Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.PCS 1/10/84; site mtgzz.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxn!ihnp4!houxm!mtuxo!mtgzz!leeper From: leeper@mtgzz.UUCP (m.r.leeper) Newsgroups: net.movies Subject: THE PASSWORD IS COURAGE Message-ID: <1201@mtgzz.UUCP> Date: Sat, 21-Sep-85 16:43:55 EDT Article-I.D.: mtgzz.1201 Posted: Sat Sep 21 16:43:55 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 22-Sep-85 06:25:17 EDT Organization: AT&T Information Systems Labs, Holmdel NJ Lines: 50 THE PASSWORD IS COURAGE A film review by Mark R. Leeper By this point there have been a fair number of films and TV stories made about the resourcefulness of POW's held in German camps during World War II. The best was a British TV series, COLDITZ, but also quite good were STALAG 17, THE GREAT ESCAPE, THE COLDITZ STORY, and a handful of others. The worst account was the TV series HOGAN'S HEROES, which turned the POW- escape story into a stupid farce. I cannot remember any such story coming from the United States after HOGAN'S HEROES was broadcast unfortunately. Showtime this month is running a 1963 film I had never heard of, THE PASSWORD IS COURAGE. It stars Dirk Bogarde as Sgt.-Major Charles Coward and purports to be the true account of Coward's various escape attempts during the war. Because the film has so many interesting stories of escape attempts, it is hard to believe every one of them happened to just one man. The film begins with Coward just one of a whole line of British soldiers being marched to a POW camp. Coward's leg has gone stiff and he knows he will be unable to keep up with the line. In this case, a stiff leg is a terminal disease so Coward stages his first escape. He spends the rest of the film escaping in clever ways and being recaptured. Occasionally he takes a spot of time off for a bit of sabotage. Coward is able to do more for the war effort captured than he could have ever done before he was captured. Part of what makes me think that not everything in the film happened to one person is the tunnel escape Coward leads. A number of the incidents led me to believe that this escape was the same as the one that Paul Brickhill described in the book THE GREAT ESCAPE (on which the movie--also 1963--was based). But the facts that the escapees were working on only one tunnel and a few other details would have been mentioned in PASSWORD but were not. That makes it seem that the attempt in the film was partially based on the attempt Brickhill described and partially on one or more other escape attempts. To be fair, the script seems to be based on a biography of Coward alone. That biography was written by John Castle (according to the credits). If just one man did all the film claims he did, he must have been some sort of superman. Even if this film is a compilation of many escape stories, it is well worth watching, and what British soldiers were able to do in reality compares favorably with the fantasy of HOGAN'S HEROES. The film compares favorably even with the bigger-budget THE GREAT ESCAPE, showing more "escape-ology" than just about any other source I can think of. Rate the film a +2 on the -4 to +4 scale. Mark R. Leeper ...ihnp4!mtgzz!leeper Brought to you by Super Global Mega Corp .com