The Colditz Story (1955)

★ 6.8 1h 34m IMDb

Drama War

The Germans believed that no man could escape from Colditz Castle, set as it was in the heart of the Reich, 400 miles from any neutral frontier. This film, based on Pat Reid's epic novel, tells the story of how the British, French, Dutch and Polish prisoners of war who were incarcerated in Colditz set out to prove their captors wrong.

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Cast

John Mills as Pat Reid Died 2005 · The Watts Naval Training College, North Elmham, Norfolk, England, UK Sir John Mills, CBE (born Lewis Ernest Watts Mills; 22 February 1908 – 23 April 2005) was an English actor who appeared in more than 120 films in a career spanning seven decades. On screen, he often p...

Eric Portman as Colonel Richmond Died 1969 · Halifax, Yorkshire Eric Portman (13 July 1901, Akroydon, Halifax, West Riding of Yorkshire - 7 December 1969, St Veep, Cornwall) was a distinguished English stage and film actor. He is probably best remembered for his r...

Frederick Valk as Kommandant Died 1956 · Hamburg, Germany Frederick Valk was a German-born Jewish stage and screen actor of Czech Jewish descent who fled to the United Kingdom in the late 1930s to escape Nazi persecution, and subsequently became a naturalise...

Denis Shaw as Priem Died 1971 · Dulwich, London, England, UK Douglas "Denis" Findlay Shaw (7 February 1921 – 28 February 1971) was a British character actor who specialized in portraying villains. Shaw was born in Dulwich on 7 February 1921. In the 1950s and 1...

Lionel Jeffries as Harry Tyler Died 2010 · Forest Hill, London, England, UK From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Lionel Charles Jeffries (10 June 1926 – 19 February 2010) was an English actor, screenwriter and film director. Description above from the Wikipedia article Lio...

Director Guy Hamilton

Cast John Mills, Eric Portman, Frederick Valk, Denis Shaw, Lionel Jeffries, Christopher Rhodes, Richard Wattis, Ian Carmichael, Bryan Forbes, Theodore Bikel

John Chard 8/10 Nov 14, 2015

Escape from Colditz Castle.

Guy Hamilton directs and co-adapts the screenplay with Ivan Foxwell from the P.R. Reid novel of the same name. A story based on actual facts, it stars John Mills, Lionel Jeffries, Bryan Forbes, Anton Diffring, Richard Wattis, Ian Carmichael and Eric Portman. Music is by Francis Chagrin and cinematography by Gordon Dines.

The story essentially follows the repeated escape attempts by allied prisoners held at Colditz Castle. It shows the hard luck stories, the bonds that are formed between the men, the regime and day to day life they lived by, and of course it builds to the historical finale.

It's structured with great balance by the makers, who manage to wring out a number of tense sequences whilst also ensuring that humour shines brightly. It gives the pic the requisite feel of stiff upper lippery, imbuing the characters with justifiable heroism in the face of being a POW, which all told plays as inspirational stuff.

Acted with aplomb by a notable cast, this delightful pic harks back to a a grand time of British film making, while simultaneously doffing its cap towards the real life allied soldiers who wound up in war prison establishments. 8/10

CinemaSerf 7/10 Nov 14, 2022

This film does rather play to the stereotypes a bit - the plucky Brits; disorganised French; stoic Dutch and generally enthusiastic Poles - and as such should be treated more as a piece of fact-based entertainment rather than some sort of documentary-style analysis. It does still, however, demonstrate clearly what must have been the feelings of despair and frustration when the gates are heard to close and the prisoners' freedom lies tantalisingly but inaccessibly close. Eric Portman and Lionel Jeffries steal this for me (I always found John Mills just a touch too arrogant and superior). Once the castle is up to full strength and the inmates start to collaborate, this become an excellent showcase for what can be done when there is a will. There is plenty of humour too - the "croque mort" joke still makes me laugh even now.