Episode 298: THE TRAIN (1964) with Abbie Phelps

Trylove

With special guest Abbie Phelps (@GoodHunterAbbie)!

THE TRAIN is a fantastic Burt Lancaster vehicle, a showcase for supporting performers Paul Scofield and Jeanne Moreau, and, in a career dotted with bangers, one of director John Frankenheimer’s finest.

With the Nazi occupation of France coming to an end, railway supervisor Paul Labiche (Lancaster) is tasked by Colonel Von Waldheim (Scofield) with escorting a steam locomotive out of the country carrying a cache of priceless French paintings. Realizing their importance to French cultural identity, the French Resistance lobbies Labiche to delay the train as it makes its way to the German border.

Labiche reluctantly agrees, coordinating with resistance fighters across the country to reroute, sabotage, and otherwise impede the train’s progress while they wait for Allied support to reclaim the region. The deadly clashes between Nazi forces and occupied civilians, including the widowed innkeeper Christine (Moreau), lead Labiche to consider with increasing skepticism whether the essentiality of art justifies the necessary loss of the human life it’s meant to enrich.

Find Abbie…

• On Twitter at @goodhunterabbie
• On Letterboxd at @goodhunterabbie
• On Trylove episodes about DRIVE ANGRY (2011), WAR OF THE WORLDS (2005), THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (1999), TOUCH OF EVIL (1958)

**References: **

• Watch THE TRAIN on the Internet Archive
• Please don’t watch THE TRAIN (colorized) on the Internet Archive
• “The Rose That Lives its Little Hour: The Woman Behind the True Story of The Train” by Courtney Kowalke for Perisphere, the Trylon blog
• Check the calendar, preview upcoming series, and buy tickets at https://www.trylon.org/
• Contribute to Perisphere, the Trylon blog: https://www.perisphere.org/perisphere-blog-post-guidelines/
• Donate to the Trylon’s Film Forever Fund to help them show more film

#JohnFrankenheimers1960s #DCP

Follow us on Twitter at @trylovepodcast and email us at [e-mail] to get in touch! Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Outro music: "Main Theme" composed by Maurice Jarre from THE TRAIN soundtrack.

Timestamps

0:00 - Episode 298: THE TRAIN (1964) with Abbie Phelps

5:43 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary

7:45 - A masterpiece of war cinema… and Frankemheimer’s masterpiece?

16:15 - How THE TRAIN inverts action movie pacing

21:44 - Labor on-screen and off

31:24 - How brutality forwards the movie’s narrative

35:12 - Nationalism, hopelessness, and cynicism

39:45 - Christine, the reluctant resistance fighter

54:41 - The ending and the problem with “was it worth it?” hand-wringing

1:06:44 - The Junk Drawer

1:20:16 - To All the Loves We’ve Tried Before: 1964

1:22:03 - Cody’s Noteys: Railyard Sale ($9 to spend on our 5-star movies)