THE TRAIN (1964)

As the Allies close in on Paris in August 1944, SS Col. von Waldheim (Paul Scofield) loots the city's great paintings and commandeers a train to bring them to Germany. He drafts French trainmaster Paul Labiche (Burt Lancaster), secretly a Resistance fighter, to recruit a crew and drive the train to Germany. This brings on a brilliant, often hair-raising game of cat-and-mouse as the French pull out all the stops to prevent the train from leaving their country, while the Nazis do almost equally well in repairing the sabotage and keeping the train rolling. Scofield is thoroughly detestable as you'd expect from a movie Nazi, and Lancaster, in one of his best roles, makes a better anti-hero than McQueen ever was. Director John Frankenheimer, one of my faves, uses an excellent international cast (including Jeanne Moreau) and keeps up the action and tension almost non-stop. The train and rail scenes are stunningly realistic in glorious black-and-white. Fine movie!