Leofwine_draca THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY (not to be confused with the low-rent Chris Ryan Gulf War story) is a black and white British wartime thriller with an unusual premise: the hero is a German captured by the British and determined to escape from them at all costs. The film has the hook of being a true story and turns out to be unmissable viewing.I admire the guts of the guys at Rank to make this film in the first place; they must have questioned their audience's willingness to respond to and even sympathise with one of the German 'bad guys' a mere twelve years after the end of WW2. To his credit, Hardy Kruger doesn't go out of his way to make his lead character likable; however, he is driven and polite, refusing to resort to violence in his bid for freedom, and that's what makes him such a great character.In addition, THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY has one of those excellent thriller set-ups in which every moment of the film is devoted to the thrills and suspense; no time for padding here. Roy Ward Baker contributes some of his finest directorial work, and the supporting cast of Michael Goodliffe, Terence Alexander, John Van Eyssen (DRACULA) and even 'ALLO 'ALLO's Richard Marner add to the overall experience. In fact, THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY is something of a minor classic...

ianlouisiana Luftwaffe PoWs are given a contemptuous reality check by a British officer after an outburst of "Seig Heils" has greeted the news of an imminent departure to Canada.For all their arrogance they are still captives and the expected Nazi invasion of England has not materialised. Oberleutnant Franz von Werra (Herr H.Kruger - himself a former Nazi) has already tried to escape on two occasions and he sees this transfer as a golden opportunity to reach a neutral United States and eventually return to Germany to continue his personal war."The one that got away" tells the story of this brave,determined and resourceful pilot who eventually did manage to make a "Home Run" only to be killed in action a few months later,but not before supplying his superiors with vital information about the methods of British Military Intelligence. By any reasonable standard Oberleutnant von Werra was an heroic figure,but,as portrayed by Herr Kruger he was not overconcerned with displays of false modesty nor overburdened with conscience where making false claims of aerial victories.Nevertheless Kruger succeeds in making von Werra a figure one could sympathise with if not actually like. Set mainly in the Lake District and the more remote parts of the midlands,the movie shows an England struggling to sustain "total war" single-handedly,bombed incessantly by the Luftwaffe in the prelude to invasion and desperately depending on "The Few" to defend it whilst most of its young men were fighting for their lives in Northern France. The soldiers left behind to guard the PoW camps were often the old,the lame and the halt,only the remoteness of their locations kept a mass exodus at bay. The British are generally shown as rather a smug lot,complacent rather than over confident of victory,as if no other result were thinkable. Very fortunately for them Japan would eventually play into America's hands and from the "Day of Infamy" onwards the top ranks in the German High Command realised the inevitability of the final outcome. But in the heady days of 1940,the ill-starred von Werra and his colleagues looked forward to marching down Pall Mall in a Victory Parade that might well have presaged the beginning of the "Thousand Year Reich". But,tenacious and bloody-minded,the Brits hung on and history took its course. One suspects that von Werra,as his plane span out of control into the sea,might have wished he had seen the war out in the safety of a PoW camp in Canada - but - on the other hand,the brave and dedicated warrior that he was,he might have been content to have died for his Fatherland.What a terrible waste it all was.

Gordon-11 This film is about a German prisoner of war in the World War II, who strives to escape back to Germany.Despite being made fifty years ago, "The One That Got Away" is very watchable and suspenseful even in modern day standards. The plot is well written, despite giving away what happens in the movie title, it is still thrilling and suspenseful throughout the movie. I admire Franz's determination and courage to escape, and I am surprised by the other prisoners of war's cooperation in his plans even though they are not escaping. Humanity through harsh times is well depicted in here, touching one's soul and inspiring others to treasure life.

Liedzeit I was lucky to find a DVD of this film. In my memory the film was excellent and seeing it again after 30 years or so I was not disappointed. As an escape film it works beautifully. Someone tries - and in the end succeeds, as the title suggests - to escape from prison camp. What makes this film special is that it is a German who is portrayed as the hero. As a child it was the first time that I ever saw a war movie with a Good German in it (or at the very least not a bad and/or stupid one). Hardy Krüger was of course brilliant and he later did a similar job in Flight of the Phoenix where he played an arrogant but in the end sympathetic German. And the film does not even make the soldier a secret enemy of the Nazi regime. He is portrayed as a loyal German soldier who sees it as his duty to escape and to continue fighting the allies. For me to see that English film makers where able to make a film like this made me very optimistic. They avoid using clichés. And funny enough, they confirm the cliché about the English, namely that they are fair and good sportsmen, because that's what we have here. A game where the object is to escape from prison. A German wins and this is what we see. Thank you.