War has played a key role in the history of the United States, from the nation's founding

right down to the present. War made the U.S. independent, kept it together, increased its

size, and established it as a global superpower. Understanding America's wars is essential for understanding American history.

Welcome to Key Battles of American History,

a podcast in which we discuss American history through the lens of the most important battles of America's wars.

Here is your host, James Early.

Thank you. host, James Early. Hello and welcome to another episode of key films of World War II in Europe.

This is your host, James Early. As always, and as always, I'm joined by my good buddy, Sean McIver.

This week, we are going to start kind of a mini-series of three good, just solid action

chase kind of movies, kind of movies where you can check your brain at the door a little

a little bit.

That's what my brother used to say about these kind of movies, but just a good, fun, solid movie, this one and the next tube.

Today's movie is, starts out as a POW movie, but then it quickly turns into a kind of

a chase movie.

And it is called Vaughn Ryan's Express.

It is from 1965.

The movie is one hour and 57 minutes long.

On Rotten Tomatoes, 90% of the critics gave it a positive rating, whereas 82% of the fans did.

The average on IMDB is 7.1.

The director is Mark Robson, and the film stars the chairman of the board, Frank Sinatra, joining us for the first time on Key Battles of American History.

So stars someone who's coming back for the second time, Trevor Howard. I believe he was...

Battle Britain. Battle Britain, yeah. Raphael A Cara, Brad Dexter, Sergio Fontoni, John Layton, Edward Moher, and Wolfgang

...