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The Train (1965)
French Resistance uses aluminum franc coins to sabotage railroads
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The 1965 film "The Train" shows an aluminum French franc coin used to sabotage a train.
The film stars Burt Lancaster as Paul Labiche as Paul Scofield as Nazi Colonel Franz von Waldheim
and is set in 1944 France near the end of the German occupation.
French railway workers attempt to stop a train carrying impressionist art stolen from a Paris Museum to
Germany.
Aluminum Vichy French franc coins are used to slow down (sabotage) a railway engine.
1. Title
German Colonel Franz von Waldheim is in charge of a Paris art museum.
He is ordered to move the paintings, mostly impressionist art by artists such as Picasso and Renoir,
to Germany so that they can be sold to raise money for the war effort.
He has the paintings put on a special train.
2. Stealing the art
French art curator M. Villard contacts a French railways resistance group and asks them
to halt or slow down the train so that the approaching Allies can save it.
3. Labiche, French railway official
Paul Labiche is a railway supervisor, along with others, begins misdirecting and sabotaging
the train to slow it down. The Germans, especially von Waldheim, learn about this, and use
Nazi methods including executions to stop the sabotage.
Papa Boule is an elderly engineer who is to operate the engine.
4. Engineer Papa Boule oiling the engine
He buys some coffee and gets change in coins.
5. French francs on table
6. Sabotaging the engine
He uses a simple device to slow down the train.
7. The sabotage device, a French franc
The coin appears to be an aluminum Vichy French franc dated 1943.
A Vichy French franc coin:
8. A 1943 Aluminum Vichy French Franc
Aluminum, 23.0 mm, 1.3 gm
Back to the film:
The Germans are suspicious and ask Boule to turn out his pockets, revealing an oily franc coin.
9. Searching the pockets
10. An oily franc indicates guilt
Later, a fake sign is used to hide the redirection of the train.
11. Fake sign
Train wrecks also slow down the train.
12. Train wreck
This is a real train wreck with real engines, not miniatures.
Labiche is forced to hide in a railway cafe run by Christine.
13. Labiche and Christine
After the latest attack, the train can no longer be made to run.
Von Waldheim has the French passengers murdered and then heads to Germany
with an army truck convoy.
14. The Colonel says goodbye
Labiche is finally left alone to stop the train, and he wants revenge.
Von Waldheim and Labiche have a final confrontation.
15. Showdown
Cast, Directors, Writers:
Burt Lancaster as Paul Labiche
Paul Scofield as Colonel Franz von Waldheim
Jeanne Moreau as Christine
Suzanne Flon as Mlle Villard
Michel Simon as Papa Boule
Director: John Frankenheimer
Writers: Franklin Coen, Frank Davis
Paul Scofield as Colonel Franz von Waldheim
Jeanne Moreau as Christine
Suzanne Flon as Mlle Villard
Michel Simon as Papa Boule
Writers: Franklin Coen, Frank Davis
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