blakesleylodge's reviews

If Streisand had just stopped for a moment, and said to herself, this is ridiculous, I'm too old, and too female, to play a convincing boy, then we could been spared this farce. Most of the time is spent yelling at the screen, they think she's a boy?! You've got to be kidding. What if she had directed it, thrown away the songs, and cut thirty minutes, maybe there's a good film in there somewhere. It's painful to watch, and then suddenly, after about an hour, tedious. The acting is overwrought (after all, who is there to tell the leading lady to cut it out?); and Streisand is all wrong. Don't get me wrong, she can act, just look at "What's Up Doc", a grossly underrated film. But this is a mess.

Directed by the always interesting André de Toth, from a Melvyn Bragg script; both leads are on top form, ably supported by Green and Andrews. There are longeurs, but the worst part is the ending. Two experienced soldiers fail to take off their enemy uniforms before surrendering to British troops? Hardly.

Worth a look if you have the time/opportunity, but it's not in the same class as 'The Dirty Dozen', not least because the minor characters are (with the obvious exception of the nurse played by Vivian Pickles) are pretty sketchy. But it does show a side of the English, mostly hidden from foreigners, their cold-hearted ruthlessness.

Some strange and uniformed comments/criticisms about this excellent series.

One says that was a 'goof' to show prisoners in 'dress uniforms'. A brief search for photos of Colditz prisoners online will show that all POW officers possessed proper uniforms, as under the Geneva Convention these could be requested via the Red Cross. It would have been an unlikely mistake, as Pat Reid was an adviser on the series.

Another says that there were no Americans in Colditz. There were in fact three Americans: Colonel Florimond Duke, Captain Guy Nunn, and Alfred Suarez.

Some liberties were clearly taken for dramatic effect. For example, the famous 'Tea Chest' escape is featured. David McCallum's character, Simon Carter was based on the real Tea Chest escaper, 'The Medium Sized Man' aka Fl Lt Dominic Bruce OBE MC AFM KSG (Wikipedia has a very comprehensive biography, well worth a read) who did not deliberately give himself up as Carter does, but was only caught weeks later in Danzig.

For the most part, this series gives a fairly accurate portrayal of the struggle between the inveterate escapers (you were only put in Colditz if you had escaped from somewhere else, and got caught) and the well trained German security officers.

This is worth a watch. Wayne is in his element, part serious, part humorous. But Gail Russell is a revelation, what a great performance. What a tragedy that alcoholism blighted her career. Harry Carey and Bruce Cabot are on form too.

Also interesting is the pacifist Quaker message."Only a man who carries a gun ever needs one." Upon the film's release, The New York Times reviewer wrote, "Mr. Wayne and company have sacrificed the usual roaring action to fashion a leisurely Western, which is different from and a notch or two superior to the normal sagebrush saga." The reviewer continues: "James Edward Grant, who wrote and directed the story, has included the gun fights, slugging melées and scenic pursuits necessary to fill out the yarn. But, mainly, he has portrayed the change in Quirt Evans, a feared triggerman of the frontier southwest, who, when wounded, is not only nursed to health but subtly won over by Penelope Worth and her Quaker philosophy. John Wayne makes a grim and laconic, converted renegade, who is torn by love, a new faith and the desire for revenge on an arch enemy. Gail Russell, a stranger to Westerns, is convincing as the lady who makes him see the light."

Recommended.

Sir Derek Jacobi, the legendary Kathleen Byron and Christopher Biggins (playing it straight) together with George Layton playing a cowboy mechanic. What a cast for an amusing tale back from the first season when Minder was not a self parody, and Gergo Cole spoke with a posh accent.

The film is of no interest as a who dunnit (as a child of five could guess who diddit) but for the fact that one quick scene in a garage has the most extraordinary cast. The dialogue is between John Ireland (archetypical Hollywood beefcake); Arthur Lowe (one of Britain's greatest comic actors); and John Schlesinger (one of Britain's greatest movie directors).