At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY (not to be confused with the low-rent Chris Ryan Gulf War story) is a black and white British wartime thriller with an unusual premise: the hero is a German captured by the British and determined to escape from them at all costs. The film has the hook of being a true story and turns out to be unmissable viewing.I admire the guts of the guys at Rank to make this film in the first place; they must have questioned their audience's willingness to respond to and even sympathise with one of the German 'bad guys' a mere twelve years after the end of WW2. To his credit, Hardy Kruger doesn't go out of his way to make his lead character likable; however, he is driven and polite, refusing to resort to violence in his bid for freedom, and that's what makes him such a great character.In addition, THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY has one of those excellent thriller set-ups in which every moment of the film is devoted to the thrills and suspense; no time for padding here. Roy Ward Baker contributes some of his finest directorial work, and the supporting cast of Michael Goodliffe, Terence Alexander, John Van Eyssen (DRACULA) and even 'ALLO 'ALLO's Richard Marner add to the overall experience. In fact, THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY is something of a minor classic...

The One that Got Away (1957)Not quite documentary in form, this is still a true life story told in a dry and sometimes rather funny British way about the one known P.O.W. who escaped from the British and returned to Germany in WWII. They tell you this in the opening titles, so in a way you know the whole plot.And this changes the way you look at it all, wondering, okay, now how is he going to escape. And then he does. Yes. But it's how it happens, and the incredible chutzpah and cleverness that let it follow through. It's the kind of part Brad Pitt would play, with a terrible German accent of course, but this one is 1957 and Hardy Kruger, who is German (he's still alive in his 80s), is played with dash and compassion. I liked him despite the ingrained sentiment we have (here in the U.S. at least) that Nazis in the movies are terrible people.This is Kruger's first significant film role, and he actually served in the German army as a teenager in the war. His character is so likable and cunning, you gradually come to admire and almost root for him, even though the British and later the Canadians are all doing a pretty decent job overall, however lax it might seem to us. This is set in 1940, and the U.S. isn't yet in the war and so represents neutral territory even for a Nazi (always a weird thing to swallow in retrospect) and this plays a role in the latter half the movie. The drawback of the film is its inevitability. And its linear quality, following the increasingly outrageous and difficult escape. But it's smartly done, with understatement, and if you like the bravery and adventure of a man on his own against the odds, this might just resonate. And of course WWII buffs will get it at least from the periphery. It's got some good glimpses of planes and flying, and a decent sense of life on the ground in this period.

This movie is great entertainment, but not much more. The movie is full of suspension and it's quite interesting to watch our main actor to outsmart everyone. Sadly there is no questioning about good and evil in this story. The escaping German is the hero in this British movie! Also sort of disappointing has been, that there are no interesting psychological relationships. It was all about the main actor Hardy Krüger. But this guy alone was enough to keep you interested. Great performance!The part of the movie I liked the most, has been the part where Krüger is walking though the snow, fighting for his life. Amazing pictures! Great music! Incredible suspension! - It's for the history books of the movie-world. It made me rank up this movie from 6, to 7 points.

I was lucky to find a DVD of this film. In my memory the film was excellent and seeing it again after 30 years or so I was not disappointed. As an escape film it works beautifully. Someone tries - and in the end succeeds, as the title suggests - to escape from prison camp. What makes this film special is that it is a German who is portrayed as the hero. As a child it was the first time that I ever saw a war movie with a Good German in it (or at the very least not a bad and/or stupid one). Hardy Krüger was of course brilliant and he later did a similar job in Flight of the Phoenix where he played an arrogant but in the end sympathetic German. And the film does not even make the soldier a secret enemy of the Nazi regime. He is portrayed as a loyal German soldier who sees it as his duty to escape and to continue fighting the allies. For me to see that English film makers where able to make a film like this made me very optimistic. They avoid using clichés. And funny enough, they confirm the cliché about the English, namely that they are fair and good sportsmen, because that's what we have here. A game where the object is to escape from prison. A German wins and this is what we see. Thank you.