The Wooden Horse

Infobox Film
name = The Wooden Horse


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director = Jack Lee
producer =
writer = Eric Williams
narrator =
starring = Leo Genn
Anthony Steel
David Tomlinson
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cinematography =
editing =
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released = 1950
runtime =
country = flagicon|UK UK
language = English
budget =
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website =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0043147

"The Wooden Horse" is a 1950 World War II film starring Leo Genn, Anthony Steel and David Tomlinson. It is based on the book of the same name [Williams, Eric, "The Wooden Horse" (Collins, 1949)] by Eric Williams, who also wrote the screenplay. The 'Wooden Horse' plan itself was actually conceived and entirely thought through by Williams and Michael Codner in equal measures. In Oliver Philpot's later book "The Stolen Journey" the author made it clear that he initially thought the plan was "crackers", telling its inventors "I give it a couple of days!". [Philpot, Oliver, "Stolen Journey" (Hodder and Stoughton, 1950), p. 215] Nevertheless, Philpot helped with the sand dispersal, and later with the actual digging - at which point he was invited to take part in the escape.

The actor Peter Butterworth, who appeared in many of the "Carry On films", was one of the vaulters in the real-life 'Wooden Horse' escape. He applied for a role in the subsequent movie but didn't get a part as he 'didn't look convincingly heroic and athletic enough'.

Plot

This true story is set in Stalag Luft III—the same POW camp where the real events depicted in the film "The Great Escape" took place—and involved Williams, Michael Codner and Oliver Philpot, all inmates of the camp.

The prisoners were faced with the problem of digging an escape tunnel despite the accommodation huts, within which the tunnel entrance could be concealed, being a considerable distance from the perimeter fence. They came up with an ingenious way of digging the tunnel with its entrance located in the "middle" of an open area relatively near the perimeter fence and using a vaulting horse (constructed largely from plywood from Canadian Red Cross parcels) to cover the entrance.

Each day they carried the horse out to the same spot, with a man hidden inside. The prisoners would then begin a gymnastic exercise using the vaulting horse, while the concealed man dug down below the horse. At the finish of the exercises the digger would place a wooden board, cut to fit the aperture, in the hole and fill in the top with dry dirt kept for the purpose - dirt taken from anywhere else in the tunnel might be wetter and hence give away the activities.

Eventually, as the tunnel lengthened, two men were hidden inside the horse while a larger group of men exercised, the two men continuing the tunnel digging. At the end of the day they would again conceal the tunnel entrance and hide inside the horse while it was carried back to their hut. They also had to devise a method of disposing of the earth coming out of the tunnel. For the final breakout Codner hid in the tunnel during an Appel, before three men were carried over in the horse: the third to replace the tunnel trap.

All three made it to neutral Sweden. Williams and Codner travelled together, whilst Philpot travelled alone. Philpot, posing as a Norwegian margarine manufacturer and travelling by train via Danzig (now Gdansk), was the first to make it to neutral territory.

The film was shot in a low-key style, fairly soon after the war, with a limited budget and a cast including many amateur actors. It contributed to establishing the genre of British prisoner of war escape films. Some details from Williams's book were not used in the film, e.g. the escaped POWs discussing the possibility of visiting potentially neutral "whorehouses" in Germany. (The idea was abandoned because of fear that it might be a trap, not out of prudishness.)

Cast

* Leo Genn as Peter
* David Tomlinson as Phil
* Anthony Steel as John
* David Greene as Bennett
* Peter Burton as Nigel
* Patrick Waddington as the Senior British Officer
* Michael Goodliffe as Robbie
* Anthony Dawson as Pomfret
* Bryan Forbes as Paul
* Dan Cunningham as David
* Peter Finch as the Australian in Hospital
* Philip Dale as Bill White
* Russell Waters as 'Wings' Cameron
* Ralph Ward as the Adjutant

External links

*imdb title|id=0043147|title=The Wooden Horse
* [http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/nwh_gfx_en/ART29411.html The actual story - "WOODEN HORSE ESCAPE KIT PRESENTED TO IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM"]

References