Rail Pirates

1938 film

19 January 1938 (1938-01-19)

Running time

89 minutesCountryFranceLanguageFrench

Rail Pirates (French: Les pirates du rail) is a 1938 French adventure film directed by Christian-Jaque and starring Charles Vanel, Suzy Prim and Erich von Stroheim.^[1]^[2] It was shot at the Victorine Studios in Nice and on location in the Camargue. The film's sets were designed by the art director Pierre Schild. It is based on a novel of the same title by the Belgian writer Oscar Paul Gilbert, who also contributed to the screenplay.^[3]

Synopsis

Henri Pierson, an engineer on a railway running through Yunnan in China, tries to resist a series of bandit attacks on the train. Things come to a head when his wife Marie is taken as a hostage but the local warlord.

Cast

Charles Vanel as Henri Pierson
Suzy Prim as Jeanne Rolland
Erich von Stroheim as Tchou King
Marcel Dalio as Le mercenaire
Simone Renant as Marie Pierson
Héléna Manson as Madame Teysseire
Lucas Gridoux as Le général Tsai
Georges Tourreil as Teysseire
Jean Périer as Le Docteur Bureau
Doumel as Morganti
Marcel André as Ulrich
Ky Duyen as Le lieutenant
Régine Dancourt as Mme. Lauref
Jacques Dumesnil as André Rolland
Valéry Inkijinoff as Wang
Michel André as Brocard
Pierre Nay as Bernard
Marcel Maupi as Titin

References

^ Lennig p.384
^ Evans p.37
^ Goble p.180

Bibliography

Crisp, Colin. French Cinema—A Critical Filmography: Volume 1, 1929-1939. Indiana University Press, 2015.
Evans, Martin. Empire and Culture: The French Experience, 1830-1940. Springer, 2004.
Goble, Alan. The Complete Index to Literary Sources in Film. Walter de Gruyter, 1999.
Lennig, Arthur. Stroheim. University Press of Kentucky, 2004.