''The Wooden Horse'' is a 1950 British
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
war film directed by
Jack Lee and starring
Leo Genn
Leopold John Genn (9 August 190526 January 1978) was an English actor and barrister. Distinguished by his relaxed charm and smooth, "black velvet" voice, he had a lengthy career in theatre, film, television, and radio; often playing aristocr ...
,
David Tomlinson
David Cecil MacAlister Tomlinson (7 May 1917 – 24 June 2000) was an English stage, film, and television actor and comedian. Having been described as both a leading man and a character actor, he is primarily remembered for his roles as authorit ...
and
Anthony Steel. It is based on the book of the same name by
Eric Williams
Eric Eustace Williams (25 September 1911 – 29 March 1981) was a Trinidad and Tobago politician who is regarded by some as the " Father of the Nation", having led the then British Colony of Trinidad and Tobago to majority rule on 28 October ...
, who also wrote the screenplay.
The film depicts the true events of
an escape attempt made by
POWs
A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610.
Belligerents hold prisoners of war ...
in the German prison camp Stalag Luft III. The wooden horse in the title of the film is a piece of exercise equipment the prisoners use to conceal their escape attempt as well as a reference to the
Trojan Horse
The Trojan Horse was a wooden horse said to have been used by the Greeks during the Trojan War to enter the city of Troy and win the war. The Trojan Horse is not mentioned in Homer's ''Iliad'', with the poem ending before the war is concluded, ...
which was also used to conceal men within.
''The Wooden Horse'' was shot in a low-key style, with a limited budget and a cast including many amateur actors.
Plot
The somewhat fictionalised version of the true story is set in
Stalag Luft III
Stalag Luft III (german: Stammlager Luft III; literally "Main Camp, Air, III"; SL III) was a ''Luftwaffe''-run German prisoner-of-war camps in World War II, prisoner-of-war (POW) camp during the Second World War, which held captured Allies of World ...
— the same
POW camp where the real events depicted in the film ''
The Great Escape'' took place, albeit from a different compound – and involved Williams,
Michael Codner and
Oliver Philpot, all inmates of the camp. In the book and film, the escapees are renamed "Flight Lieutenant Peter Howard", "Captain John Clinton" and "Philip Rowe".
The prisoners are faced with the problem of digging an escape tunnel despite the accommodation huts, within which the tunnel entrance might be concealed, being a considerable distance from the
perimeter fence Demarcation of a perimeter, when the protection of assets, personnel or buildings is required, is normally affected by the building of a perimeter fence system. The level of protection offered varies according to the threat level to the perimeter. ...
. They come up with an ingenious way of digging the tunnel with its entrance located in the middle of an open area relatively near the perimeter fence and using a
vaulting horse
The vault is an artistic gymnastics apparatus which gymnasts perform on, as well as the skill performed using that apparatus. Vaulting is also the action of performing a vault. Both male and female gymnasts perform the vault. The English abbrevi ...
(constructed largely from plywood from Canadian
Red Cross
The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million Volunteering, volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure re ...
parcels), to cover the entrance.
Recruiting fellow-prisoners to form a team of vaulters, each day they carry the horse out to the same spot, with a man hidden inside. The prisoners begin
gymnastic
Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, dedication and endurance. The movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, sh ...
exercises using the vaulting horse, while the concealed man digs down below it. At the end of the session, the digger places wooden boards, cut to fit the aperture, in the hole, and fills the space with sandbags and dry sand kept for the purpose – wet sand taken from below the surface would be darker and hence give away the tunneling activity.
As the tunnel lengthens, two men are eventually hidden inside the horse while a larger group of men exercise, the two men continue to dig the tunnel. At the end of the day, they conceal the tunnel entrance once more and hide inside the horse while it is carried back to their hut. They also devise a method of disposing of the earth coming out of the tunnel. They recruit a third man, Phil, to assist them, with the promise that he will join the escape.
At the final break-out, Clinton hides in the tunnel during an ''Appell'' (roll call), before three men are carried out in the horse: the third to replace the tunnel trap.
Howard and Clinton travel by train to the
Baltic
Baltic may refer to:
Peoples and languages
*Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian
*Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originatin ...
port of
Lübeck
Lübeck (; Low German also ), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (german: Hansestadt Lübeck), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 217,000 inhabitants, Lübeck is the second-largest city on the German Baltic coast and in the state ...
; (in fact, they travelled via
Frankfurt an der Oder
Frankfurt (Oder), also known as Frankfurt an der Oder (), is a city in the German state of Brandenburg. It has around 57,000 inhabitants, is one of the easternmost cities in Germany, the fourth-largest city in Brandenburg, and the largest German ...
to Stettin). Phil elects to travel alone, posing as a
Norwegian
Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to:
*Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe
* Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway
* Demographics of Norway
*The Norwegian language, including ...
margarine
Margarine (, also , ) is a spread used for flavoring, baking, and cooking. It is most often used as a substitute for butter. Although originally made from animal fats, most margarine consumed today is made from vegetable oil. The spread was or ...
salesman and travelling by train via
Danzig (now
Gdańsk
Gdańsk ( , also ; ; csb, Gduńsk;Stefan Ramułt, ''Słownik języka pomorskiego, czyli kaszubskiego'', Kraków 1893, Gdańsk 2003, ISBN 83-87408-64-6. , Johann Georg Theodor Grässe, ''Orbis latinus oder Verzeichniss der lateinischen Benen ...
