The big star of Frankenheimer's film is the train itself... And the plot is based on the characteristic of railroadsengines and cars all over the tracks, cabs and steamall shown on enough detail to keep the viewer in great suspense
The aerial strike shots are also wonderfully taken
The film begins in Paris, August 2, 1944
It's 1511th day of German occupation
The liberation of Paris seems very close
Nazi Colonel Von Waldheim (Paul Scofield) decides suddenly to remove by train to Germany the best of Impressionist masterpieces
His objective is clear: "Money is a weapon. The contents are as negotiable as gold and more valuable."
Mademoiselle Villard (Suzanne Flon) informs the Resistance of the shipment
The Resistance reaction is to stop the train without damaging the national heritage
"They are part of France." But stopping the train is not a simple task
You can get killed especially if you are French and the train is German
Labiche (Burt Lancaster), the Chief Inspector of the French Railway System, is not impressed
However, he never communicates his political, ideological, or nationalistic convictions, "For certain things, we take the risk," he said; "but I won't waste lives on paintings."
When an aged engineer, Papa Boule (Michel Simon), is accused of sabotage in spite of saving the train through the Allied's bombs at the risk of his own life, Labiche is forced into combat
It begins with a long sequence where an armament train and the art train are both trying to leave the yard in the morning
As they are being moved back and forth across the tracks, the viewer knows that British planes will hit the yard in that moment at exactly 10:00 o'clock
New complications are introduced, but the central conflict always returns to an obsessive art lover against a man with no appreciation for art
Labiche's only concerns is to slow down the Nazis keeping himself and his compatriots alive
Now, two forces control the film
The first is Frankenheimer's cleverness to choreograph the real trains
Frankenheimer and his cinematographers capture the heat of the engines, the noise and sound of the cars in motion, the fault in the oil line, the crushing strength implicated when the machines come into collision and the derailment
The second force is Lancaster, the "headache" of the fanatical obsessed Colonel whose desire is to see the priceless paintings in Nazi Germany...
