10 Great World War II Movies You've Probably Never Seen

A few years ago, George Clooney put together The Monuments Men, a star-studded extravaganza focused on the units dedicated to preserving art from destruction as the Allies made their way across Europe and recovering pieces looted by the Germans during their occupation of the continent. It wasn’t particularly successful critically or commercially, but it did bring a degree of attention back onto The Train, a film with a similar premise.

Directed by John Frankenheimer on the back of the Manchurian Candidate, The Train pits Burt Lancaster’s French Resistance operative against Paul Scofield’s Nazi Colonel in the pursuit of stolen art as the liberation of France plays out in the background.

Exploring the question of whether supposedly priceless artworks are comparable in cost to human lives as the bodycount mounts up, the film, shot artistically in black and white, was overshadowed by bigger releases in its time, but remains a fascinating insight into what was a huge part of the non-military aspects of the war.

Nazi (and Soviet) art theft and destruction was rampant and many pieces have still not been relocated to this day, but little of this is known in depth outside of the art community given how rarely it has been explored on screen, despite the interesting contrast of ambivalence versus fanatic passion that something like The Train showcases.