robertguttman All of the characters in that well-known film, "The Great Escape", were commissioned officers. But what about the "other ranks"? How did they fare under German captivity? "The Password is Courage" attempts to shed some light on the lives of the enlisted prisoners-of-war. It follows the experiences of a British Sergeant-Major, bearing the unlikely name of Coward, who proves to be anything but. Played by Dirk Borgarde, Sgt.-Maj. Coward was among the many British troops who couldn't manage to make it out of France after the fall of Dunkirk in 1940. Although taken prisoner, he did not consider himself out of the war and. For the next four years he did everything he could to make keeping him a prisoner as inconvenient as possible for his captors.Some of the film seems far-fetched. However, it was based upon the exploits of a real man. In fact, there seems to be every reason to believe that Charlie Coward's real experiences were, if anything, even more extraordinary than those depicted in the movie. All in all, a top- drawer British "ripping yarn".

Enoch Sneed Although this film is supposedly based on the exploits of a real-life PoW, many of the events seem absurd. Apparently German prison-camp guards (played by British actors viz Cherman aggzents) were blundering fools who let their prisoners run rings around them whenever they tried to impose any discipline or punishment. Scenes such as the prisoners having their wrists bound, releasing themselves immediately and forming another queue to keep the guards at work all day rather fly in the face of legendary German efficiency, while the destruction of a lumber mill where petrol has been stored in open fire buckets descends into farce - didn't the guards have a sense of smell? The whole camp must have stunk of petrol fumes.Charley Coward seems able to move about the German camp system at will: organising an escape in one camp, being transferred to another to gather vital information, then sent back just in time to use this information in the escape.The film was all-too-obviously filmed in England with our old steam locomotives being wrecked for the cameras before going to be broken up. There is no attempt to make them look German, and most display their British Rail numbers and shed plates. Locations such as streets and railway stations are also very English.The one aspect of the film which does distinguish it from other PoW stories is a sense of physical realism. These prisoners look cold, ill-fed and ill-clothed after years of captivity. The tunnel scenes also have a feeling of claustrophobia which other movies ('The Great Escape' included) don't match.A film with points of interest but not enough to make it great.

James Miller The Password is Courage was made for International Refugee Year in 1959 and I seem to remember that was why Dirk Bogarde did the film. At the time I was living in East Anglia (as I do now) and reports of the filming were shown on the local news. There was also an interview with Charlie Coward, who was then a bookmaker.I think that a lot of the shaky locations were due to the limited budget, but I thoroughly enjoyed the film at the time. I also saw it at Liverpool University in the 60's, where it was put in its historical context and it stood up well.Lose the reasons for making it and the truth behind it and I suspect it could become a very poor film.

Dom_Of_The_Dead The film is so good, people think that it is like the great escape but it is the great escape which is like this. I think anyone who is a fan of War films should watch this its brilliant. The characters are superb and are funny as well,the parts with the escape are quite tense as your expecting them to be caught but if you have seen the Great Escape you will know that they all get caught in the end, as I have said not many people have seen this film because they think thats its ripped off The great escape but i still think its great and that anyone should check it out.****