Coming in at #1, Burt Lancaster plays a French train engineer during the waning days of the German occupation who tries to prevent Nazi colonel Paul Scofield from transporting a precious art collection back to Germany.
“Lancaster provides a veritable primer on the railroad craft:working an interlocking tower,.. running and hand-firing a 4-6-0,disassemble track fasteners. In all tasks, he is totally convincing.”
Filmed in the picturesque town of Acquigny in Normandy, just north of Paris. The line was scheduled for abandonment, so it was easy for the SCNF to give the director free rain.
The steam power was almost exclusively WWI era 4-6-0’s, with Belpaire designed fireboxes and were hand fired. The 4-6-0 in the first derailment was moving too fast, destroying three of five cameras. However, the result was one of the most exciting train action scenes in cinema history.
See if your favorite train movie made the list.
