The One That Got Away

During WWII, a German flier is captured in England, but makes numerous attempts to escape. While there are exciting moments, the narrative is too episodic to sustain interest. Instead of a well-planned and executed escape a la "The Great Escape," it's a series of escapes attempted from different venues. None of the escape sequences are clever in plan or execution. Although this is based on a true story, it is hard to believe that the British would be so gullible and so easily fooled by the German POW. The filmmakers apparently didn't care about suspense, as the title gives away the ending. This was Kruger's first starring role in an English language film, and he does OK.

A thoroughly entertaining (and true!) feature about a World War II German prisoner-of-war with a knack for escaping his British captors, The One That Got Away stars Hardy Kruger as Franz von Werra, a Luftwaffe officer shot down during the Battle of Britain. Unwilling to spend the next few years peeling potatoes or cracking rocks, von Werra immediately began plotting his return to Germany, and after a few misfires miraculously pulled off the feat after taking a detour to a remote POW camp in Canada. The film defies convention by actually allowing the Bad Guy to outfox the Good Guys and contrasts neatly with more traditional tales of Stalag-bound heroism such as The Colditz Story (1955) and even The Great Escape (1963). It also offered Kruger the opportunity to deliver the performance of a lifetime, highlighted by the final St. Lawrence Seaway sequence in which he brings a lumbering, Frankenstein's Monster demeanour to his character. Additionally, the film benefits immensely from tremendous location footage shot during the dead of winter, as well as the very wise decision to almost entirely fore go incidental music, which lends the film additional realism and allows the viewer to concentrate on the action at hand without being manipulated by the score. Quite simply, this is an excellent film that will stick with you.

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.

The One that Got Away (1957) Not quite documentary in form, this is still a true life story told in a dry and sometimes rather funny British way about the one known P.O.W. who escaped from the British and returned to Germany in WWII. They tell you this in the opening titles, so in a way you know the whole plot. And this changes the way you look at it all, wondering, okay, now how is he going to escape. And then he does. Yes. But it's how it happens, and the incredible chutzpah and cleverness that let it follow through. It's the kind of part Brad Pitt would play, with a terrible German accent of course, but this one is 1957 and Hardy Kruger, who is German (he's still alive in his 80s), is played with dash and compassion. I liked him despite the ingrained sentiment we have (here in the U.S. at least) that Nazis in the movies are terrible people. This is Kruger's first significant film role, and he actually served in the German army as a teenager in the war. His character is so likable and cunning, you gradually come to admire and almost root for him, even though the British and later the Canadians are all doing a pretty decent job overall, however lax it might seem to us. This is set in 1940, and the U.S. isn't yet in the war and so represents neutral territory even for a Nazi (always a weird thing to swallow in retrospect) and this plays a role in the latter half the movie. The drawback of the film is its inevitability. And its linear quality, following the increasingly outrageous and difficult escape. But it's smartly done, with understatement, and if you like the bravery and adventure of a man on his own against the odds, this might just resonate. And of course WWII buffs will get it at least from the periphery. It's got some good glimpses of planes and flying, and a decent sense of life on the ground in this period.

'The One That Got Away' is the story of the only German to escape allied captivity. That much is evident from the title, but the main interest for me is the accurate portrayal of the British interrogation centres for enemy offices in, and around, London. Even in the 1950's when this film was made, much of this side of wartime intelligence work was concealed. I like the film- but I admit I always enjoy POW films- but I question the way we are manipulated to think of Von Werra as 'a good German'. It was necessary as we were rehabilitating West Germnay into a democratic Europe and NATO at the time the film was released, however, the the scriptwriter has erased most references to Nazi Germany, which obviously helped form the central character's personality and belief system. To say that Von Werra believed in nothing but himself is a cop-out. And of course, as a historian, I suspect the whole premise of 'The One...' surely others escaped, especially from temporary 'cages' in battle zones?

About forty years after The One That Got Away came out, another film involving the escape of a German national from Allied hands with another fair haired lead became my favorite film with Brad Pitt. Seven Years in Tibet was done with a much larger budget, but involves the same test of human endurance and escape that Hardy Kruger goes through here. Probably for the first time in British cinema a German during World War II was made a three dimensional human being. We don't get any hint of Kruger's politics, even so I think it would have been irrelevant to the story. This incident in fact is a true one, taking place in 1940 during the first days of the Luftwaffe attacks on the United Kingdom. Kruger is determined to get back to the fight at all costs. He proves a charismatic and inspirational leader to his comrades. Kruger makes two attempts to escape while in British custody, but it's only over in Canada where he's being sent to a prison near Lake Superior that he makes his most daring try. Jumping from a train taking him to internment, he walks across to America. This is where I can appreciate the film the most. The last twenty minutes of the film are almost without dialog as Kruger is alone. What he does is reach the St. Lawrence River and it being in the middle of winter finds it frozen over. Seeing that he walks over and makes it to upstate New York. Living as I do on one of the Great Lakes I can appreciate what that entails more than others. I've lived through eleven winters in Buffalo by now and some of them have been pretty bad. Lake Erie does in fact freeze over as does the St. Lawrence. I certainly wouldn't want to try to walk across Lake Erie even if I was a 20 something as Kruger is in The One That Got Away. No matter what you feel about the politics of World War II, you've got to admire this man's grit and determination. Hardy Kruger's impressive performance puts that over for you. By all means see this film when TCM has it on again.

