Fact-based, yet by-the-numbers WWII P.O.W. breakout story (THE SO-SO ESCAPE?), decent rather than pulse-pounding, ‘veddy-veddy’ stiff upper lip British and intended that way.* The gimmick’s in the title, a bespoke wooden ‘vaulting’ horse, built in the Stalag by officer-prisoners as a Trojan Horse able to hold three men inside. It's an A-frame structure hiding a tunnel digger who secretly burrows while incarcerated officers camouflage verboten activity with jumps & flips over the ‘horse.’ Ease boredom! Keep in shape! Finish the hole! All this still fresh in 1950, but for modern audiences the film only comes fully to life after three men (Leo Genn, Anthony Steel, David Tomlinson) clamber inside and are carried to a tunnel entrance hidden in plain sight. Only then does director Jack Lee* get the engine to turn over as we stick to Genn & Steel and watch them finesse their way thru German occupied cities trying to find the resistance and a passage to Sweden. Great locations and period detail backing the intriguingly uneven relationship growing between Genn’s helpless English-only superior officer and Steele’s indispensable multi-linguist. The ending’s a bit abrupt, but better too little than too much.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: *For fuller realizations of U.K. precursors to THE GREAT ESCAPE/’63 try THE COLDITZ STORY/’55 or THE PASSWORD IS COURAGE/’62. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2015/08/the-password-is-courage-1962.html
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *Writer/producer Ian Dalrymple had a freakishly strong year in 1938 earning two Oscar® noms for co-adaptations of G.B. Shaw’s PYGMALION and A.J. Cronin’s THE CITADEL. Then never nom’ed again.
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