The Colditz Story DVD Review

• 15th Dec 2012

On the 70^th anniversary of the original breakout of the author Pat Reid following making a ‘home run’ from the imposing prison of Colditz Castle which was seen by some as an escape academy as most of the prisoners were imprisoned in such a place because of previous attempts from other Stalag camps. In the film its staple actor Sir John Mills who plays Major Pat Reid, the author of the autobiography about his time in Colditz Castle and is very much the centre of the film. Reid was also the technical advisor on the film as well as the inspiration for the film itself. However, many of the scenes with Mills were not necessarily ones that Reid took part in or were central to.

The music by Francis Chagrin which opens the film at the start sounds more like it is from a Hammer film than the usual war time escape espionage as it plays in the opening credits as the camera focuses on the stormy clouds of a Saxon sky with just one of the towers of the castle in view before it pans downs to reveal the foreboding  gothic and very German fortress that is Colditz Castle – again a very Gothic Hammer like scene.

Within a short space of time we are introduced to the rest of the prisoners following the arrival of Reid (Mills) and his fellow POWs as well as the other different national types. I was very much reminded of a the recently re-released and reconstructed French classic, La Grande Illusion, a film that was made in pre-war France rather than the plethora of other post war British POW films that were released which finally culminated in the 1963 Hollywood classic, The Great Escape. In La Grande Illusion WWI prisoners are held in a similar castle with different national POWs being held by their German captors led by that classic Prussian actor, Erich Von Stroheim. But like its predecessor its national group speaks their national tongue which is always refreshing to hear. This film is not short of its clichés at some point one officer makes clear and actually says to his British captors “for you zee vaw is over.”

In The Colditz Story Frederick Valk as the German commandant takes a poor second to Von Stroheim’s. Where this film departs from the French classic is in its schoolboy japes. Of course this film is a million miles away from conditions in concentration camps but nor were the Stalag camps like boarding school as portrayed in many British films, including the one this one depicts; The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) was an exception. One is occasionally left with the impression that this is more ‘Tom Brown’s Schooldays’ than anything else with a touch of Boy’s Own St. Trinian’s. Never the less it is good all round entertainment.

For many years I lived in the South of Germany and always wanted to visit Colditz (near Dresden/Leipzig in north eastern Germany). It is a place that has had cult status growing up, a notorious place I read about in action comics and stories, a TV series, viewings of this film as well as a board game. Like many old war films it continues, as a boy, to give me a warm cosy feeling on a wet Sunday.

The extras on the disc are pretty substantial including a great documentary about life in Colditz which interviews surviving prisoners and the son of Pat Reid but also talks about many of the details in the film that are rooted in reality – there is much in the way of artistic license but most aspects portrayed are realistic. The other extra of note is a restoration comparison and frankly unlike others there is little difference to see for the layperson. The Colditz Story is one of the British classics of the 1950s, despite its schoolboy style and was one of the better British wartime set films of the 1950s with the accompanying documentary making for some great drama.

Chris Hick