The Train

Burt Lancaster as a French Resistance fighter trying to stop a German train with stolen art

Paris is on the verge of liberation from Nazi occupation in 1944, so a German colonel (Paul Scofield) loads a train with a priceless cargo of French paintings to take to Germany, which Resistance fighters led by engineer Labiche (Burt Lancaster) are intent on stopping. Jeanne Moreau is on hand as a hotel owner.

“The Train” (1964) is a B&W war picture with the unconventional tone of contemporaneous WW2 films “The Young Lions” (1958), “36 Hours” (1964) and “Morituri” (1965). The story starts slow, but becomes increasingly compelling with lots of non-CGI carnage involving tracks and trains. The last act is creative and leaves you with the question: How many lives is art worth? Lovers of steam locomotives should eat this up.

The film runs 2 hours, 12 minutes and was shot in France.

GRADE: B

Great war suspense-thriller from John Frankenheimer. Heard of this one but never got around to checking it out, just excellent from beginning to end, not to mention wonderful use of sound design along with Maurice Jarre's score. Performances all around were great, especially Paul Scofield. Surprising to see it didn't receive more Oscar love outside of the writing. 4.5/5

I think this might be my favourite Burt Lancaster role, as he leads the French resistance through an ethical maelstrom involving a trainload of looted artworks. It's "Col. Von Waldheim" (Paul Scofield) who manages to coax and cajole his Göring-fearing superiors into allowing him to load up a train with priceless artefacts and convey them to safety in Germany. The Nazis are starting to lose the war, though, and their logistics are stretched to the point where he basically has to lie to get his train packed and moving. "Labiche" (Lancaster) is in charge of the railway station and is generally charged with thwarting the activities of their occupiers - be here he sees merit in letting this train depart. He decides that maybe it can be diverted away from Germany and thus be preserved for the posterity of the French people. "Papa Boule" (Michel Simon) is a curmudgeonly old driver not averse to a bit of sabotage, but when he is caught and summarily shot, the Colonel concludes that only "Labiche" can be trusted with the train, so he is co-opted on board and the two now play a delicate cat and mouse game with both scrutinising the other closely and neither trusting the other. Their journey is riddled with peril - from the allies, from the French, the Germans - just about everyone. The colonel is becoming more obsessed - everything will be sacrificed to protect the convoy as it rattles along - but to where? There's a nice cameo from the always reliable Jacques Marin - he likes cheese; and another from Jeanne Moreau as the guest house owner who is trying to tread on the eggshells between patriotism and survival. There's a great chemistry on screen between Lancaster and Scofield with the latter's almost maniacal behaviour captivating to watch. Will the train survive? Well I guess everyone wants it to - but...