Basically the story of a duel of wits between a German submarine captain (Helmut Griem), ranking officer in a Scottish POW camp, and an Irish captain in the British army (Brian Keith) who is sent to administer the camp and investigate the reasons for the POWs riotous behavior. It develops that Griem is organizing the escape of 28 submariners because Germany needs experienced crewmen. The escape is successful. It leaves poor Brian Keith behind. Until the very end, that is, when the escapees are discovered boarding a U-boat off the Scottish coast and, alerted by Keith, a British patrol boat interferes with the escape. The U-boat submerges with most of the escapees aboard already, but it leaves Griem and a few others behind in their rubber boats. Keith, watching the events from atop a cliff, is given the last words. "Well, Willi, it looks like both you and I are in the ****house." Interesting film in which nobody really wins. One or two dozen German sailors manage to get away, but to what? Another U-boat patrol? After May, 1943, those patrols were suicide missions. And it's unusual to see Brian Keith, as a genial, quiet, thoughtful Irishman outwitted by a ruthless German like Griem. And he IS ruthless. Unnecessarily ruthless. One of those dedicated Nazis who kills his comrades without compunction in order to ensure the success of his mission. The role is really pretty retrograde, harking back as it does to the Gestapo spies of the 1940s. Other than his tendency to humiliate and kill such skanks as homosexuals, Griem, with his handsomeness and overall Aryan quality, exudes a good deal of charm. He and Keith listen to a recording of Beethoven's third symphony. "Toscanini?" asks Griem. Keith nods and comments with a smile, "Furtwangler did it better." (Furtwangler was not only a German conductor, but a German conductor who played footsies with the Nazis.) The thrust and parry extends to prison yard scenes as well. There's quite a bit of action.
It must have been filmed in Scotland. I don't blame Griem and the rest for wanting to escape from there. Whew. What dreary weather -- clouds, rain, constant dampness and chill. Not to blame the DP. The atmosphere is perfectly captured in the photography.
Anyway, is this story "based on fact," as they say? If so, it leaves a couple of questions unanswered that wouldn't otherwise be necessary to ask. Eg., where did they get the truck for hauling "explosives"?
It must have been filmed in Scotland. I don't blame Griem and the rest for wanting to escape from there. Whew. What dreary weather -- clouds, rain, constant dampness and chill. Not to blame the DP. The atmosphere is perfectly captured in the photography.
Anyway, is this story "based on fact," as they say? If so, it leaves a couple of questions unanswered that wouldn't otherwise be necessary to ask. Eg., where did they get the truck for hauling "explosives"?