The Colditz Story **** (1954, John Mills, Eric Portman, Lionel Jeffries, Bryan Forbes, Ian Carmichael, Richard Wattis) – Classic Movie Review 5789

Co-writer/ director Guy Hamilton’s persuasive, meticulously crafted 1954 World War Two saga of British prisoner-of-war existence in the German Medieval castle of Colditz is based on the book by Pat Reid.

It effectively mixes tense action thrills, deft character-driven comedy and intense personal-conflict drama with accurate-seeming details of the mundane routine of incarceration, all done in a self-consciously old-fashioned British style.

John Mills is outstanding as the author Major Pat Reid, who synchronises all the escape plans from the supposedly escape-proof Colditz, and a creepy-seeming Eric Portman does well as the British commander, Colonel Richmond.

Also in the cast are Christopher Rhodes, Lionel Jeffries, Bryan Forbes, Ian Carmichael, Richard Wattis, Frederick Valk, Anton Diffring, Eugene Deckers, Theodore Bikel, David Yates, Denis Shaw, Carl Duering, Ludwig Lawinski, Keith Pyott, Rudolf Offenbach, Arthur Butcher, Guido Lorraine, Witold Sikorski, A Blichewicz, B Dolinski, Keith Pyott, Terence Brook, Guy Deghy, Arthur Mullard, Peter Myers and Peter Swanwick.

It runs 98 minutes, is released by British Lion, is written by Guy Hamilton, Ivan Foxwell and William Douglas-Home, is shot in black and white by Gordon Dines, is produced by Ivan Foxwell, is scored by Francis Chagrin, and designed by Alex Vetchinsky.

In 1972-74 there was also a famous hit BBC TV series of the story, Colditz, with David McCallum and Robert Wagner. And it was remade for TV in 2005 as Colditz, with Damian Lewis, Tom Hardy, Laurence Fox and James Fox.

John Mills recalled: ‘’I’d had a few commercial flops and when [producer] Ivan Foxwell offered me the part he said he could only pay me half of my usual salary. I swallowed my pride and accepted. The film was a big hit and I was back in favour again.’

Guy Hamilton died on 20 April 2016, aged 93. He directed four James Bond movies: Goldfinger (1964), Diamonds Are Forever (1971), Live and Let Die (1973) and The Man with the Golden Gun (1974).

Top 10 wartime escape movies

1. The Great Escape (1963)
2. Escape to Victory [Victory] (1981)
3. Von Ryan’s Express **** (1965)
4. Schindler’s List (1995)
5. The Pianist (2001)
6. The Wooden Horse (1950)
7. Dunkirk (1958)
8. The Colditz Story (1954)
9. The One that Got Away (1957)
10. The Zookeeper’s Wife (2017)

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5789

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