Prichards12345 They escape! Well, there wouldn't be a film if they didn't, I suppose. Apparently Colditz, the supposedly inescapable POW camp, suffered about 340 escape attempts, which sounds like something out of Monty Python and probably inspired Michael Palin and Terry Jones' Ripping Yarns episode Escape from Stalag Luft 112b.John Mills plays Major P.R. Reid, who was one of the first POWs to successfully escape, and this film is based on his book that details the numerous attempts to do a runner. The story actually has some tragic moments but is played for humour as much as drama - the "Appell" scene where the Germans routinely offer special privileges to anyone who will work for the Reich economy has a hilarious gag when a French Officer volunteers. I won't spoil it. Actually the French staged the most successful number of escapes, us Brits managing 14.When I was a kid I played Escape From Coldtiz an awful lot - great fun, and I'm getting the republished board game for x-mas this year again! It's nice to be reminded occasionally of the astonishing bravery shown by the POWS in this remarkable story. And yep, it's a British film with Nazis so Anton Diffring is in it! He must have spent half his career in similar roles! Ironically Diffring was an ardent anti Nazi during war, something which took some bravery. Very good film, then. Lips very much stiff-upper!

deschreiber I hate to rain on the parade of the people here who think this film is so great, but I had to force myself to watch it until the end. It obviously comes from a time in British history when the attitude was "Good show, British boys. You stuck it out in the German POW camps and kept the Jerries busy with your escape attempts, and we're proud of you chaps." That kind of gung-ho, congratulatory feeling is everywhere in the movie. Unfortunately, it turns the story into something bordering on the farcical. The Germans are portrayed as hapless dupes, toothless blusterers, not quite comical but easily fooled and quite incapable of backing up their threats. They may begin by saying that any attempt at escape will be met with death, but none of that seems to ever happen, and when an escape attempt is broken up or an escapee is returned, nobody seems the worse for wear. When two German shepherd dogs jump on an escapee emerging from a tunnel, they don't bite. It's all a game for the prisoners, without any real danger, pretty much on the level of schoolboy pranks. Life in Colditz is cheery, without any privations that we can see. It looks like a better place to be than in training camp back in Britain, where discipline was tough and your day was gruelling.The prisoners seem to have a very free hand in the castle, moving about almost at will. How did they manage to cut through all those steel bars that they removed so easily from a window? How did they put together several dozen German uniforms, good enough to fool the sentries the escapees walked past? How did they speak such accent-free German that no one noticed? The film claims that everything portrayed is factual, but that claim is difficult to believe.There is no narrative. The story, such as it is, consists of one escape attempt after another, none of them particularly inventive. Nothing joins them together into a cohesive plot.I suppose we're expected to forgive crass nationalism in war movies. The Americans always save the day in American films, the British show superior character in British films. For me, this kind of thing spoils a movie. The Colditz story has it in spades. Brits always respond to Germans with a cheekiness that I think in real life would have earned them a rifle butt to the head. And they make arrogant, contemptuous comments about other prisoners, French, Polish, or Belgian. That dissolved most of the sympathy I might have felt for them. Yet, when the credits roll at the end, we see that these others were in fact more successful than the British in their escapes.I didn't like this movie at all.

MartinHafer This film is named after an actual German prison camp designated for incorrigible prisoners of war--those who had already attempted escapes from other camps. And, not surprisingly, the multinational inmates spend most of their time plotting to escape. And, by the end of the film, some actually make it. In fact, the statistics on actual escapes is pretty impressive. What surprised me about all this is that the Germans were actually VERY forbearing and didn't just shoot the prisoners because of this--and the difference between these camps and the death camps is striking.It's odd. Although "The Colditz Story" is based on a true account of prisoners escaping from this German prison camp--yet I never was bowled over by the film. I must admit that normally my biggest complaint about historical films is their inaccuracy--and this one sticks pretty close to the facts--yet I didn't really love the movie. I am not saying it's bad--the acting is very good. But I just didn't get into this film as much as some of the fictional WWII British films like "In Which We Serve" or "The Life of Colonel Blimp". It is still well worth seeing.

Neil Doyle THE COLDITZ STORY takes artistic license with facts and the sequence of events, as noted in the foreword, but manages to hold interest when it concentrates on the fortunes of its chief escape officer, JOHN MILLS, and his various experiences with the prisoners and their national rivalries with each other.Aside from some stereotyped Nazi humor at the expense of stupid guards and the usual assortment of prisoners, the story maintains humor and suspense in equal measure as the men try to tunnel their way to freedom while under the scrutiny of their German captors. Characters are not deeply explored, but ERIC PORTMAN does a standout job as Colonel Richmond and JOHN MILLS is excellent as the real-life escape prisoner Pat Reid.BRYAN FORBES, IAN CARMICHAEL and LIONEL JEFFRIES are fine in support. Unfortunately, ANTON DIFFRING has little to do as officer Fischer nor does THEODORE BIKEL as one of the POWs.As escape films go, this POW film is taut with suspense toward the last escape try but a bit flabby in the telling for the most part. Other such films have managed to cover the same territory with more excitement and suspense.You might call it a low-key story based on true incidents given a rather routine treatment despite some fine performances.