cult film freak: BURT LANCASTER DRIVING JOHN FRANKENHEIMER'S 'THE TRAIN'

Written by James M. Tate / 5/26/2025 / No comments / action , burt lancaster , heist , jeanne moreau , john frankenheimer , paul scofield , sixties , train , wolfgang preiss , world war II

BURT LANCASTER DRIVING JOHN FRANKENHEIMER'S 'THE TRAIN'

5/26/2025 | No comment

Title: THE TRAIN Year: 1964 Rating: ***1/2

Not since Jean Renior's French classic LA BÊTE HUMAINE has the rugged, grimy, grungy and grainy B&W workings of freight trains been so up-close and palpable... this an American-made war film about the French, where Burt Lancaster teams with director John Frankenheimer, an auteur inserting documentary-style camerawork into mainstream action...

That's not only about particular action-packed scenes but pretty much every movement: Lancaster (doing his own stunts) and fellow train-workers saving famous classic paintings from the Nazis at the tail-end of World War II...

Burt Lancaster in THE TRAIN

Providing British stage actor Paul Scolfield (flanked by Wolfgang Preiss and Jean Bouchaud) as an initially ambiguous, sophisticated Nazi villain until the last minute mirrors a western genre showdown: which it all seems partially influenced by, combined with a muscularly strategic heist-flick that would be easier to follow had it simply involved blowing up (or stealing from) THE TRAIN...

But in the efforts to keep slowing the beast down, Frankenheimer creates an edgy, fast-paced thriller that needs several viewings to fully appreciate every single thing that's going on.

From John Frankenheimer's THE TRAIN

Burt Lancaster in THE TRAIN with Charles Millot

Burt Lancaster in THE TRAIN

Burt Lancaster in THE TRAIN with Wolfgang Preiss

Burt Lancaster in THE TRAIN with Albert Rémy

Paul Scofield in THE TRAIN

Got both Twilight Time versions of John Frankenheimer's THE TRAIN

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Tags : action , burt lancaster , heist , jeanne moreau , john frankenheimer , paul scofield , sixties , train , wolfgang preiss , world war II

James M. Tate

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