POW escape movies form almost a genre of their own and there were quite a few released in the late 1950s and in the 1960s. They mostly dealt with Allied POWs, naturally, and the drama was partly masked by expression of camaraderie and rough humor. This one, in simple black and white, has little of that. It's about Franz von Werra (Hardy Kruger), a German pilot who managed to escape from the grasp of the UK after his BF 109 was shot down in England in 1940.
In his first escape attempt, Kruger simply rolls over a stone wall and hides from his guards during an exercise period. He drives himself to exhaustion and is recaptured, half-dead, during a freezing downpour.
In his second attempt, he tunnels out of a prison camp and makes his way to a British training airfield, posing as a downed Dutch aviator. He bluffs his way into the cockpit of a British Hurricane and is about to take off before being prevented at the last minute at gunpoint.
Kruger is then sent to Canada where he throws himself unobserved out the window of a speeding train into a very effectively portrayed Canadian winter. He manages to make his way to the St. Lawrence River, mostly frozen, steals a boat to cross the open section of the river, and collapses on American soil -- America being a neutral country at the time.
Though the movie is over, Kruger is not yet finished and he crosses the border into Mexico, thence to South America where he finagles his way back to Germany. He crashes into the sea during a patrol and is never seen again.
The role of Franz von Werra stretches Kruger's acting talents to the limits. He must scheme, impersonate others, and suffer. And he does much of it in too obvious a fashion. The most difficult scenes involve his imposture as a Dutch pilot, making up details of his identity and experiences to suit his changing circumstances. He must be happy-go-lucky in a British manner. Tut tut, old boy. Spot of trouble with the old Wellington, don't you know. The British he meets along the way, both civilian and military, mostly buy his story -- but you and I wouldn't.
The most amusing scenes have Kruger demonstrating determination in the face of effusively polite RAF interrogators. The most gripping show Kruger crossing the miles-wide St. Lawrence, half frozen, pushing and pulling his stolen boat up and down heaps of ice, his body threatened with momentary implosion. It's a positive relief when he staggers into Ogdensberg.
The movie has an unexpected tension. Not just because of the story itself but because this is a British movie made only eleven or twelve years after the war, and it has a likable, if still wildly nationalistic, German protagonist. Britain suffered abominably during the war. When this was released, some neighborhoods in the docks were still burned out shells left over from the Blitz, and they'd remain that way for a couple more years. The war cost England a great deal in terms of lives and money, so in a sense this is a courageous movie. Twelve years between lethal enmity and the disinterest on display in this film. Should there be a statute of limitations on international hatreds? It's only a rhetorical question but it's raised by the nature of this film.
In his first escape attempt, Kruger simply rolls over a stone wall and hides from his guards during an exercise period. He drives himself to exhaustion and is recaptured, half-dead, during a freezing downpour.
In his second attempt, he tunnels out of a prison camp and makes his way to a British training airfield, posing as a downed Dutch aviator. He bluffs his way into the cockpit of a British Hurricane and is about to take off before being prevented at the last minute at gunpoint.
Kruger is then sent to Canada where he throws himself unobserved out the window of a speeding train into a very effectively portrayed Canadian winter. He manages to make his way to the St. Lawrence River, mostly frozen, steals a boat to cross the open section of the river, and collapses on American soil -- America being a neutral country at the time.
Though the movie is over, Kruger is not yet finished and he crosses the border into Mexico, thence to South America where he finagles his way back to Germany. He crashes into the sea during a patrol and is never seen again.
The role of Franz von Werra stretches Kruger's acting talents to the limits. He must scheme, impersonate others, and suffer. And he does much of it in too obvious a fashion. The most difficult scenes involve his imposture as a Dutch pilot, making up details of his identity and experiences to suit his changing circumstances. He must be happy-go-lucky in a British manner. Tut tut, old boy. Spot of trouble with the old Wellington, don't you know. The British he meets along the way, both civilian and military, mostly buy his story -- but you and I wouldn't.
The most amusing scenes have Kruger demonstrating determination in the face of effusively polite RAF interrogators. The most gripping show Kruger crossing the miles-wide St. Lawrence, half frozen, pushing and pulling his stolen boat up and down heaps of ice, his body threatened with momentary implosion. It's a positive relief when he staggers into Ogdensberg.
The movie has an unexpected tension. Not just because of the story itself but because this is a British movie made only eleven or twelve years after the war, and it has a likable, if still wildly nationalistic, German protagonist. Britain suffered abominably during the war. When this was released, some neighborhoods in the docks were still burned out shells left over from the Blitz, and they'd remain that way for a couple more years. The war cost England a great deal in terms of lives and money, so in a sense this is a courageous movie. Twelve years between lethal enmity and the disinterest on display in this film. Should there be a statute of limitations on international hatreds? It's only a rhetorical question but it's raised by the nature of this film.