). He was the first to get to neutral territory.
On the docks Howard and Clinton are forced to kill a German sentry who surprised the hiding men; and they contact French workers, through whom they meet "Sigmund", a
Danish resistance worker who smuggles them onto a Danish ship. They then have to transfer to a fishing boat and arrive in
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan a ...
, before being shipped to neutral
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...
. There they are reunited with Phil, who arrived earlier.
Some details from Williams' book were not used in the film, e.g. the escaped POWs discussing the possibility of visiting potentially neutral brothels in Germany, an idea that was abandoned because of the fear that it might be a trap.
Cast
*
Leo Genn
Leopold John Genn (9 August 190526 January 1978) was an English actor and barrister. Distinguished by his relaxed charm and smooth, "black velvet" voice, he had a lengthy career in theatre, film, television, and radio; often playing aristocr ...
as Peter Howard
*
David Tomlinson
David Cecil MacAlister Tomlinson (7 May 1917 – 24 June 2000) was an English stage, film, and television actor and comedian. Having been described as both a leading man and a character actor, he is primarily remembered for his roles as authorit ...
as Philip Rowe
*
Anthony Steel as John Clinton
*
David Greene as Bennett
*
Peter Burton
Peter Ray Burton (4 April 1921 – 21 November 1989) was an English film and television actor.
Early life
Peter Ray Burton, was born in Bromley, Kent, to Frederick Ray Burton and Gladys Maude (née Frazer).
Career
He is perhaps best known fo ...
as Nigel
*
Patrick Waddington
Patrick William Simpson Waddington (19 August 19014 February 1987) was an English actor, educated at Gresham's School at Holt in Norfolk. He was born and died in York, England.
Biography
Waddington was the grandson of William Waddington, the p ...
as the Senior British Officer
*
Michael Goodliffe as Robbie
*
Anthony Dawson
Anthony Douglas Gillon Dawson (18 October 1916 – 8 January 1992) was a Scottish actor, best known for his supporting roles as villains in films such as Alfred Hitchcock's ''Dial M for Murder'' (1954) and ''Midnight Lace'' (1960), and playin ...
as Pomfret
*
Bryan Forbes
Bryan Forbes CBE (; born John Theobald Clarke; 22 July 1926 – 8 May 2013) was an English film director, screenwriter, film producer, actor and novelist described as a "Renaissance man"Falk Q. . BAFTA. 17 October 2007. Retrieved 9 May 2013 and ...
as Paul
*
Dan Cunningham
Dan Cunningham (1 January 1917 – September 2001) was a British actor who made few screen appearances but was a noted stage actor, performing at Eichstätt. He appeared in Laurence Olivier's ''Richard III'' (1955) as Lord Grey.
He was married ...
as David
*
Peter Finch
Frederick George Peter Ingle Finch (28 September 191614 January 1977) was an English-Australian actor of theatre, film and radio.
Born in London, he emigrated to Australia as a teenager and was raised in Sydney, where he worked in vaudeville ...
as the Australian in hospital
* Philip Dale as Bill White
*
Russell Waters as 'Wings' Cameron
* Ralph Ward as the Adjutant
*
Lis Løwert
Lis Løwert (7 December 1919 – 26 November 2009) was a Danish film actress. She appeared in 23 films between 1938 and 1971. She was best known for her parts in two TV series: Mrs. Clausen in '' Huset på Christianshavn'' and Violet Vinter ...
as Kamma
Production
The film was based on a book by Eric Williams which was published in 1949. The book was re-issued in 1980.
Ian Dalrymple and Jack Lee read the book and bought the film rights. They out-bid
John Mills
Sir John Mills (born Lewis Ernest Watts Mills; 22 February 190823 April 2005) was an English actor who appeared in more than 120 films in a career spanning seven decades. He excelled on camera as an appealing British everyman who often portray ...
who also wanted to make it. "I expect John would have been very good in it also," said Jack Lee "probably better than Leo Genn, who was very stolid as an actor."
Leo Genn played the Eric Williams character while Anthony Steele played a character based on Michael Codner.
Codner was later killed in 1952 in an ambush during the
Malayan Emergency
The Malayan Emergency, also known as the Anti–British National Liberation War was a guerrilla war fought in British Malaya between communist pro-independence fighters of the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA) and the military forces ...
.
"We are not inventing anything," Lee said during filming. "It isn't necessary. The whole book is dynamite as a film script."
Shooting
Three-quarters of the film was shot in Germany. The Stalag was rebuilt in the British zone near where the Germans surrendered at
Lüneburg Heath
Lüneburg Heath (german: Lüneburger Heide) is a large area of heath, geest, and woodland in the northeastern part of the state of Lower Saxony in northern Germany. It forms part of the hinterland for the cities of Hamburg, Hanover and Bremen ...
