Main Cast: Leo Genn, David Tomlinson, Anthony Steel, David Greene, Peter Burton
Release Year: 1950
Country: UK
Run Time: 98 minutes
Plot
Based on a true story (believe it or don't!), The Wooden Horse is set in a wartime German prison camp. It being the duty for every British POW to attempt escape, internees Leo Genn, David Tomlinson and Anthony Steel hit upon a daring scheme. Building an outsized, boxlike vaulting horse, purportedly for exercise purposes, the trio begin digging a tunnel beneath the horse-right under the noses of their German captors. As one of the first of the British "prison camp getaway" genre, The Wooden Horse establishes many of the form's cliches, including the rule-bound German soldiers whose grasp of the obvious is appalling. Eric Williams adapted the screenplay from his novel The Tunnel Escape. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
While it lacks the tension and visceral excitement of later "camp escape movies" like The Great Escape, The Wooden Horse has a certain distinct character that makes it stand out from other films in the genre. The very "stiff upper lip" style may strike those looking for out-and-out action as a bit odd, but it actually adds greatly to the particular flavor of this fine film. And while, like most films of this type, it sugarcoats the brutality of the POW camps, it doesn't make it into a Hogan's Heroes-type laughfest. Eric Williams' screenplay is taut, and features a nice underplayed tone to it that in the end heightens its dramatic situations by refusing to belabor them. The basic premise of the horse as the distraction which enables the escape seems so unbelievable, but its basis in reality adds another layer to the movie. Jack Lee's direction is quite but effective, as are the finely wrought characterizations turned in by Leo Genn, David Tomlinson and Anthony Steel. Throw in some dramatically effective lensing by C.M. Pennington-Richards, and the result is a fine, rewarding real-life yarn. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Patrick Waddington - Senior British Officer; Michael Goodliffe - Robbie; Anthony Dawson - Pomfret; Bryan Forbes - Paul; Dan Cunningham - David; Jacques Brunius - Andre; Peter Finch - Australian in Hospital; Walter Gotell - The follower; Lis Lovert - Kamma; Meinhart Maur - Hotel proprietor; Hans Meyer - Charles; Franz Schafheitlin - Commandant; Russell Waters - "Wings" Cameron; Bill Travers; Philip Dale
Credit
Jack Lee - Director, John Seabourne - Editor, Peter Seabourne - Editor, Clifton Parker - Composer (Music Score), Muir Mathieson - Musical Direction/Supervision, William Kellner - Production Designer, C.M. Pennington-Richards - Cinematographer, Ian Dalrymple - Producer, Eric Williams - Screenwriter, Eric Williams - Book Author
The Wooden Horse is a Second World War film based on true events in the German POW camp Stalag Luft III, which were also described in the book of the same name by Eric Williams, who also wrote the screenplay.[1] Actors starring include Leo Genn, Anthony Steel and David Tomlinson. The 'Wooden Horse' plan itself was actually conceived and entirely thought through by Williams and Michael Codner in equal measures. In Oliver Philpot's later book The Stolen Journey the author made it clear that he initially thought the plan was "crackers", telling its inventors "I give it a couple of days!".[2] Nevertheless, Philpot helped with the sand dispersal, and later with the actual digging - at which point he was invited to take part in the escape.
The actor Peter Butterworth, who appeared in many of the Carry On films, was one of the vaulters in the real-life 'Wooden Horse' escape. He applied for a role in the subsequent movie but didn't get a part as he 'didn't look convincingly heroic and athletic enough'.
This true story is set in Stalag Luft III—the same POW camp where the real events depicted in the film The Great Escape took place—and involved Williams, Michael Codner and Oliver Philpot, all inmates of the camp.
The prisoners were faced with the problem of digging an escape tunnel despite the accommodation huts, within which the tunnel entrance could be concealed, being a considerable distance from the perimeter fence. They came up with an ingenious way of digging the tunnel with its entrance located in the middle of an open area relatively near the perimeter fence and using a vaulting horse (constructed largely from plywood from Canadian Red Cross parcels) to cover the entrance.
Each day they carried the horse out to the same spot, with a man hidden inside. The prisoners would then begin a gymnastic exercise using the vaulting horse, while the concealed man dug down below the horse. At the finish of the exercises the digger would place a wooden board, cut to fit the aperture, in the hole and fill in the top with dry dirt kept for the purpose - dirt taken from anywhere else in the tunnel might be wetter and hence give away the activities.
Eventually, as the tunnel lengthened, two men were hidden inside the horse while a larger group of men exercised, the two men continuing the tunnel digging. At the end of the day they would again conceal the tunnel entrance and hide inside the horse while it was carried back to their hut. They also had to devise a method of disposing of the earth coming out of the tunnel. For the final breakout Codner hid in the tunnel during an Appel, before three men were carried over in the horse: the third to replace the tunnel trap.
All three made it to neutral Sweden. Williams and Codner travelled together, whilst Philpot travelled alone. Philpot, posing as a Norwegianmargarine manufacturer and travelling by train via Danzig (now Gdansk), was the first to make it to neutral territory.
The film was shot in a low-key style, fairly soon after the war, with a limited budget and a cast including many amateur actors. It contributed to establishing the genre of British prisoner of war escape films. Some details from Williams's book were not used in the film, e.g. the escaped POWs discussing the possibility of visiting potentially neutral "whorehouses" in Germany. (The idea was abandoned because of fear that it might be a trap, not out of prudishness.)
