The Colditz Story

Colditz Castle sits in the middle of Germany, 400 miles from any neutral border, and the Germans use it to hold the prisoners who keep trying to leave other camps. Pat Reid (John Mills), the British Escape Officer, works alongside Colonel Richmond (Eric Portman) and the French, Dutch and Polish inmates to prove the castle wrong. Guy Hamilton, adapting Reid's own memoir, builds the film from the small mechanics of each attempt and gives the ensemble room to work.