Amazon Prime is now streaming a terrific, thrilling war film starring Burt Lancaster that is far too unknown. Director John Frankenheimer only did his job in exchange for a Ferrari
Some stories from film history are simply too bizarre to be true. For example, the story of the making of the classic war film The Platoon with Burt Lancaster (Wages of Fear), which far too few people still know. Although legendary director John Frankenheimer delivered a masterpiece, he demanded a Ferrari before he even lifted a finger. The movie is now available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.
On Amazon Prime: Burt Lancaster fights for Pablo Picasso in war movie masterpiece
The Platoon is set in Paris in 1944. Shortly before the Allied invasion, the Wehrmacht under Franz von Waldheim (Paul Scofield) attempts to transport priceless art masterpieces by Pablo Picasso and Paul Gauguin to Germany by train. The French resistance fighter Paul Labiche (Burt Lancaster) and his comrades try to stop the theft.
(Burt Lancaster in The Train)
Frankenheimer, who was supposed to step in for the fired Arthur Penn (Bonnie and Clyde) shortly after filming began, created a masterpiece. When Lancaster leads the German Wehrmacht around by the nose with clever feints and narrowly escapes death time and time again, all viewers claw into their seats drenched in sweat. Frankenheimer originally only wanted to take on the job in exchange for a sports car.
After firing Penn, star Lancaster urgently needed a director and offered the job to his friend Frankenheimer (via PBS ). He apparently shamelessly took advantage of the production’s plight: Before even touching the director’s chair, he had a Ferrari, a free hand in editing and his name in the title contractually guaranteed. The war film, which was subsequently released as John Frankenheimer’s The Train, has been thrilling action fans for 59 years now.
Stream The Train on Amazon Prime Video
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