In 1943, an Italian-administered P.O.W. camp for captured Allies goes through a series of failed escapes only to culminate in a daring plan for a dramatic mass escape.In 1943, an Italian-administered P.O.W. camp for captured Allies goes through a series of failed escapes only to culminate in a daring plan for a dramatic mass escape.In 1943, an Italian-administered P.O.W. camp for captured Allies goes through a series of failed escapes only to culminate in a daring plan for a dramatic mass escape.
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Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaAmongst the names called out in the roll call scene when Captain Long returns from Benucci's office is 'Verity'. Yorkshire and England cricketer Hedley Verity, who served as a captain in the Green Howards, was captured in Italy and died there while he was a POW. It's a sufficiently unusual surname to be more than coincidence.
- GoofsIn the final scene, when Capitano Benucci realized an escape is happening, he is seen running around the camp with his pistol in his hand. The pistol is an automatic, but when he shoots the "traitor" hidden behind the blanket, the closeup shows a revolver.
- Quotes
Lt. Col. Huxley: [the prisoners are discussing the corpse of a man discovered in an escape tunnel] Obviously we must report this to the Italians at once.
Lt. Col. David Baird, M.C.: Report it, aye, but do you have to tell them where you found him?
Lt. Col. Huxley: Yes, of course we do. Their doctors will prove he died under a fall of sand. That means only one thing - a tunnel.
Lt. Col. David Baird, M.C.: Well just for the record, if you tell 'em the truth, you'll be making them a present of the only tunnel in this camp with a real chance.
Lt. Col. Huxley: What alternative do you suggest?
Lt. Col. David Baird, M.C.: Put him in another tunnel. An abandoned one. And then report it.
Lt. Col. Huxley: You mean fake a fall in another tunnel?
Lt. Col. David Baird, M.C.: Well, it happens easily enough by accident. It shouldn't be difficult to do it on purpose.
Lt. Col. Huxley: That might not be the end of the matter, you realise that?
Lt. Col. David Baird, M.C.: Well I'm still for it, sir.
Lt. Col. Huxley: Alright. Who'll do it?
Capt. Roger Byfold: I will, sir.
Lt. Col. Huxley: Well, the less I know about it, the better. And, just as a matter of interest, might I be allowed to know where this abandoned tunnel starts?
[Baird looks at the floor below Huxley's feet, indicating that Huxley is standing on it]
- Crazy creditsOpening credits prologue: North Italy Summer 1943
- ConnectionsReferenced in Two Way Stretch (1960)
- SoundtracksNe Partez pas déjà
Music by Henry Himmel
Part of the novelty lies in its North Italian setting - we're so used to nefarious Nazis and brutal Japanese. Not that it makes much difference - the main villain, Capitano Benucci, is a Nazi-trained sadist, who imagines he's suavity incarnate with his sophisticated cigars, laidback walk, time goatie, and clipped, ironical speech. But the blanching sun makes a nice change, giving a parched, sandy feel, and the notorious stereotype of Italian incompetence makes the various plot points believable.
What makes this narrative absorbing is not the usual will-they-or-won't-they escape plot, but a kind of detective story. No matter how ingenious the efforts of the escape committee - and there is a brilliant one here involving sewers, light-switches, misplaced cigarettes and rugby posts- there is always the same welcoming committee of armed fascists ready to mow them down. It's clear there's an informer, but who?
The obvious culprit is a shifty-looking Greek. This is the film's first daring piece of iconoclasm. There is a lot of anti-Italian racism throughout, but that can be attributed to understandable wartime emotionalism, where contempt for what Fascism stands for is expressed in xenophobia. But the Greek's only obvious credentials for being an informer is the fact of being a Greek, a little small, sweaty, oily, you know, naturally sneaky. When his name is called at roll-call, a wit hurls a dead rat at the officer; we remember Nazi anti-Semitic propaganda that used similar analogies.
This is a strangely unideological war these men are fighting - there is no rhetoric about liberty and democracy; this is a prison film in which the criminals, all professionals, want to escape. Everything centres on the job in hand, with loyalty vouchsafed for anyone who agrees. This lack of sentimentality is refreshing an a genre stuffed with secular piety.
Even better is the working of the theatrical metaphors. The brilliant opening scene features a prisoner disguised as the commandant - their fatal meeting creates a mirror effect that echoes in the following narrative about, not only duplicity, but also people who don't seem to be what they are, including old fops who turn out to be very brave men. Of course, this is a situation where the Law are murderous criminals, and the prisoners are democratic saviours, ambiguous enough in itself. It creates a world where you don't know who to trust, especially dangerous in a situation where loyalty and trust need to be givens. This idea of acting and pretending (extending to the Capitano) culminates in the attempted escape during 'Hamlet', with the immortal Dennis Price in a mop wig as the Prince. It's a shame they couldn't have picked a more apposite play - King Lear, perhaps? - or worked it in better, with a play-within-a-play scene, for instance, to reveal the murderer. But that would have been silly, contrived, arty, and no British war film would ever be that. Michael Wilding is a bizarre sight in this testosterone heavy atmosphere; even more surprising is how excellent he is with his old queen patter and reserves of steel.
- the red duchess
- Feb 25, 2001
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Details
- Runtime1 hour 41 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.66 : 1