The Battle of the Rails

The Battle of the Rails
The Battle of the Rails
French	La Bataille du rail
Directed by	René Clément
Written by	René Clément; Colette Audry
Produced by	Pierre Lévy-Corti
Narrated by	Charles Boyer
Cinematography	Henri Alekan
Edited by	Jacques Desagneaux
Music by	Yves Baudrier
Production; company	Coopérative Générale du Cinéma Français [fr]
Distributed by	Union Française de Production Cinématographique
Release date	27 February 1946;
Running time	85 minutes
Country	France
Language	French

The Battle of the Rails (French: La Bataille du rail) is a 1946 French docudrama war film co-written directed by René Clément in his feature directorial debut, and narrated by Charles Boyer. It depicts the efforts by railway workers in the French Resistance to sabotage German military transport trains during the Second World War, particularly during the Invasion of Normandy by Allies.^[1] Many of the cast were genuine railway workers.^[2] While critics have often historically treated it as similar to Italian neorealism, it is closer to the traditional documentaries on which the director had worked.^[3]

The film was shown at the inaugural Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Jury Prize and Clément won the Best Director Award. The film also won the inaugural Prix Méliès.

Cast

Charles Boyer as the voice of the narrator
Jean Clarieux as Lampin
Jean Daurand as Jean, railway worker
Howard Vernon as German supervisor
Lucien Desagneaux as Roussel/"Athos"
François Joux as François, resistance member
Pierre Latour as German officer
Tony Laurent as Tony/"Carmargue"
Robert Leray as Robert, resistance member
André Miller as Deutsche Reichsbahn official
Léon Pauléon as Saint-André stationmaster
Marcel Barnault as Marcel, resistance member
Pierre Lozach as Louis, railway worker
Pierre Mindaist as Pierre, railway worker
Fernand Rauzena, chief engineer
Michel Salina as Michel, director
Frédéric Mariotti as Jules, mechanic

Release

In 1949, the film was distributed in America by Arthur Mayer and Joseph Burstyn.

The film was withdrawn from circulation in French Indochina, when it became known that Viet Minh members were using the film as training material for sabotaging railways.^[4]

Home media

The film was released on Blu-Ray in France on June 1, 2010.^[5]

Reception

Critical response

Reviewing the film on its 1949 US release, Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote "For here, in this ninety-minute picture, is a sizzling dramatic account of realistic action and adventure in the fascinating realm of railway trains—of smuggling, spying, train-wrecking and correlated fighting by the bold Maquis."^[6]

André Bazin spoke positively of the film, in contrast to his Cahiers du Cinéma colleagues' more critical read of René Clément. He wrote writing "The morality of art fuses here with the morality of history. The greatness of this film and its spiritual bond with the cause of the Resistance are not unrelated to the purity of intention revealed by its means and its men."^[7]

Awards and nominations


Institution	Year	Category	Nominee	Result	Ref.
Cannes Film Festival	1946	Palme d'Or	René Clément	Nominated	^[8]
		Jury Prize		Won	^[8]
		Best Director		Won	^[8]
French Syndicate of Cinema Critics	1947	Prix Méliès		Won

References

↑ Zaretsky, Robert (4 April 2018). "Macron's Been Working on the Railroad". Foreign Policy. René Clément's classic 1946 film The Battle of the Rails suggests wartime life expectancy of cheminots was even lower – at least among those who sought to sabotage the Nazi war machine in France.
↑ Williams p. 303
↑ Williams p. 303
↑ Saint Bris, Gonzague (2016). "4". Un ruban de rêve (in French). Paris: Steinkis Groupe. ISBN 978-2368460450.
↑ La bataille du rail Blu-ray (The Battle of the Rails) (France). Retrieved 5 April 2026 – via www.blu-ray.com.
↑ Crowther, Bosley (27 December 1949). "THE SCREEN IN REVIEW; 'Battle of the Rails,' French Report of Fight Made by Railway Workers Against Nazis, at the Apollo". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 5 April 2026.
↑ Bazin, Andrè (1997). Bazin at work : major essays and reviews from the forties and fifties. Internet Archive. New York : Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-90017-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
1 2 3 "René CLÉMENT". Festival de Cannes. Retrieved 5 April 2026.

Bibliography

Williams, Alan. Republic of Images: A History of French Filmmaking. Harvard University Press, 1992.

External links

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[1] Zaretsky, Robert (4 April 2018). "Macron's Been Working on the Railroad". Foreign Policy. René Clément's classic 1946 film The Battle of the Rails suggests wartime life expectancy of cheminots was even lower – at least among those who sought to sabotage the Nazi war machine in France.

[2] Williams p. 303

[3] Williams p. 303

[4] Saint Bris, Gonzague (2016). "4". Un ruban de rêve (in French). Paris: Steinkis Groupe. ISBN 978-2368460450.

[5] La bataille du rail Blu-ray (The Battle of the Rails) (France). Retrieved 5 April 2026 – via www.blu-ray.com.

[6] Crowther, Bosley (27 December 1949). "THE SCREEN IN REVIEW; 'Battle of the Rails,' French Report of Fight Made by Railway Workers Against Nazis, at the Apollo". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 5 April 2026.

[7] Bazin, Andrè (1997). Bazin at work : major essays and reviews from the forties and fifties. Internet Archive. New York : Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-90017-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)

[:0-8] 1 2 3 "René CLÉMENT". Festival de Cannes. Retrieved 5 April 2026.

[1]