In this wartime thriller, British officers in an Italian POW camp must uncover a traitor in their midst who is sabotaging their escape attempts.
Set in a British officers’ prisoner-of-war camp in Northern Italy during 1943, the film chronicles the repeated efforts of the inmates to break out. Their plans are consistently betrayed to their Italian captors, leading to the grim realization that there is an informant among them. The senior officers, led by Lieutenant Colonel David Baird (Richard Todd) and Lieutenant Colonel Huxley (Bernard Lee), must orchestrate a mass escape while simultaneously trying to identify the traitor responsible for their failures. The investigation and escape plan culminate as the prisoners work to unmask the informant before their final attempt is jeopardized.
The film ingeniously merges two dependable genres: the prisoner-of-war escape story and the whodunit. Set in an Italian camp in 1943, the narrative tension comes not just from the British officers’ efforts to break out, but from their desperate search for the traitor sabotaging their plans. This structure creates a compelling atmosphere of double jeopardy, where the enemy is both outside and inside the wire. The screenplay by Bryan Forbes and Frank Harvey, adapted from Michael Gilbert’s novel Death in Captivity, provides a strong foundation with well-drawn characters. Director Don Chaffey’s sharp direction maintains a balance of suspense and the grimly comic details of life in captivity, served well by a fine roster of British character actors.
Production Co: Romulus / 101 minutes / 1959
Director: Don Chaffey
Screenplay: Bryan Forbes, Frank Harvey
Cinematography: Arthur Grant
Music: Francis Chagrin
Main Cast: Richard Todd (Lieutenant Colonel David Baird), Bernard Lee (Lieutenant Colonel Huxley), Michael Wilding (Major Charles Marquand), Richard Attenborough (Capt. ‘Bunter’ Phillips), Peter Arne (Capitano Benucci), Dennis Price (Captain Callington), Donald Houston (Captain Roger Byfold), William Franklyn (Captain Tony Long)
