In the summer and autumn of 1943 the British prisoners of Stalag Luft III, a
German prison camp housing captured air force officers, began to show a particular interest in gymnastics, especially vaulting. (Stalag Luft III was also the POW camp featured in "The Great Escape"). The reason was not just a concern for physical fitness. The prisoners had designed a special vaulting horse which could conceal men, tools and containers of soil. Each day the horse was carried out to the same spot near the perimeter fence and, while the prisoners vaulted over it, the men inside set to work on digging a tunnel. At the end of the day, these men would conceal the tunnel entrance with a wooden board covered in soil, before being carried back to their huts inside the horse. Remarkably, these arrangements were never detected by the Germans, and by October the tunnel was ready. Three prisoners, Michael Codner, Eric Williams and Oliver Philpot made their escape, and all eventually made it back to Britain.
"The Wooden Horse", based on a book by Williams, tells the story of the events. The first part of the film deals with the escape from the camp, the second with the adventures of Williams and Codner (renamed here Peter Howard and John Clinton) in making their way back to Britain. The adventures of Philpot (renamed Philip Rowe), who travelled separately from the other two, are not shown in any detail. In reality, Williams and Codner made their way to the German port of Stettin, from where they escaped by boat to occupied Denmark and then, with the help of the Danish resistance, to neutral Sweden. In the film they take a similar route but via Lübeck rather than Stettin. The reason was that in 1950 Stettin, under the name Szczecin, had become part of communist Poland, and the British film-makers doubted whether they would be allowed to film by the Polish authorities.
The film started something of a vogue for prisoner-of-war films in Britain, leading to the likes of "The Colditz Story" and "Danger Within". The Americans also got in on the act with "Stalag 17", and in my view all the best films in this genre- "Bridge on the River Kwai", "King Rat" and "The Great Escape"- were made by American studios about British POWs. "The Wooden Horse" is not really in the same class as any of those three masterpieces, but then it was made on a much lower budget without any big-name stars. (Many of the cast were in fact amateurs). It is a patriotic "how we won the war" tale of a sort popular on both sides of the Atlantic during the late forties, fifties and early sixties, and as such it works very well, conjuring up a good deal of tension. Nearly three quarters of a century after it was made, it still repays watching. 7/10.
"The Wooden Horse", based on a book by Williams, tells the story of the events. The first part of the film deals with the escape from the camp, the second with the adventures of Williams and Codner (renamed here Peter Howard and John Clinton) in making their way back to Britain. The adventures of Philpot (renamed Philip Rowe), who travelled separately from the other two, are not shown in any detail. In reality, Williams and Codner made their way to the German port of Stettin, from where they escaped by boat to occupied Denmark and then, with the help of the Danish resistance, to neutral Sweden. In the film they take a similar route but via Lübeck rather than Stettin. The reason was that in 1950 Stettin, under the name Szczecin, had become part of communist Poland, and the British film-makers doubted whether they would be allowed to film by the Polish authorities.
The film started something of a vogue for prisoner-of-war films in Britain, leading to the likes of "The Colditz Story" and "Danger Within". The Americans also got in on the act with "Stalag 17", and in my view all the best films in this genre- "Bridge on the River Kwai", "King Rat" and "The Great Escape"- were made by American studios about British POWs. "The Wooden Horse" is not really in the same class as any of those three masterpieces, but then it was made on a much lower budget without any big-name stars. (Many of the cast were in fact amateurs). It is a patriotic "how we won the war" tale of a sort popular on both sides of the Atlantic during the late forties, fifties and early sixties, and as such it works very well, conjuring up a good deal of tension. Nearly three quarters of a century after it was made, it still repays watching. 7/10.