The One That Got Away (1957 film)


The One That Got Away is a 1957 Second World War film starring Hardy Krüger and featuring Michael Goodliffe, Jack Gwillim and Alec McCowen. The film was directed by Roy Ward Baker with a screenplay written by Howard Clewes, based on the 1956 book of the same name by Kendal Burt and James Leasor.
The film chronicles the true exploits of Oberleutnant Franz von Werra, a Luftwaffe pilot shot down over Britain in 1940. He initially tried to escape while captive in England, but was later successful during transfer to a Canadian POW camp. Von Werra was the only Axis POW to succeed in escaping during the war.
The tongue-in-cheek issue with the title is that it celebrates the fact that only one single PoW escaped from Britain during the Second World War. The film therefore strives to emphasise what an exceptional man von Werra was.

Plot

Luftwaffe fighter pilot Franz von Werra is shot down during the Battle of Britain and captured. He wagers with his RAF interrogator at the POW reception centre, Air Defence Intelligence, located at Trent Park in Cockfosters, near Barnet in Hertfordshire, that he will escape within six months.
Initially, von Werra is sent to No 1 prisoner-of-war camp Grizedale Hall in the Furness area of Lancashire. His first escape involves dropping over a wall he is lying on during a group walk. He rolls over a a horse and cart passes. He is spotted by some land army girls in the field but their frantic waving to the guards is mistaken for fraternisation. Only when the count is run at the end and it registers 23 instead of 24 do they realise he is missing. The CO retraces their route on horseback but it is too late, and the horse shoes give advances warning of his approach, allowing von Werra to hide. He heads into the hills. Von Werra wears his leather flight jacket donning his Iron Cross during this. This results in an intense manhunt by trrops and police. He has the cheek to tauntingly wave to them from a hilltop. He lies flat in the mud on an open moor in heavy rain and they almost miss him. When they find him they are very kind and wrap him in a blanket.
En route by rail to his new camp at Swanwick he makes study o the map of Derby shire hanging in the station waiting room..
Subsequently, von Werra is sent to a more secure POW camp near Swanwick, Derbyshire. During a German air raid he and four others escape through a tunnel. The others pair up, but von Werra continues alone. Reaching Codnor Park railway station, he impersonates a Dutch pilot and claims his Wellington bomber had crashed while on a secret mission. The station master telephones the police who are to then take him to the nearest airfield, RAF Hucknall, and tricks the duty officer into sending a car. However, the police arrive first, and with much bravado he delays them until the RAF car arrives. He gets to thairfield and spots a Hawker Hurricane. When his story starts to fray, von Werra creeps away and tries to steal an experimental Hawker Hurricane, getting as far as sitting and starting the engine before a pistol appears in his face and he is told "get out".
Along with many other POWs, von Werra is then sent by ship to Canada. The ship arrives at Halifax, Nova Scotia, then there is a train journey. On the train ride across the country, while the guards are distracted, he escapes near Smith's Falls, Ontario, by jumping from a window. Making his way south hitching rides, von Werra finds the St Lawrence River not as solid as he has been led to believe, He then steals a rowboat and pushes it over the ice till he reaches the free-flowing section. He falls asleep in the drifting boat. He reaches the American side almost frozen to death. He is told he is in Ogdensburg, USA, where he is arrested despite claiming asylum in the then still-neutral United States.
Back in England the RAF interrogator receives a postcard from von Werra featuring a photograph of the Statue of Liberty, informing him that he has lost his bet.
The epilogue states:

Despite the efforts of the Canadian Government to obtain his return, and of the United States Authorities to hold him, Von Werra crossed the border into Mexico. Travelling by way of Peru, Bolivia, Brazil and Spain, he reached Berlin on 18 April 1941.
On October 25th of the same year, while on patrol, his plane was seen to dive into the sea. No trace of Von Werra was found.

Cast

says he was approached to play the lead role but turned it down as he had just played another real-life POW, Douglas Bader in Reach for the Sky. John David, head of the Rank organisation, wanted Dirk Bogarde. Director Roy Baker insisted on a German. O.W. Fischer was reportedly considered for the lead, then disregarded as he was too old. Rank's overseas distribution manager then suggested Hardy Krüger.
A Messerschmitt Bf 109 and Hawker Hurricane were featured in the production., the Hawker Hurricane IIc is still in existence, flying with the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.

Reception

The One That Got Away was generally well received by audiences and critics; Howard H. Thompson of The New York Times noted its "... restrained, well-knit scenario."
The film was popular in Britain and did extremely well in West Germany, making over £3 million. It made a comfortable profit.
This prompted producer Julian Wintle to form his own production company and he made two films with German protagonists, Bachelor of Hearts and Tiger Bay.