ianlouisiana Said my father sagely as we strode out of the Plaza Arcade and across the High Street into the teatime darkness,I hoping to get a glimpse of the day - old chicks in "Sainsbury's" window,he hoping to get a cup of tea and a hot apple pie in "Lyon's" before they closed. To be fair to staff at Stalag Luft 111,that was his default position for any perceived failure by those in authority. The Polio epidemic wouldn't have occurred if Rommel had been in charge of the Health Service and those contemporary fear - figures the Cosh Boys(later to be followed by Teddy Boys,Mods and Rockers and,ultimately Punks)could never have flourished in a justice system with Rommel at the helm. Having fought the German Field Marshal in North Africa(not hand to hand you understand,although he often distilled the "Last bit of unpleasantness with the hun" as he termed it,down to Desert Rat (him) Vs Desert Fox (Rommel)for whom he felt a most un - British reverence. Certainly the Germans guarding Messrs Genn,Steele,Tomlinson et al seemed to be sleeping on the job as our heroes casually dumped the soil excavated from their escape tunnel from their trouser pockets and literally kicked over the traces. "The Wooden Horse" was the first of a seemingly endless series of films showing British officers kicking scruffy footballs about like demented 9 year - olds,dressing up as women to entertain their chums and digging holes in the ground. In retrospect the POW genre veered from the sublime - "Bridge on the River Kwai" to the bizarre - "Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence" via the frankly camp(sorry) "The password is courage" to the overblown and noisy "The Great Escape". But it's gestation came with the true story of an ingenious escape engineered by some necessarily athletic officers that required them to engage in hearty gymnastics whilst tunnelling a jolly long way under the perimeter fence. 65 years have added a piquancy to this cheaply - made workmanlike effort by a journeyman director. The actors are fondly - remembered - except for Mr A.Steele who appears to have been unfairly forgotten after an Icarus - like career. There followed a deluge of books telling of more and more unlikely escapes from the clutches of the Master Race that made one wonder how they contrived to make the war in Europe last six years (well,four if you're a Yank). This film should be shown to Angela Merkel to remind her that her Vaterland didn't always have things all its own way. as we walked down a poorly - lit Swan Lane father kept an eye open for lurking Cosh Boys and I envisioned day - old chicks tunnelling their way out of our chicken run at home. No,nobody could make a film out of that - could they?

bkoganbing Upon seeing a film entitled The Wooden Horse, one including myself might think it was about some fake object like the famous Trojan wooden horse that was used to smuggle in people or objects like weapons. The horse we're talking about in this film is the kind used in every gymnasium in the world.But this one aids indirectly in the smuggling out of prisoners from a German POW camp called Stalag 3. It's quite simple, it's too long a dig from the prisoner barracks to outside the camp for a tunnel. So the horse is placed over a midway point and diggers are smuggled in and out. It also serves as a place where fresh air can come into the men working in the tunnel. It's quite an ingenious scheme and Leo Genn, Anthony Steel, and David Tomlinson are the three that escape. The rest of the film plays a lot like The Great Escape as the three escaped prisoners try to make it to the neutral country of Sweden.Though The Wooden Horse doesn't have the budget that The Great Escape did it tells its story in a fast moving and compact fashion with no frills. Location shooting in Denmark and Germany make it quite authentic. The British occupation zone was in the northern part of the new Federal Republic of Germany and many extras were hired among the locals. And the film holds up well after sixty years.I'll bet Kurt Thomas never thought of a gym horse being used this way.

Gordon-11 This film is about British prisoners of war from the World War II escaping from a camp in Germany.I find "The Wooden Horse" disappointingly boring. The subject could have been thrilling, suspenseful and adrenaline fuelled, but "The Wooden Horse" is told in a very plain way. It's a collection of plain and poorly told events, with no suspension and thrill. The first half plainly tells how the prisoners of war dug a tunnel, but the events are so plain, with not enough blunders and close shaves to make me on edge. The latter half of the film is even worse, they are just moving from one place to another without any cat and mouse chase. And could the characters talk a bit less and have more action in an action film! I am disappointed by "The Wooden Horse", it wasted the potential to be a great film.

Spikeopath Playing out as a sort of pre runner to The Great Escape some 13 years later, this smashing little British film plays it straight with no thrills and dare do well overkill. First part of the movie is the set up and subsequent escape of our protagonists, whilst the second part concentrates on their survival whilst on the run as they try to reach Sweden. The film relies on pure characters with simple, effective, and yes, believable dialogue to carry it thru, and it achieves its aims handsomely. No little amount of suspense keeps the film ticking along, and as an adventure story it works perfectly for the time frame it adheres to, so a big thumbs to the film that may well be the first of its type? 7/10