The Train

1964
Approved
2h 13m

IMDb RATING

7.8/10

20K

YOUR RATING

In 1944, a German colonel loads a train with French art treasures to send to Germany. The Resistance must stop it without damaging the cargo.

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In 1944, a German colonel loads a train with French art treasures to send to Germany. The Resistance must stop it without damaging the cargo.In 1944, a German colonel loads a train with French art treasures to send to Germany. The Resistance must stop it without damaging the cargo.In 1944, a German colonel loads a train with French art treasures to send to Germany. The Resistance must stop it without damaging the cargo.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.8/10

20K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Nominated for 1 Oscar
- 1 win & 3 nominations total

Trivia
Burt Lancaster performed all his own stunts in this movie. Albert Rémy also got into the act by performing the stunt of uncoupling the engine from the paintings train on a real moving train.

Goofs
When the German officer in the train thinks they've arrived in Germany, he takes a look at his map and we see Strasbourg (Alsace, France), the France-Germany border and Baaden-Baaden (Germany). During German occupation of France, Alsace and Strasbourg were annexed to the German Reich, i.e. this German military map should have shown a different border (100 km West) and Strasbourg should have been in Germany.

Quotes
Colonel von Waldheim: Labiche! Here's your prize, Labiche. Some of the greatest paintings in the world. Does it please you, Labiche? Give you a sense of excitement in just being near them? A painting means as much to you as a string of pearls to an ape. You won by sheer luck: you stopped me without knowing what you were doing, or why. You are nothing, Labiche -- a lump of flesh. The paintings are mine; they always will be; beauty belongs to the man who can appreciate it! They will always belong to me or to a man like me. Now, this minute, you couldn't tell me why you did what you did.

Crazy credits
Opening credits prologue: PARIS August 2-1944 1511th day of German occupation

Alternate versions
Whilst the official run time is 133 minutes, the BBFC website has two separate entries, one with a theatrical 'U' rated certificate in 1964 running at 141 minutes 31 seconds and the other entry with a theatrical 'A' rated certificate in 1959 running at 90 minutes 37 seconds. Though the second entry seems incorrect due to the erroneous date of certification being 21 October 1959 (the film was being made in 1963 and is copyrighted in 1964) and a much shorter run time, the BBFC reference numbering is in sequence with the later video rated entries so it is unknown if this 1959 entry is a much shorter cut of this film or this is an error in the BBFC records. It is also not known if the 142 minute entry is a longer cut of the film that has simply not been since it's UK theatrical release in 1964.

Connections
Featured in Film Review: Burt Lancaster (1968)

User reviews192

Review

Featured review

7/10

Nonverbal Action Movie

A nonverbal action movie that stars Burt Lancaster as a train operator trying to thwart the plans of Nazi operatives to move precious artworks from France to Germany in the last losing days of WWII.

John Frankenheimer directs in stark black and white, and the film has his trademarks all over it -- kinetic compositions, rapid-fire editing, ragged documentary look and feel. Paul Scofield also stars as the obsessed Nazi and Jeanne Moreau has a role as a French woman who reluctantly aids and abets Lancaster. The sheer physical production is astounding; in the days before CGI would have done everything for them, Frankenheimer and company staged massive set pieces involving bombed railroad yards, crashing trains, you name it. I can only imagine how much pressure the special effects guys were under to get everything right the first time because re-staging it for a second try would have been a bear.

"The Train" brought Franklin Coen and Frank Davis an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Story and Screenplay at the 1965 Oscars.

Grade: A-