Mot de passe: courage

This rarely seen film was presented on cable recently. In a way, this is a story that has been done before. The best thing about it is how well the copy that was shown has been kept. The black and white photography of David Boulton still looks fresh. Andrew L. Stone adapted the material as well as directed it.

Most comments seem to be divided as to this version being a carbon copy of "The Great Escape", or "Hogan Heroes", in a way, it kept reminding us of "Stalag 17", which was the basis for the television series. While the movie is not up to the above mentioned models, it shows a more realistic approach to the insanity of war and the humor the British prisoners brought to their predicament.

One thing comes clear, Dirk Bogarde was brilliant in his portrayal of Sgt. Maj. Charles Coward, a man that played a game of cat and mouse with his Nazi captors. Coward seemed to know how to escape from the Germans, only to end up being taken prisoner again, and again. He even finds love with a partisan girl during the time of war!

The film was obviously shot is England. Evidently, this was a low budget effort, and it shows. Had it been a Hollywood production, it would have been blown out of proportion, but what we really enjoy from "The Password is Courage" is the bonding one watches among all the prisoners.

Of course this movie is being often compared to "The Great Escape". The similarities between the story lines are striking and some of the sequences are almost exactly the same. Only keep in mind that this movie was actually released a year before the great escape and this movie its story is based on the real events as lived by Charles Coward, who also served as a consultant for this movie, while "The Great Escape" is based on a totally other true story.

The movie is not an heavy confronting WW II POW movie. Instead its more of a comedy at times with almost slapstick like events and characters. It does make the movie a bit unbalanced and silly to watch but for me it also made the movie very light and easy. I'm not really sure though what for a movie this was supposed to be; A comedy or a drama. It's too incoherent and unbalanced to really say.

The movie is obviously low-budget but they used some creative solutions to hide this, in the movie.

The main character is really fascinating. He is being played by Dirk Bogarde, who of course is always a pleasure to see as the main lead, regardless of the role he plays. The rest of the characters are a bit muddled in and simply not interesting enough. The movie also changes often of setting with as a result that new characters get introduced and old ones abandoned.

All in all its not a terribly memorable movie and certainly no classic. The movie is too incoherent for that and the most of the character too uninteresting. Nevertheless this is a great movie to kill some time with. Nothing heavy, just some good old fashioned light-entertainment, with some good moments. Worth seeing if you get the chance.

7/10

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I saw the movie back in the early '60s and really enjoyed it. I thought, when Hogan's Heros came out that they had based the series on this movie. I really didn't even think of TGE. It is great entertainment and good for some laughs and clean fun. A rare thing these days in movies. The fact that it was based on a true story makes it even better as far as I am concerned. One of the other reviewers says, the film isn't quite sure whether it should be serious or not. Perhaps it is supposed to be both. The fact that it tells a true story is great and that some fun could be had in the midst of all the war surely helped pass the time and elevate the spirits of the prisoners. One of the other reviewers noted that "The village scenes are quite obviously filmed in England" with little attempt to disguise any telltale signs. Probably very true - I go to the cinema to be entertained not to be critical of the movie. As a non-Brit I wouldn't be able to know about the carriages etc so it would not affect my appreciation of the film as it did his. Since it was such a long time ago I would very much like to view the film again. If any one knows where I can get a copy of it please let me know. Thanks. kansaskat33@yahoo.com

Not just very much like The Great Escape - both films shared prisoners using the same techniques for obtaining materials, tunneling, disposal of dirt from the tunnel, hiding the tunnel entrance under stoves & the same slight issue with the tunnel exit.

I'd not seen this Borgarde film before TCM aired it, so it was startling how many plot similarities it shared with it's much more well known compatriot - I understand that both were in production around the same time (though Courage came out first), so neither were remakes of the other, but whether both referenced the same source material (Courage was apparently derived from the memoirs of Sgt Major Charles Coward), I'm not sure.

A side note: Anyone familiar with railways in England in the 60's will quickly notice that all the railway scenes in Courage, while supposed to be in continental Europe, were clearly filmed in England with a few cosmetic tweaks (German signage, smoke deflectors on the steam locomotives) to try to disguise things. The film also originally had a sequence representing events at Auschwitz, that was pulled at some point - presumably for being too dark a subject matter. You can still tell where this sequence was intended to be, as a narrative piece alludes to it, but the film immediately moves on.

I First saw this film on its release in 1962. Unfortunalely, I had read John Castle's biography of sargant- major Charles Coward before I saw the film. A large section of the book deals with Coward's attempts to help Jews escape from the Auchwitz death camp. The film dealt with this by having a five minute segment where Henry Piek's drawings of the horrors of Auchwitz are shown with Dirk Bogarde giving a voice over commentary. Well, at least it was a film that mentioned the Hollocaust . A very rear thing in the early 1960's. I saw this film again just recently on television and the Auchwitz segment had been edited out of the film. So, now the film is just another Second World War adventure movie along with an unlikely romantic interest that was not in the biography (Coward was married and very much devoted to his wife). But, there is something about this film that makes it different from other British war time escape films. It is about ordinary soldiers and not officers. These soldiers have been put to work by the Germans and the p.o.w. camps do not have the air of the British public school. These other ranks do not just try to escape but commit dangerous acts of sabotage. Therefore, on the whole this film is still worth seeing. It it was great to see the wonderful Dirk Bogarde playing a cockney character part that he does so well.