Over the weekend, I watched The Train (1964). It takes place in and around Paris days before the Allied Liberation during WWII, 1944. A Nazi colonel, knowing the allies are coming and realizing the value of paintings by Van Gogh, Manet, Picasso, Degas, Renoir and others, orders the artwork to be crated and loaded onto a train bound for Germany. It becomes his obsession. Burt Lancaster is the French railman, eventually ordered to engineer the train.
It is a fascinating look at the French Resistance, National Pride, and the character transformation of a man who at first is ambivalent about a bunch of paint on canvas, yet ends up risking his life over and over to prevent them from being stolen.
Watch for Burt Lancaster, a former circus performer, doing all his own breathtaking stunts. He has no lines toward the last part of the movie, but his actions speak volumes. It's quick-paced and suspensful, and the last 5 minutes are incredibly emotional.
Well done: ****1\2 out of *****