Le Train 1964 film

[Gordonwis]

Thoroughly enjoyed watching 'Le Train' (1964 Burt Lancaster film) again on terrestrial british TV today (Sat 2 March)

 

Spotted two of the most famous 'goofs' - post war American 141Rs at 'Vaires' shed, and a glimpse of some overhead catenary which did not exist East of Paris at that time.

[Pacific231G]

It's always worth watching. There are also some rather modern looking cars in the Vaires car park but I'd not noticed the catenary. The other "goof" was that much of the track, including the section that Lancaster's character saboataged to finally stop the art train was bull head rather than flat bottom and that wasn't used on the Est. That does of course reflect the reality that, apart from the scenes in Paris, it was filmed on the west region with most of the action on an already closed section of the former Rouen-Orleans line with "Rive-Reine" being the real station at Acquigny with Louviers and Heudreville also putting in appearances. What they did get right was to bring in I think five recently withdrawn 230B locos from the eastern region. 

 

I'd call the 1964 film  The Train rather than Le Train as there's a French film of that title (released in English as The Last Trains) starring  Jean-Louis Trintignant and Romy Schneider from 1973 based on Georges Simenon's 1963 short novel. It's about two people who meet on a refugee train crossing France ahead of the advancing Germans in 1940 from near Sedan to La Rochelle (before it was electrified). The train itself was hauled by 230G353 but I think a 141R does put in an appearance though in the dusk. It's also well worth seeing. 

 

Edited March 3 by Pacific231G

[ianp]

It is a very good film, enhanced by the real explosions representing the bombing of the marshalling yard. I read that SNCF were very happy for the real location to be blown up (watch that ground heave) because they wanted to demolish the yard anyway.

[Gordonwis]

5 hours ago, ianp said:

It is a very good film, enhanced by the real explosions representing the bombing of the marshalling yard. I read that SNCF were very happy for the real location to be blown up (watch that ground heave) because they wanted to demolish the yard anyway.

 

Indeed it didn't matter that locos got smashed up either as they were about to be withdrawn.

[Gordonwis]

13 hours ago, Pacific231G said:

It's always worth watching. There are also some rather modern looking cars in the Vaires car park but I'd not noticed the catenary. The other "goof" was that much of the track, including the section that Lancaster's character saboataged to finally stop the art train was bull head rather than flat bottom and that wasn't used on the Est. That does of course reflect the reality that, apart from the scenes in Paris, it was filmed on the west region with most of the action on an already closed section of the former Rouen-Orleans line with "Rive-Reine" being the real station at Acquigny with Louviers and Heudreville also putting in appearances. What they did get right was to bring in I think five recently withdrawn 230B locos from the eastern region. 

 

 

I well remember your expertise on the filming locations for the film, but I hadn't seen it for a while, and I always feel that the high shots around the area with the tunnel scene does look remarkably like the Verdun area - so they did a great job.

 

The old 030C that was used latterly in the film alongside the 230Bs was not an Est loco AFAIR

[Pacific231G]

23 hours ago, Gordonwis said:

 

I well remember your expertise on the filming locations for the film, but I hadn't seen it for a while, and I always feel that the high shots around the area with the tunnel scene does look remarkably like the Verdun area - so they did a great job.

 

The old 030C that was used latterly in the film alongside the 230Bs was not an Est loco AFAIR

No, it was an originally CF de l'Ouest loco from a class built between 1867-1885 that remarkably remained in service until 1965 . I suppose it was rather the Ouest's equivalent of a Dean goods. I think the old loco used to create havoc in La Bataille du Rail was also an 030C 

 

The last of the Est 230Bs remained in service until 1967 but I assume the six (not five ) used in The Train* were being withdrawn.   They were part of a class of 390 built between 1901 and 1912 and, according to Wiki, the largest class of "ten wheelers" in France. I've always thought it must have been someone in SNCF who came up with the idea of moving them from Region Est - where the action is supposedly set- to Normandy (Region Ouest), where most of it was filmed.  The production did use the "art train" to move their equipment around the French railway system.   

 

I agree about the Y shaped viaduct coming out of the tunnel looking very Estish . the left hand leg was the line to Louviers and Acquigny and the right hand leg was a connecting line down to the double-track line from Oissel to Glos Montfort that passes beneath the viaduct (though unseen in the film) 

 

The Train is sort of based on a true story. Just before the liberation of Paris in 1944, the Germans tried to ship five final van loads of looted art to Germany, mostly impressionist and modern art that the Nazis despised. The cheminots, warned by Rose Valland, ensured that they never got out of the Paris rail system though by far more subtle means than those shown in the film (which were in part based on scenes in La Battaille du Rail)   and were finally taken in charge by a unit of the advancing French army.

The film implied that "Mlle. Vilard " was making her first contact with the resistance and begging them to stop the art train but she had in reality been working with them through the occupation. Working at the Jeu de Paume museum that the Germans were using as a depot for their looiting of art, Valland had secretly, and at great personal risk,  recorded the contents and destinations of  looted art shipments keeping the Resistance informed so that they wouldn't be blown up and, after the war enabling some 60 000 item of looted art to be identified with most of it returned to its rightful owners by 1950.

 

The actual story can be found here  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose_Valland  

 

* The 230Bs that appeared in the film were nos. 517, 614, 617, 711, 739, 856 

Edited March 4 by Pacific231G
typos