El tren

A nonverbal action movie that stars Burt Lancaster as a train operator trying to thwart the plans of Nazi operatives to move precious artworks from France to Germany in the last losing days of WWII.

John Frankenheimer directs in stark black and white, and the film has his trademarks all over it -- kinetic compositions, rapid-fire editing, ragged documentary look and feel. Paul Scofield also stars as the obsessed Nazi and Jeanne Moreau has a role as a French woman who reluctantly aids and abets Lancaster. The sheer physical production is astounding; in the days before CGI would have done everything for them, Frankenheimer and company staged massive set pieces involving bombed railroad yards, crashing trains, you name it. I can only imagine how much pressure the special effects guys were under to get everything right the first time because re-staging it for a second try would have been a bear.

"The Train" brought Franklin Coen and Frank Davis an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Story and Screenplay at the 1965 Oscars.

Grade: A-