The One That Got Away

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.

The film I would compare this to is The Colditz Story - like Colditz here we have real film-making.

Excellent performances all round - Hardy Kruger gives an outstanding performance as the boyishly confident von Werra - and the film is more than capably directed by Roy Ward Baker, who was an assistant director for Hitchcock and directed Marilyn Monroe in Don't Bother to Knock, and has an obvious eye for how to tell a good story.

The final 30 minutes are simply brilliant - if you haven't seen this (And even if you haven't seen it for a while) I would definitely recommend it - a human tale about effort and there are some classic stiff upper lip moments - all in all an excellent example of 50s movie making.

Highly recommended.

I occasionally found this movie in a DVD-sold-out for just 1,99 Euro - not a big risk to buy it, I thought. The movie is more or less unknown in Germany. Used to the British/American stereotype "The Ugly Nazi-Kraut"-productions of that area I was surprised to watch an movie which tells its story in a "neutral", adventurous and partly documentary-like style.

The film makes a difference between "Nazi" and "German soldier" (that is something many people from Britain or the US doesn't realise until today) - but of course one should not forget that many German soldiers were Nazis indeed. On the other hand, have all allied soldiers been "democratic heroes", fighters against racism or defenders of the Genevea Convention? Unfortunaltey not.

Other commentators have pointed out the pros and cons of the story so I'd like to write something more on the main actor Hardy Krüger and why he was the - so to say - ideal cast for the role of OLt. Fritz von Werra. Krüger himself belongs to a generation of "normal people" which more or less automatically became involved in the NS-system.

Hardy Krüger, born in Berlin 1928 (he is not Dutch!) grew up in Nazi-Germany. He seemed to be a typical boy of that area and surely he was intelligent and had outstandingly talents. 1941 he entered the Adolf-Hitler-School in Sonthofen, an elite school to be prepared for a leading position in the Nazi-regime.

1943/44, at the age of 15, he got his very first role in the UFA-production "Junge Adler" (Young Eagles), a NS-propaganda movie to inspire the youth for service in the Wehrmacht/Luftwaffe. During the making of this movie he met other UFA-actors who had helped Jews to escape and which opened him the eyes for the real intentions of the Nazi regime.

The end of the war 1945 Hardy Krüger survived as a soldier of the German mechanized infantry division "Brandenburg" and became POW of the Americans.

After the war Krüger started his career as an actor. In many films he represented the type of the charming, boyish and a little bit gruff young man. Later he was one of the very few German actors in the 60/70ies who worked in international productions, eg Un Taxi pour Tobrouk (Taxi to Tobruk with Lino Ventura), Hatari (with John Wayne), Flight of the Phoenix (w. James Steward), The Wild Geese, Barry Lyndon, A Bridge too Far and many more.

"The One that got away" is an outstanding World War Two adventure, based on the legendary exploits of Franz Von Werra - the only Luftwaffe Officer to escape from Allied captivity.

The film is now considered by many to be something of a minor classic, and it really isn't difficult to see why.

What particularly impressed me, was how Roy Ward Baker managed to create a genuine empathy between Von Werra (brilliantly portrayed here by Hardy Kruger) and the audience without resorting to cliché or racial stereotyping. Accepted, Von Werra may be representing one of the most vile regimes in history but you desperately want him to succeed, and it's real edge of the seat stuff to see if he can pull it off.

Head and shoulders above most other British war movies produced during this era, it just gets better and better every time I see it.

Had this film on VHS tape, and it's quality was so-so. Just bought the new MGM DVD of The One That Got Away and it's a great improvement. The opening scene of Von Werra crashing his Me-109 was re-created real well. The side marking are just like in the old war photos. One small blooper on the full size crash mock-up of the Me-109: Von Werra opens the canopy and gets out...on the right side. All Me-109 canopies were hinged on the right side, forcing the pilot to get out on the left side. On a historical note, the British wanted Von Werra back because he knew too much of the British methods of De-briefing German pilots, and that the British had broken the Luftwaffe fighter codes. On returning to Germany, with Von Werra's help, the Luftwaffe changed their codes, and set up and copied the same methods the British used for De-briefing shot down aircrews. A special camp was set up at Oberusel(just outside Frankfurt). All Allied aircrew were first sent there before they went to a air force POW camp.Von Werra died shortly after taking off, and flying over the North Sea. His wingman noted sudden smoke, and the plane went straight into the sea. There was a problem with the engines on the new Me-109G models, and a number of German pilots lost there lives as a result.