The Twilight Time Bluray of John Frankenheimer‘s The Train is pretty wonderful, but I was expecting that. There must at least 737 separate shades of gray and silver in this thing, not to mention the inky, to-die-for blacks. I’ve listened to Frankenheimer’s audio commentary (originally recorded for the old MGM/UA laser disc) a couple of times now. The Bluray offers fresh audio commentary from Paul Seydor, Julie Kirgo and Nick Redman. At one point Seydor or Redman (couldn’t tell which) quotes from Kate Buford‘s “Burt Lancaster: An American Life“, in which she noted that “the seducer Elmer Gantry and the control freak J.J. Hunsecker were closest to who Lancaster really was while the Birdman of Alcatraz character was the man Burt wanted to be.” As for the clip below, the best reaction shots happen when a character hasn’t time to react.