As the Allied forces approach Paris in August 1944, German Colonel Von Waldheim is desperate to take all of France's greatest paintings to Germany. He manages to secure a train to transport the valuable art works even as the chaos of retreat descends upon them. The French resistance however wants to stop them from stealing their national treasures but have received orders from London that they are not to be destroyed. The station master, Labiche, is tasked with scheduling the train and making it all happen smoothly but he is also part of a dwindling group of resistance fighters tasked with preventing the theft. He and others stage an elaborate ruse to keep the train from ever leaving French territory.
Practical Effects
Real locomotives destroyed, no models, no CGI, pure madness.
Direction
Frankenheimer's kinetic camera work on actual moving trains.
Acting
Scofield's aristocratic Nazi vs Lancaster's simmering everyman.
Director
John Frankenheimer
Burt Lancaster
Paul Labiche
Paul Scofield
von Waldheim
Jeanne Moreau
Christine
Suzanne Flon
Mademoiselle Villard
Michel Simon
Papa Boul
Wolfgang Preiss
Maj. Herren
Albert Rémy
Didont
Charles Millot
Pesquet
Richard Münch
General von Lubitz
Jean-Pierre Zola
Octave
Jacques Marin
Jacques
Paul Bonifas
Spinet
Jean Bouchaud
Schmidt
Donald O'Brien
Schwartz
Arthur Brauss
Pilzer
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Lancaster, a former circus acrobat, insisted on doing nearly all his own stunts, including leaping between moving train cars. The insurance people had heart attacks.
The film was originally a more straightforward action picture until Lancaster and Frankenheimer pushed to make it black-and-white and morally complex, directly challenging the Hollywood war film conventions of the time.
US
