The Password Is Courage
Directed by Andrew L. Stone
Written by Andrew L. Stone based on a biography of Charles Coward by John Castle
1962/UK
Andrew L. Stone Productions
First viewing/YouTube
“I was mentally prepared to sustain serious injury or death, but before that day I never contemplated the reality of being captured by the enemy. I thought, “This is going to be hard on the folks,” only to realize that I actually verbalized my thought out loud. As the English-speaking officer and I walked side by side, he said, “War is terrible, isn’t it?” ― Oliver Omanson, Prisoner of War Number 21860: The World War II Memoirs of Oliver Omanson
Comparisons to other prisoner-of-war escape movies are inevitable. Unfortunately, despite the presence of my beloved Dirk Bogarde, this one doesn’t quite measure up.
The ironically-named Sergeant-Major Charles Coward (Bogarde) is a brave and audacious leader of men. He is subordinate to some of the officers at the prison camp but is key to escape plans via a tunnel. He can play the German prison guards like a violin.
To collect supplies, Coward blackmails a guard into letting him have an unescorted visit to town, where he will be shot on sight if found out. While there, he meets a lady optometrist. Naturally, they fall in love.
There is nothing exactly wrong with this picture but the light-hearted moments didn’t work quite the way they should. It feels like another version of The Great Escape (1963) without much of the suspense.
