The Train (DVD)

From John Frankenheimer, the acclaimed director of The Manchurian Candidate, Seven Days in May, Seconds, Grand Prix and Black Sunday, comes this action-packed WWII masterpiece starring screen legend Burt Lancaster (Run Silent Run Deep, Elmer Gantry, The Professionals). Paris, August 1944… with the Allied army closing in on German commander and art fanatic Colonel Franz Von Waldheim (Paul Scofield, A Man for All Seasons), he decides to steal a vast collection of rare French paintings and loads them onto a train bound for Berlin. But when a beloved French patriot is murdered while trying to sabotage Von Waldheim’s scheme, Labiche (Lancaster), a stalwart member of the Resistance, vows to stop the train at any cost. Calling upon his vast arsenal of skills, Labiche unleashes a torrent of devastation and destruction—loosened rails, shattered tracks and head-on collisions—in an impassioned, suspense-filled quest for justice, retribution and revenge. Featuring a top-notch score by Maurice Jarre (Doctor Zhivago) and a wonderful supporting performance by screen icon Jeanne Moreau (Viva Maria!), The Train was the fourth of five collaborations between filmmaker Frankenheimer and star Lancaster.