The One That Got Away

I'm somewhat biased about this film - which really is a great piece of story telling - because my Dad was in it! He was doing his National Service at the time the film was made, and the Army provided squaddies as extras in the search scenes.

When Von Werra is captured in a boggy patch my Dad is the corporal who provides a spare poncho to keep the German officer warm. He even has a line... "Yes, I've got one Sir." or something to that effect. Last time the film was shown in the U.K. his speech was rather badly edited out, much to the dismay of his loyal following.

I think the film works really well at putting you on the side of the captive, so that even watching from a partisan British perspective it is hard not to want him to succeed in outwitting his gaolers.

The only flaw for me is the slightly romanticised crossing of The St. Lawrence. By this stage the director is going for such a sympathetic depiction of Von Werra that he seems almost childlike. I think Von Werra was a sufficiently capable media manipulator for his version of events to have percolated down into the film. He wanted to be seen as a romantic, chivalrous hero but maybe he was tougher and more ruthless than he would have us believe?

Overall a great story, based on real events and characters, with some wonderful film making. Watch it, and watch out for my Dad!

After the Cold War broke out, it was necessary to reconcile the newly democratic, Nazi-free West Germany to its former enemies. Hollywood did its bit with a sympathetic account of Erwin Rommel in "The Desert Fox". After "Frieda", the British movie business followed a spate of PoW escape films with one about a Luftwaffe pilot who had been as hard to hold as the heroes of "Albert RN" and "The Wooden Horse".

Early in the Second World War most Germans captured while bombing Britain did not try to escape: they thought the Wehrmacht would soon arrive to free them. "Baron" Franz von Werra was an exception. No Nazi, he was a Swiss boy who had been brought up by aristocratic German relations and felt he owed his adopted country his services; he was also a show-off who idolised von Richthofen and relished the glamour of being a flying ace.

Roy Baker (thus billed on screen) said he wished to get away from "beer-swilling krauts or homosexual Prussians". He saw von Werra as a maverick, and shot him moving from right to left across the screen whenever possible because typically film characters move in the other direction.

The film is pretty faithful to his story, as was established years later by a documentary called "Von Werra" (Werner Schweizer, 2002) which his impersonator, Hardy Kruger, presented. Kruger's own past was more Nazi than Franz's: he was at Sonthofen, the Party's "order castle" school for the future elite, and his blond good looks are said to have been admired by Dr Goebbels, fuhrer of the German film business.

Pitted against a string of barely differentiated British officer-class character actors, Kruger has a whale of a time in what is virtually a one-man show. It lets him display charm, cunning and endurance in buckets. First he outwits his interrogators, then he twice goes on the run in England (the second time almost taking off in a stolen Hurricane) and finally he flees from a Canadian train in below-zero temperatures. He zigzags 30 miles to the St Lawrence River and paddles through floes in pitch darkness into the neutral USA, arriving with badly frostbitten ears.

Concentrating on his time in captivity, the script neither pleads for sympathy for an enemy nor arraigns him, It does not give us any background on the man, and his second epic escape-- from the US extradition authorities, via Central and South America, the Atlantic and Italy back to the Reich-- is not covered either. True to his gentlemanly self-image, von Werra used his brief fame to compare conditions for the British in German camps unfavourably with those he had experienced-- even the primitive Grizedale Hall-- and got them improved. (The Canadian camp he avoided was luxurious.) He flew on the Eastern Front in the early days of 'Barbarossa', downing obsolete Soviet aircraft, but disappeared on a routine flight later in 1941.

Baker would soon make 'A Night to Remember', the film all true 'Titanic' buffs prefer to James Cameron's version. Here too the virtues of understatement are evident-- crisp monochrome photography, short scenes which always drive the story on, thrifty but credible art direction. Von Werra's ordeals in the rain-soaked Lake District and the icy Canada/USA border are gruelling, and the doughtiest British spectator will not begrudge him his cheeky postcard after completing his home run. Baker used a documentary cameraman, Eric Cross, and shot the St Lawrence scenes in Sweden.

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.

26. THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY (war, 1958) During air raids on Britain during WW2 German Lt. Von Warren's (Hardy Kruger) plane is shot down. He's captured and made a P.O.W. He repeatedly tries to escape but to no avail. Undaunted in his efforts he finally succeeds but has to survive the long and dangerous trek back to Germany.

Critique: Although the title is a bit of a giveaway, this is one of the most intriguing of war films, a substitute to the countless Americanized versions of P.O.Ws. The picture is perfectly paced adding to the excitement and suspense. Based on a true story of the only German to escape from an allied camp, it has beautiful crisp black and white photography. What makes it a standout in film history though is the fact that a German soldier is made the hero here.

Actor Hardy Krugers' portrayal is an unusual mix of boyish charm, and cockiness. The film is virtually flawless except for the screenwriter's depiction of Von Warren. They make him so much likable and appealing (funnier) than the Brits that one walks out rooting for him. I mean isn't he the enemy? One of Hitler's tools of war?

Furthermore, it's disturbing to learn that Von Warren returns home but goes back to the front and dies fighting the Allies. This little known film is hard to get on video (though I've seen a re-released copy), so your best shot is to catch it on TV.

QUOTE: Von Warren: "It's the duty of an officer to try and escape."

"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.