The 1965 movie ‘The Train’ comes on the Military Channel at 7 pm central time next Friday (27th).
Watched it on DVD during the week. An excellent movie but a bit grim (however it is a war movie).
Ah, yes! My favorite train movie and one of my favorite war movies. Thanks for the heads up but I would probably have spotted it as I monitor Direct-TV’s block of documentary channels days in advance.
Trains and Locomotives this past Monday had a short feature on filming this film.
A lot of water has passed under the bridge since I saw this for the first time at Takhli, Thailand in 1966.
It’ll be on at 7:45 Eastern time.
Just an FYI. You can watch it anytime you want on www.hulu.com. Maybe not as good as on a larger screen but then again it all depends on you computer setup.
Willy:
Thanks for the link, but believe me, to get the full scope of his film, it has to be seen on as big a TV screen as possible, LOL! [:P]
Even the huge HD TV I have isn’t enough to really capture it–it actually needs a theater screen for the full impact.
It’s just a TERRIFIC movie!!
Tom [:)]
Sit closer to the screen, Tom.
Mark (with a 26", terribly ordinary TV screen)
Mark:
Nah, at my age, it gets all blurry, LOL!
Tom [:D]
Tonight, 7 pm central time, the Military Channel, “The Train”.
Jeff:
Hope they show it without commercial interruptions–though the Military Channel is pretty good about their commercial pacing.
As a thought: It would be good for the Military Channel to get hold of the 1945 French film LA BATTAILE DU RAIL, a rather extraordinary semi-documentary about the Maquis and their interruption of French railway traffic to the Normandy Front in 1944. From what I understand, portions of the film were actually made DURING the German occupation. And like THE TRAIN (for which the French film is a partial inspiration), Renee Clement’s film doesn’t have a model train in sight for the railway action. And the German armored locomotive used in the Clement film is the same one that Frankenheimer uses in the rail-yard bombing sequence in THE TRAIN (though a ‘dummy’ was blown up for the film).
Both films are two of the best ‘train’ movies I’ve ever seen.
Tom [:)]
Thanks for the “heads up” on the movie, Jeff… I finished watching it a while ago. That one, and the Emperor of the North are my two favorite train flicks!
Bob
Hi,
La Bataille du Rail has obviously been filmed after the war, released in 1946. And yes, there is not a single model in the movie.
The german armored train is a real one, the Panzerzug 32, captured in September 1944. It has then been presented in various places on the french territory as a trophy, acted in the movie and was later scrapped.
The one in Frankenheimer’s movie is a fake one.
It comes on again Sunday night, 7 and 10 pm central.
I had read in the back-story on Frankenheimer’s film that though the armored train itself had been scrapped, the armored locomotive was still extant and was used in the railrway yard sequence (though a dummy was blown up for the bombing sequence itself).
From the notes on the DVD, LA BATTAILE DU RAIL is an expanded treatement of the 1943 Clement film CEAUX DU RAIL, a short documentary about French railway workers during the Occupation that was then expanded by Clement with additional dramatic footage in 1945 and released in early 1946. The film was given a Special Jury price at the Cannes Film festival.
So I wasn’t trying to mis-lead anyone about the movies–I was just going on the liner notes and production histories.
The derailment of the French train carrying German tanks to the front in LA BATTAILE DU RAIL is still just about the most spectacular sequence of its type I’ve ever seen. I swear, that wreck goes on FOREVER, LOL!
Tom [:D]
Burt Lancaster seemed to relish the experience of driving steam locomotives. Didn’t he also operate a steam locomotive in the movie The Professionals or was it Lee Marvin? (Throw in two shovels-worth of coal in the firebox, pull on the throttle, and away we go.)
Mark