THE COLDITZ STORY (1955)

THE FILM

FILM DIRECTOR: Guy Hamilton

SCREENWRITER: Guy Hamilton, Ivan Foxwell FILM STARS: John Mills, Eric Portman , Frederick Valk, Denis Shaw, Lionel Jeffries, Christopher Rhodes, Richard Wattis, Ian Carmichael , Bryan Forbes, Theodore Bikel, Eugene Deckers, Anton Diffring, Guido Lorraine, Witold Sikorski

COUNTRY: England

THIS BOOK

AUTHOR: P.R. Reid

TYPE: Memoir

PUBLISHER: Hodder

THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1962

COUNTRY: Great Britain

COVER: Paperback

THE ORIGINAL BOOK

ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above

YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1952

ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title

NOTES

GENRE: War

WORDS: There were many dreary English “how we won the war” films made in the 1950s. They were the bread and butter of the English film industry at the time, almost (some charming comedies and the “Doctor” films did a lot of the heavy lifting also). They served the same function as westerns in the US … to entertain people with action and adventure within familiar boundaries and accepted mythologies.

However, unlike the western the English war movie boundaries of the 50s were never really pushed into dark or different areas. They stuck to a formula whether the film was about a victory, or a (victory in) defeat.

The films were, inevitably, in black and white (both visually and philosophically), with the English military up against a mightier enemy (the Germans) but with English fortitude seeing the day through.

Perhaps that’s how the English “won” the war … though I suspect American dollars and boots on the ground probably didn’t hurt, nor did the fact that Nazi Germany was under attack from all sides.

The films are largely “us” alone against “them”.

A couple of partisans here, a saboteur there but, generally, other allied combatants, are rarely acknowledged in those films. I get it – people don’t want to see films about outright defeats but they also don’t want to see films about other people’s victories.

And whereas the Americans tended to make “fictional” films about characters in real life war events, the English tended to make films about events where the characters were incidental. There is more “fiction” in American war films of the period but, as a result, more emotion, drama and philosophical questions being asked. The English films played like docudramas.

Every English military event, preferably a victory, was made into a film … Sink The Bismark (1960) (about the sinking of the German battleship Bismark), The Battle of the River Plate (1956) about the pursuit of the German battleship Graf Spee), Malta Story (1953) (the siege of Malta), Dunkirk (1958) (the retreat from Dunkirk), The Dam Busters (1955) (the bombing by the dam busters), Gift Horse (1952) (on the he St Nazaire Raid), The Cockleshell Heroes (1955) (on British Royal Marines Commandos attack on Germans cargo shipping, Operation Frankton), Ill Met by Moonlight (1957) (the Abduction of German General Kreipe).

You get the picture.

They were very different films to the American films which had events as backgrounds to explore issues of:

Class (From Here to Eternity (1953)), duty and personal responsibility in command (Flying Leathernecks (1951), Operation Pacific (1951), Away All Boats (1956)), mental health (The Caine Mutiny (1954)), cowardice and nepotism (Attack! (1956)), gender and societal norms (Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957)), race (Kings Go Forth (1958)), war itself (The Young Lions (1958), Mister Roberts (1955)).

Likewise, the British prisoner of war films like this film and The Wooden Horse (1950), Danger Within (1959), The Password Is Courage (1962) etc tended to be based on real events and about “escaping’ whereas an American variation like Stalag 17 (1953) was wholly fictitious and had little to do with the escape.

Because the films had to stick to the facts they were constrained. Don’t get me wrong they could be exciting within those parameters, but they were rarely surprising.

It was only in the late 1950s with The Bridge of the River Kwai (1957) that the English war film started to look beyond its modest ambitions and budgets. Perhaps it was because of the American money (Columbia studios financed “Bridge” and many other English films of the late 50s and early 60s) demanded story and spectacle which was not parochial and provincial.

The Colditz Story is based on the 1952 memoir written by Pat Reid, a British army officer who was imprisoned in Oflag IV-C, Colditz Castle, in Germany during the Second World War and who was the Escape Officer for British POWs within the castle and one of the few to escape. After the war Reid was a diplomat and administrator before eventually returning to his prewar career in civil engineering. He also wrote other books including another on his Colditz experience (The Latter Days (1953) republished as Latter Days at Colditz, and as Men of Colditz).

Unless you are particularly interested in the story there is no need to read the book. It reads as anecdotal history and is an easy read.

The film has its merits (good photography, no silly subplots) but it is also one of those Boys Own adventure stories you would read in Commando comics as a kid.

It acknowledges the contribution of other allies but in so doing suffers all the English ethnic stereotypes – the plucky Brits, the disorganised French, the stoic Dutch, the enthusiastic Poles, the stupid or nasty Germans with humour at their expense (you could mistake some of it for an episode of Hogan’s Heroes).

Guy Hamilton directs ((also co-writer))and he knew how to balance big action in war (Battle of Britain (1969), Force 10 from Navarone (1978)) with action The Best of Enemies (1961 ), Funeral in Berlin (1966) and four Bond films (Goldfinger (1964), Diamonds Are Forever (1971), Live and Let Die (1973), The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)).

The cast is good (with all the usual actors playing the usual Germans and other ethnicities) and anything with John Mills is worth watching but, ultimately, it is a little dull and seems like a “how to” lesson.

The film was the fourth most popular film at the British box office in 1955, however the film performed poorly at the US box office, like most British war movies of the time (it’s too parochial).

I also note as an aside, that this film like most English WW2 films of the time are set in the European or North African theatres of war … the English had little to sing about in the pacific war.

TRIVIA

• The films opening credits: “Every incident in the film you are about to see is true. With the exception of the author, Major P.R.Reid,M.B.E.,M.C., who acted as technical adviser on the film, all names have been changed and certain events have been related out of their historical context. These and only these liberties have been taken with . . . .”
• A 1972 TV series with David McCallum and Robert Wagner was based on Reid’s books (and was all the rage for kids when I was a kid) and a 1973 board game followed. It is a boardgame I have played …and a very convoluted one).

LINKS

TRAILER