Main Cast: Hardy Kruger, Colin Gordon, Michael Goodliffe, Terry Alexander, Jack Gwillim
Release Year: 1957
Country: US/UK
Run Time: 111 minutes
Plot
The title character in this fact-based POW drama is Franz von Werra, played by Hardy Kruger. Shot down early in the war, Luftwaffe pilot von Werra is incarcerated in an English prison camp. He refuses to submit to camp routine, insisting that he's on the brink of escaping. After two failed attempts, von Werra is transferred to a camp in Montreal. If you want to know what happens next, take a squint at the title. If you want to know how he does it and why he gets away with it, catch the film. One That Got Away was based on a novel by Kendal Burt and James Leasor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Andrew Faulds - Lt. Grizedale; Julian Somers - Booking Clerk; Alec McCowen - Duty Officer Hucknall; Harry Lockhart - German Prisoner; Robert Crewdson - German Prisoner; George Mikell - German Prisoner; George Roubicek - German Prisoner; John Van Eyssen - German Prisoner; Frederick Jaeger - German Prisoner; Richard Marner - German Prisoner; Paul Hansard - German Prisoner; Alec Gordon; Glyn Houston; Stratford Johns
Credit
Edward Carrick - Art Director, Roy Ward Baker - Director, Sidney Hayers - Editor, Dr. Hubert Clifford - Composer (Music Score), Dr. Hubert Clifford - Musical Direction/Supervision, Eric Cross - Cinematographer, Julian Wintle - Producer, David Deutsch - Producer, Earl St. John - Producer, Howard Clewes - Screenwriter, Kendal Burt - Book Author, James Leasor - Book Author
Franz von Werra (Hardy Krüger) is shot down during the Battle of Britain, and captured soon afterwards. Sent to a POW camp (based on the Hayes Conference Centre) in the north of England, he makes a number of escape attempts, on one occasion getting as far as the cockpit of an aircraft he was trying to steal while passing himself off as a Dutch pilot on a secret mission. He is then sent to Canada, where he escapes from a heavily guarded train. Walking overland and crossing a frozen river, he manages to enter the United States, which at that time was still neutral, and claim asylum.
Aftermath
Despite the attempts of the Canadian government to get the U.S. to return him, Von Werra was allowed to return to Germany, the only German POW to do so.
Von Werra did not survive the war. On a routine flight his plane crashed into the sea north of Vlissingen in the Netherlands, probably due to engine failure. Neither Von Werra's body nor the aircraft were found.
