“The One That Got Away” is the true story of the only German who escaped British captivity in WWII. It was based on the book by Kendall Burt and James Leasor. The movie was directed by Roy Ward Baker. The film was popular in Great Britain and very popular in West Germany – surprisingly and not surprisingly.
Oberleutnant Franz von Werra (Hardy Krueger) is a German fighter ace who has 13 kills and a pet lion. He gets shot down during the Battle of Britain. He crash-lands in a British field and is taken captive. In the interrogation, the British officer learns that Franz is a typical fighter jock. In other words, he is “a mixture of bombast and sheer nerve”. Plus throw in that he is a Nazi. He insists that Germany is going to win the war because it is stronger and its will for victory is greater. He promises his captor that he will be free in less than six months. Since the opening title card has already told us that he escaped, you can smile when the Brit takes that bet. If he knew how lax British security is going to be, he would never take that bet. Franz makes several attempts before the successful one. One of the attempts involves a tunnel, of course. But there are no tunnel scenes or close calls. Boring. In fact, all of the attempts lack suspense which leads one to believe that this is one true story that is unfortunately true.
The movie should have been entitled “The One That Got Away Starring Hardy Kruger”. Kruger was a German soldier in WWII who was captured and escaped (it must have been from the British). This was his first big splash and he carries the movie. The rest of the cast is fine, if unrecognizable. All of the Brits are naïve and super polite. None of the Germans have a monacle. Werra is not particularly a hero, but he is persistent and quick-witted (meaning he is a great liar). He is brash, but not a jerk.
“The One That Got Away” is a strange movie. Why would the British make a movie about the only prisoner to successfully escape them? Had they run out of movies depicting British prisoners escaping from the Germans? Well, yes, but it still seems like a strange choice. Plus the movie gives you the impression that Werra’s mother could have escaped the British. The producers must have been proud of England’s humane ineptitude. We learn in a post script that von Werra got back to Germany but died in a crash, so maybe the producers wanted to say “what good did it do you?”
“The One That Got Away” is a middle of the road prisoner of war movie. It deserves major props for being historically accurate, but at the sacrifice of entertainment. The movie lacks suspense which is fine with me since I care about historical truth, but for normal people it is simply an excuse to watch Hardy Kruger and laugh at the Brits.
GRADE = B-
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