This Great Escape

by Andrew Steinmetz

  Q8. Are you still in contact with anyone professionally related to the making of the movie who might remember Mr. Paryla, and be willing to answer some questions I have?

  A8. I am no longer in contact with anyone professionally related to the movie. Sadly most of the actors and crew are now dead. You could try contacting Tom Adams through Equity or Spotlight in the UK. Adams played ‘Nimmo’ and was, I believe, in the train scene with Michael Payala (sic).4

  I hope this is some use to you. It was all a very long time ago—50 years next year!5

  Good luck with your book.

  Extra Hater

  Jonathan F. Vance, PhD, Professor and J.B. Smallman Chair, Department of History, The University of Western Ontario, is the author of A Gallant Company: The True Story of ‘The Great Escape’. After reading his book, I sent Professor Vance an exploratory Mr. Paryla BLA-BLA-BLA-BLA email in the hopes that he might know a little more about

  … the reaction IN WEST GERMANY (at the time and later) to the making and release of this Hollywood blockbuster. In other words, the movie was a hit in the USA and UK, but how was it received in Germany ?

  Vance replied with the kind of I’m afraid I can’t tell you anything about that letter that I had grown familiar with and frequently received from experts out there in the field.

  The only thing I know about the movie in Germany is that a lot of the extras were students from the University of Heidelberg. One of them was a former professor of mine, but his part ended up on the cutting room floor!

  And so it was this Professor Vance who led me to Michael Kater, Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus of History and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (FRSC), at the Canadian Centre for German and European Studies, York University. Kater was an exciting find. He’d been an extra in the movie, and therefore more or less had the same experience on the decorated set as Michael must have had. In other words, I could extrapolate from Kater’s experience. Not only that, I soon found out that Michael Hans Kater was born in Germany and like my Michael had moved to Canada as a teenager. What were the chances I’d find an extra Michael right here in my Canadian backyard? Professor Emeritus at The Canadian Centre for German and European Studies, no less.

  Immediately I fired off an email to Professor Kater, who responded:

  Dear Mr. Steinmetz, thanks for the mail. The very successful Jonathan Vance is a former PhD student of mine. He has advised you right. But I was not a PhD student at Hidelberg [sic] at the time (that came later); I was playing modern jazz in Munich night clubs then (for a year, 1959-60), and hanging around with musicians, young actors (actresses!), painters, artists, writers. It was a marvellous time. The young man who asked me to be an extra along with himself, an artist …

  Hence I remember fondly my days as an extra in the film. I was five feet away from Steve McQ. [sic] and trying to catch a baseball he threw me, several times. I did this, but they cut out the scene when editing. Otherwise, he was racing around on that motorcycle they gave him in his spare time, destroying all the farmers’ meadows. You may quote me on that.6

  I would love to talk to you but I am very busy meeting a book deadline.

  Unfortunately, I do not remember Mr. Paryla.

  It was a good-natured response from a busy academic with a book deadline to boot, but it was not what I had in mind, and it would not suffice, since I too had a book deadline, if not a real or definite one.7 Kater may well have played pitch with ‘Steve McQ’ but he hadn’t yet engaged in a game of email dodgeball with der kanadische Schriftsteller Andrew Steinmetz. I responded to the busy ex-extra Kater without delay—and again as with my correspondence with John Leyton’s manager, I acted from inside the ADHD wind tunnel, addressing him as, Professor Emeritus at The Canadian Centre for German and European Studies, “Dear Professor Hater”.

  Of course, I realize my error as soon as it slips my outbox, making a blip as regret slides down my throat.

  The tone of Hater’s response confirms Kater caught my dirty little Freudian trick and sublimated it.

  I cannot set up a call because I am in and out of town. I shall answer a few questions by e-mail but only if you refer to me by name in the book, should you use the information. 8

  Why Canada? Are you not in the States?

  No, I’m not in the States. I’m right here in little-big-town Ottawa. What I presume just happened is the following. Upon receiving my hate mail, Kater plugged my name in a search engine, and the first Andrew Steinmetz to surface was the historian and author of The Gaming Table: Its Votaries and Victims. This is not the right Andrew Steinmetz. But who cares. In the end, I send him pretty much what I sent Leyton. His answers are to the point.