.
In the film the escapees go to
Lübeck
Lübeck (; Low German also ), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (german: Hansestadt Lübeck), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 217,000 inhabitants, Lübeck is the second-largest city on the German Baltic coast and in the state ...
, not
Stettin
Szczecin (, , german: Stettin ; sv, Stettin ; Latin: ''Sedinum'' or ''Stetinum'') is the capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland. Located near the Baltic Sea and the German border, it is a major s ...
, which is what happened in real life. This was because the producers did not want to have to deal with the Russian Occupied Zone.
The film went over budget, for several reasons: the weather was poor and several scenes had to be done again. "A lot of it was my fault, taking too long to shoot and shooting too much stuff," said Lee.
He added "there was indecision on my producer's part about the ending; Ian said we should shoot things in two different ways. The ultimate ending was a perfectly reasonable one but I was off the film by then. Ian shot it himself."
Filming was finished in Germany by January 1950 after which studio work was done in London.
The film was a breakthrough role for Anthony Steel. "Tony Steel was fine to work with – just a physical type, a young chap who could do certain things," said Lee.
[Brian MacFarlane, ''An Autobiography of British Cinema'', Methueun 1997 p 357] According to ''Filmink'' "he is clearly meant to be “the cute one” of the trio, spending a considerable amount of the film’s running time walking around in shorts bare-chested."
Comedian
had actually been one of the POWs at the camp, and auditioned for a part in the film, but the producers said he didn't look convincing enough.
Reception
Critical
''Variety'' said "a commendable degree, of documentary fidelity has been established in this picturization. of the escape of three prisoners of war from a German camp* The long and torturous period of preparation is faithfully recaptured. Inevitably, treatment rules out a fast-moving production, and although this won’t harm it as a boxoffice attraction at home, it may have a limiting appeal when it eventually reaches the US."
Box Office
The film was the third most popular film at the British box office in 1950. According to ''Kinematograph Weekly'' the 'biggest winners' at the box office in 1950 Britain were ''The Blue Lamp'', ''The Happiest Days of Your Life'', ''Annie Get Your Gun'', ''The Wooden Horse'', ''Treasure Island'' and ''Odette'', with "runners up" being ''Stage Fright'', ''White Heat'', ''They Were Not Divided'', ''Trio'', ''Morning Departure'', ''Destination Moon'', ''Sands of Iwo Jima'', ''Little Women'', ''The Forsythe Saga'', ''Father of the Bride'', ''Neptune's Daughter'', ''The Dancing Years'', ''The Red Light'', ''Rogues of Sherwood Forest'', ''Fancy Pants'', ''Copper Canyon'', ''State Secret'', ''The Cure for Love'', ''My Foolish Heart'', ''Stromboli'', ''Cheaper by the Dozen'', ''Pinky'', ''Three Came Home'', ''Broken Arrow'' and ''Black Rose''.
It led to a series of stories about POWs, including ''
Albert R.N.
''Albert R.N.'' is a 1953 British war film directed by Lewis Gilbert and starring Jack Warner, Anthony Steel and Robert Beatty.
Plot
An escape tunnel for the naval officer prisoners during the Second World War at a German prisoner-of-war cam ...
'' (1953), ''
The Colditz Story
''The Colditz Story'' is a 1955 British prisoner of war film starring John Mills and Eric Portman and directed by Guy Hamilton. It is based on the 1952 memoir written by Pat Reid, a British army officer who was imprisoned in Oflag IV-C, Coldit ...
'' (1955), ''
The One That Got Away'' (1957), ''
The Camp on Blood Island
''The Camp on Blood Island'' is a 1958 British World War II film, directed by Val Guest for Hammer Film Productions and starring André Morell, Carl Möhner, Edward Underdown and Walter Fitzgerald.
The film is set in a Japanese prisoner of war ...
'' (1958) and ''
Danger Within'' (1959).
Reality
The ''Wooden Horse'' plan itself was actually conceived and entirely thought through by Williams and
Michael Codner in equal measures. In
Oliver Philpot's later book ''The Stolen Journey'', the author made it clear that he initially thought the plan was "crackers", telling its inventors "I give it a couple of days!" Nevertheless, Philpot helped with the sand dispersal and later with the actual digging – at which point he was invited to take part in the escape.
[Philpot, Oliver, ''Stolen Journey'' (Hodder and Stoughton, 1950), p. 215]
References
Further reading
*
External links
*
The actual story – ''WOODEN HORSE ESCAPE KIT PRESENTED TO IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM''at
Screenonline
Screenonline is a website about the history of British film, television and social history as documented by film and television. The project has been developed by the British Film Institute and funded by a £1.2 million grant from the National Lo ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wooden Horse, The
1950 films
1950s war films
British war films
British black-and-white films
World War II prisoner of war films
World War II films based on actual events
London Films films
Films directed by Jack Lee
Films produced by Ian Dalrymple
1950s English-language films
1950s British films