POW escape movies form almost a genre of their own and there were quite a few released in the late 1950s and in the 1960s. They mostly dealt with Allied POWs, naturally, and the drama was partly masked by expression of camaraderie and rough humor. This one, in simple black and white, has little of that. It's about Franz von Werra (Hardy Kruger), a German pilot who managed to escape from the grasp of the UK after his BF 109 was shot down in England in 1940. In his first escape attempt, Kruger simply rolls over a stone wall and hides from his guards during an exercise period. He drives himself to exhaustion and is recaptured, half-dead, during a freezing downpour. In his second attempt, he tunnels out of a prison camp and makes his way to a British training airfield, posing as a downed Dutch aviator. He bluffs his way into the cockpit of a British Hurricane and is about to take off before being prevented at the last minute at gunpoint. Kruger is then sent to Canada where he throws himself unobserved out the window of a speeding train into a very effectively portrayed Canadian winter. He manages to make his way to the St. Lawrence River, mostly frozen, steals a boat to cross the open section of the river, and collapses on American soil -- America being a neutral country at the time. Though the movie is over, Kruger is not yet finished and he crosses the border into Mexico, thence to South America where he finagles his way back to Germany. He crashes into the sea during a patrol and is never seen again. The role of Franz von Werra stretches Kruger's acting talents to the limits. He must scheme, impersonate others, and suffer. And he does much of it in too obvious a fashion. The most difficult scenes involve his imposture as a Dutch pilot, making up details of his identity and experiences to suit his changing circumstances. He must be happy-go-lucky in a British manner. Tut tut, old boy. Spot of trouble with the old Wellington, don't you know. The British he meets along the way, both civilian and military, mostly buy his story -- but you and I wouldn't. The most amusing scenes have Kruger demonstrating determination in the face of effusively polite RAF interrogators. The most gripping show Kruger crossing the miles-wide St. Lawrence, half frozen, pushing and pulling his stolen boat up and down heaps of ice, his body threatened with momentary implosion. It's a positive relief when he staggers into Ogdensberg. The movie has an unexpected tension. Not just because of the story itself but because this is a British movie made only eleven or twelve years after the war, and it has a likable, if still wildly nationalistic, German protagonist. Britain suffered abominably during the war. When this was released, some neighborhoods in the docks were still burned out shells left over from the Blitz, and they'd remain that way for a couple more years. The war cost England a great deal in terms of lives and money, so in a sense this is a courageous movie. Twelve years between lethal enmity and the disinterest on display in this film. Should there be a statute of limitations on international hatreds? It's only a rhetorical question but it's raised by the nature of this film.

Despite the title, I found myself strangely glued to this movie. However, having seen a lot of the more realistic (i.e. horrific) depictions of WWII lately, including The Pianist, I can't really relate to those who found themselves sympathetic to the German officer's efforts to escape. I kept wanting to see the guy get shot, or take a wrong turn and freeze in the Canadian tundra. Along with the more dramatised (and less geographically realistic) "49th Parallel", "The One That Got Away" might serve as a good reminder for all those with an "Ambrosian" view of America's role in WWII. It may come as a surprise to many to see stranded Nazi soldiers trying desperately to reach the sanctuary offered by asylum in the neutral United States, almost two years into the war. It's too bad this movie isn't more widely seen or available. Looks like it's a hit in Germany though -- seems only Amazon.de carries it.

What a great little film this is, an quite unique. Hardy Kruger is wonderful in this role (even better than he was in Flight of the Phoenix)and the story is unusual and fast paced. The best part is this is a *true* story too so it's very intriguing to know this von Werra guy was really in the German army...he was hardly a conformist like we always think "Nazi" soldiers would be.

A member of the Luftwaffe crashes and is captured in England, but is determined to get away. How can you use the word "spoiler" with a title like this (a reference to the fact that the British only lost one prisoner of war during World War II - why I'll return to), so this a film about "how" rather than "if." What a solid little film this is: Intriguing, well acted and good down-to-earth action. Star - Hardy Kruger - is not actually German, but Dutch and to make it even more confusing that he claims to be Dutch in the movie proper! No real fireworks, but this a film that is so well controlled and logical. The mission is simple (in telling not doing), but it is a good ride with plenty of ups and downs along the road. While only shot on a modest budget and in black and white there is enough going on to get you hooked until the end. Entertainment all the way. One of the reasons that only one prisoner escaped from British prisoner of war camps is the German accent. No matter how much they tried no German can speak British English and the top pilots were treated so well that they didn't really want to go back! I have not only seen the film, but I also read the book which is just as good. Doubt it is still in print though, but worth picking up at your second hand book store.