  Q1. Did you sign a ‘contract’?

  A1. Nothing. I don’t even recall there was a casting audition. I was given a Northern Rhodesian pilot’s uniform to wear.

  Q2. I’m interested in knowing what the atmosphere was like on set, especially in regards to the different nationalities collected in Germany to film a war movie ‘not long’ after the end of the war—Germans, Americans, Englishmen; was there any self-consciousness about this? I’m told by John Leyton that the atmosphere was very friendly. I don’t doubt this but I am interested in knowing your experience, your feelings related to this collection of nationalities.

  A2. I am sure it was friendly, we had a good time. I don’t remember any particular feelings or experiences.

  Q3. Did you meet and do you have any memories of the better known German actors in the movie, like Robert Graf, Hannes Messemer, Til Kiwe, ect [sic] ?

  A3. No to all questions.

  Q4. I am assuming you were born in Germany, though this might not be correct. As someone who is German-born, how did you feel acting in this movie which was set during the Third Reich? Did you feel self-conscious about this in any way?

  A4. No. I enjoyed the experience and needed the money.

  Q5. Do you remember how the film was received in Germany when it came out? (It was a hit elsewhere.) I’m interested to know what reaction there was in Germany to the film and its past?

  A5. By the time the film came out in Germany, I must have been back in Canada doing my MA at U of T. I have no idea how it was received there.

  Q6. Many of the actors involved in the movie had wartime and/or prisoner of war experiences—for example, Messemer was a prisoner of the Russians. Were you aware of this during the filming? Was it spoken of?

  A6. I don’t even remember those actors. I think I told you all I know. I was doing many crazy things at that time and this was one of them.

  There were no more emails.

  1 He was a bit player, actually, and there is a difference, but at the time I didn’t properly know a rush from a synch, a bit player from a walk-on from a non-speaking role from a principal. I didn’t know a whole lot. Re-enter The Filmfuehrer: “There is probably a very specific union definition but I would say that normally, you have crowd scene extras etc, who get no credit, and this would include interiors, up to say a restaurant size. Smaller than that, a few people in a room, you are no longer an extra but have a bit part. If the person’s face is alone in the frame, or they are in the frame with a principal character, they are no longer an extra but a minor member of the cast. If they speak, then they can be sure of a higher rank … about as high as you can get before having a ‘part’.”

  2 Like he might. Like he cares. Witness the incontinent egonomics in action.

  3 Prädikat wertvoll! It got a yellow star from die Deutsche Film-und Medienbewertung Wiesbaden remember. Personally, I don’t think the FBW should be going around handing out ‘yellow stars’ to Second World War movies, but that’s their internal business.

  4 I tried contacting Tom Adams. No response from Spotlight or Equity. There were no further emails.

  5 Look out for Blu-Ray! 2013 is the 50th anniversary of th
e movie’s release. By then the War on Michael should be gone with the wind.

  6 Done.

  7 Obviously my so-called book deadline is self-imposed and not legally binding or whatever.

  8 Done.

  ‘Shot In The Never Get Bored’

  DAS GOOGLE IS MY ESCORT. It knows all my secrets. Knows what I want. My history. So it takes me directly to www.cinema.de, where I hope to get a feeling for the present vibes surrounding Gesprengte Ketten. Forget the tame yellow star rating it received from the very stolid FBW—hear nothing more from the film bureau ensconced in Castle Biebrich on the Rhine—the movie receives full marks for ‘voltage’ and the editor’s ‘thumbs up’ verdict at multiple online sites. In no time I pick up the trail of Ein obercooler Steve McQueen und weitere Stars im legendären Fluchtdrama von 63. This sounds more like it. I’m feeling lucky, so I Translate This Page:

  War 1944: The Germans have a warehouse built specifically for prisoners who have escaped many times. What Major Bartlett (Richard Attenborough) and his fellow prisoners does not prevent another outbreak plan. Great effort, digging Hilts (Steve McQueen), Velinski (Charles Bronson) and other prisoners (James Garner, Donald Pleasance among others) three tunnels … The thrilling escape movie classic by John Sturges (The Magnificent Seven) was a hit movie of the 60s, and the stars brought in his own experience: Bronson toiled as a teenager in the coal mine, his claustrophobia in the tunnel was not played! Pleasance was shot down a bomber pilot and was in a German camp. Motorcycle Freak McQueen makes a self-assembly chase: He also plays one of the Nazis who persecute him by motorcycle.

