Review: The Wooden Horse


POWs held by the Nazis in Stalag Luft III during WWII decide to stage an escape via the unique plan of using a gymnastics vaulting horse to disguise the tunnel-digging. Leo Genn and Anthony Steel play the leaders of the escape, with Anthony M. Dawson, Michael Goodliffe, and David Tomlinson among the other prisoners. Peter Finch plays a wounded Aussie soldier in one scene.

 

A smaller-scale dry run for “The Great Escape” (and based on a true incident in the very same POW camp!, this Jack Lee (“A Town Like Alice”, “Robbery Under Arms”) POW escape film from 1950 isn’t too bad. Some scenes are alarmingly similar to the later John Sturges classic, and the film obviously comes up short in the comparison. In fact, the film’s best scenes are towards the end, after the escape attempt. Even then the film has to contend with a frankly very wooden (pardon the pun) Anthony Steel. He’s the weak link in quite a sturdy cast, with character actor Leo Genn acquitting himself rather well in a lead role, and Australia’s own Peter Finch has an enjoyable cameo where he actually gets to play an Aussie (I’m convinced he’s bunging the accent on a bit, Finch’s natural accent even then was surely more English-sounding than ‘ocker’). Fans of British character actors will have fun spotting the likes of a young David Tomlinson, as well as Michael Goodliffe and Anthony M. Dawson among others.

 

I do have to admit though, that the POWs in this film seem much less well-fed and clean than those in “The Great Escape”, it’s certainly a grittier film. The B&W cinematography by C.M. Pennington-Richards (“A Christmas Carol”, “Forbidden Cargo”) is superlative, lending the film a starkness and harshness. Scripted by Eric Williams (who was actually one of the real-life escapees, the one played by Leo Genn in the film) from his own novel, it’s a very watchable and certainly good-looking film, it’s just that “The Great Escape” would do this so much grander and so much better. That film’s a masterpiece of screen entertainment, this one’s pretty minor. The barminess of the central premise (though it’s also rather clever and based on truth) might be enough to keep you interested, especially if you like British B-films of this period.

 

Rating: C+

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