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The Train (1965) |
French Resistance uses aluminum franc coins to sabotage railroad engine
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The 1965 film "The Train" is set in France near the end of World War II.
The film stars Burt Lancaster as Paul Labiche and Paul Scofield as Nazi Colonel Franz von Waldheim.
French Resistance railway workers attempt to slow down a railroad train carrying looted museum impressionist
art to Germany.
When the Germans invaded France in 1940 they set up a puppet state in southern Franch governed from the city of Vichy.
The Vichy state minted coins of aluminum to save money.
In the film, French Vichy aluminum franc coins are used to sabotage and slow down a railroad 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
They give him an idea.
6. Sabotaging the engine
He uses a simple device to slow down the train.
7. The sabotage device, a French franc
The coin is a French Vichy aluminum franc dated 1943.
A French Vichy one franc coin:
8. France Vichy one franc 1943
Aluminum, 23.0 mm, 1.3 gm
The Germans are suspicious and ask Boule to turn out his pockets, revealing an oily franc coin.
9. Searching the pockets
Some French francs appear.
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 scene was shot with a real train wreck with real engines.
Labiche is forced to hide in a railway cafe run by Christine (Jeanne Moreau).
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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