutions with help from scum newspapers The Daily Mail & Daily Express decided to act as the voice of the people (controversially the same scum newspapers have been at it again this last weekend).

Two schoolgirls head home from Austria to Italy by train to spend the Christmas vacation with their family, a lengthy but normally very safe journey. While on the train they catch the eye of a couple of thugs who have robbed and beaten their way to be on the train. Initially the two girls and the thugs manage to strike up a friendship, but then a lady passenger also catches the eye of the thugs and engages in an impromptu sex session with one of the men in the toilet. While the man not involved in the sex session causes a fight with the train conductor the two girls make their escape from the thugs.
Having had chance to compose their thoughts the two girls begin to enjoy their relatively quiet journey, sharing a picnic version of a Christmas dinner by candlelight. But their joy is soon interrupted when the two thugs make an alarming return, this time with the other woman in toe. While initially nothing more than an uncomfortable menace, the conversations turn to sex and the invading threesome decide it's time to see how much experience our young travellers have had. The resulting effect cause one girl to commit suicide while the other dies.

Lado strongly addresses emotions, and creates a movie that does tend to sicken, without being overly graphic. Nudity is tastefully handled in the sense that in knowing characters are nude he lets you see nothing; whereas a lot of other movies thrust sexual organs in your face. The violence is also tastefully handled; you never really see any act of violence; however your imagination lets you think you have seen something far worse than you have. And that takes a really masterful storyteller to perform such a trick on the viewing audience.
Oscar winning Ennio Morricone's musical score is very subtle, choosing to use just one musical instrument; the harmonica throughout the majority of the movie. Here he overlaps various scores in order to give a haunting sound. This general theme seems to dominate the movies entirety except during the Roussos ballad that closes the movies start and end. This ballad cannot be understated, because it takes you into the movie with hope, and helps you to exit the movie with a feeling of hope.
The performances in the movie are nicely handled Flavio Bucci plays "Blackie", the one you consider to be the lead thug; having spent years on the Italian stage he was given a proper movie outing, Bucci had a tendency to over act like many stage actors do when making the transformation between mediums. Next up is Macha Meril a popular Italian actress who has worked on successful movies such as Deep Red (Profondo Rosso, one of the most successful Italian movies of this genre) and Bolero. The main star of the movie was Enrico Maria Salerno the then Italian equivalent of Rock Hudson but without the scandal, Salerno had starred in well over 100 movies at the time of making this one, and a popular face in Italian limelight; here he played the father of one of the girls Lisa. Finally Irene Miracle star of Midnight Express turned out a cavalier role as Margaret the stronger minded of the two girl victims.
A real interest in the movie to me is the lack of introduction to the characters, With the exception of Giulio, Lisa and after her death Margaret nobody is addressed by a name during the whole movie; I find this fascinating. Some of the main characters never go beyond the name to describe their character in the cast listings for example: Lady on The train, or perverted train passenger (played by Franco Fibrosis a massive Italian star who was best friends with Bernardo Bertolluci). All the time however you are fully aware of whom everyone is and the relationships they have with each other.
Night Train Murders is a more positive movie than Last House On The Left; and its sad that it never received more acclaim than the aforementioned movie. Tragically from one point of view it did receive more acclaim. The movie released in the UK as Late Night Trains (Or Don't Ride On Late Night trains) was banned in 1984, and until this year remained banned. The movie had to be heavily edited although there was little to be seen to gain a release in other countries and continues to remain banned in Australia, Poland, and most of the far eastern countries; the edits confuse me because as I stated earlier there is little to see, it's all suggestion for the most part.

The DVD case is in the now familiar bold yellow, sitting firmly in a yellow amaray case. The cover is given that typical shameless approach with the tagline "Whore Aboard" I only hope this refers to the lady and not the two innocent victims. For those old enough to remember the video company VTC, Shameless covers literally stink (metaphor) of this old label. But wait what's this? Take the cover out and on the reverse is the original Italian cover art used to promote the movie, along with a change of movie title to Late Night Trains as it was originally known in the UK. Both sides feature the same spine (with change of title) which as collectors will now be able to tell is beginning to spell theword Shameless.
As usual in the cast and crew list Shameless take the opportunity to alert fans to other works these people have ben involved in, something I think could prove incredibly handy. Also there is the exact runtime listed to the second as well as the knowledge that the movie is UNCUT. For ratio freaks the cover happily boasts the DVD is presented in Anamorphic Widescreen.