Ripping Yarns brilliantly spoofed this in Tomkinson’s School Days – a pukka tale of British POWs trying to escape during World War Two via a vaulting horse. Lots of smoking pipes and being jolly good and decent about it.
The story is amazing, which is a good thing since the handling is so understated and undramatic - the budget seems to have been very low (that prison camp is sparse), the escape quite easy, ditto their adventures in occupied Europe. And what's with ending the movie on a silly gag?
As has been pointed out in many books, the whole thing is treated like adventures at school, with the prisoners as students and guards as teachers. (An exception to this is the killing of the German soldier towards the end - this is well done.)
The story is amazing, which is a good thing since the handling is so understated and undramatic - the budget seems to have been very low (that prison camp is sparse), the escape quite easy, ditto their adventures in occupied Europe. And what's with ending the movie on a silly gag?
As has been pointed out in many books, the whole thing is treated like adventures at school, with the prisoners as students and guards as teachers. (An exception to this is the killing of the German soldier towards the end - this is well done.)
Leo Genn and Anthony Steel are the main escapees, joined by David Tomlinson. Steel walks around in just shorts most of the time, establishing himself as a heart throb for the rest of the 50s. None of them are that good; Peter Finch impresses as an Australian soldier who escaped but was recaptured and helps Genn with information while recovering in hospital.
It's a great story, and proved enormously popular, you just wish it was done better.
It's a great story, and proved enormously popular, you just wish it was done better.
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