So I picked up the blu-ray version of this movie which features an audio commentary by the director John Frankenheimer and these are the main things he pointed out: - The museum interior shots was actually a set. - They used about 20 230B locomotives in the movie. - When they had to do a run-by shot, they had to back the train 5 miles to get it up to speed. Each take took about an 1 hour and a half to do. - The Vaires bombing scene was assisted by Charles de Gaulle''s son, Philippe de Gaulle. It took em bout a third of a year to get it all set up. - The crew during the Vaires bombing scene were in a bunker about 500 feet away from the explosions. - When the kid gets shot and falls off the Rive-Reine station roof, thats actually Burt Lancaster falling. - The film started production in summer 1963 and even though it was August, John Frankhenheimer remembered that it was quite cold. - The original director, Arthur Penn, wanted the film to be more about the paintings themselves. Burt Lancaster disagreed with this and John Frankenheimer was brought in. - When the british planes flew over the train at Rive-Reine (cause the first 3 cars were painted white on their roofs), they were about 30 to 40 feet off the ground. - The spitfire chase scene was actually done as an afterthought and when the locomotive entered the tunnel it was doing about 70 mph. - The German WW2 vehicles at the end of the movie when they were evacuating by truck were over 20 years old.