  You get the idea. Warehouse for a camp. Claustrophobia not played, but real. Motorcycle Freak Steve McQueen pulling off wheelies and illusions:

  His character gets the correct type a thrilling motorcycle chase donated. On the run from the captors, he graduated with his bike, even after today’s conditions still mad stunts. And the motorsport enthusiast and mime it did not take itself very neatly to give rubber.

  A ‘mime’ must be a stuntman. Machine-translating ‘stuntman’ as ‘mime’ is one hell of a counter-intuitive stroke of brilliance, I feel. But I wonder what would Bud Ekins have to say about it, him the Marcel Marceau of Motorbikes? Did Bud Ekins not very neatly give rubber? He did. He who jumped the barrier fence on a Triumph TR6 Trophy 650cc. He did neatly give rubber in the motorcycle chases he donated.

  Rich stuff from Google Translate. Rich stuff. And much fun to have this mass of febrile and fertile gunk to mess through, as the train I am on speeds to Hamburg. Whatever is working away beneath the white interface, the resulting ambiguity is pleasing. There is accuracy, yes, you may want to consider that, but sometimes I prefer to be lucky. Who doesn’t. To this end, the Online-Filmdatenbank is an ausgezeichnete site for online reviews. So too is Filmstarts.de.

  More please. Here an anonymous film kritik introduces John Sturges to a German-speaking audience. The oracle speaks:

  The name John Sturges is perhaps not anyone an idea. The director is an undeserved dimension behind the recognition of other contemporaries left behind. His greatest success—the Magnificent Seven aside—was The Great Escape, a war film about a prison breakout that boasts high-profile actors and the audience prepares a thieving pleasure.

  A thieving pleasure, genau, you could not contribute a more redolent profile of John Sturges. There is the suggestion of an enigma in representing the director Sturges as an ‘undeserved dimension behind the recognition.’ I don’t know what this means, but I like the sound of it.

  The movie’s historical background:

  Southern Germany in 1944: The Second World War is in its heyday. Many officers find themselves Allied prisoners of war. The problem: Germans, looking for the escapees can not fight on the front, and broken off, which again could not be captured again intervene in the war.

  Let me translate, I feel lucky: The many Germans who join the hunt to recapture the escapees cannot contribute to the war effort on the front line. The unrecaptured escapees get a second chance to wreak havoc. Trust me. This relates to an idea mentioned earlier and one held by the Allies, that it was each prisoner’s duty to attempt escape and that even unsuccessful events upset order and diverted attention from the front lines. You have to understand that what belies the cold white interface is algorithmic maturity: the warm intelligence which produces machine-translation which is as reckless and imperfect as any human being. Instantaneous, intuitive, and inspired.

  One criticism that emerges from multiple reviewers is that the movie portrays the atmosphere inside Stalag Luft III in too light a manner. Like a summer camp:

  The prisoners in the movie get on surprisingly well. One gets the impression that the outbreak has just sporting reasons, the nasty camp life, he is not owed. This is underscored by the stirring music. And that’s the only thing the film is guilty of: the war described as an adventure playground, the big boys doing exciting things. Injured soldiers can not be seen, all doing splendidly.

  Another reviewer wrote:

  The prisoners would have preferred to spend the rest of the war in the camp, instead, they behave as if all a game. Because war is not funny, it’s only the average rating …

  War is a game and escaping is a sport played by public school educated officers. Goering’s Stalag Luft III is a strict boarding school.

  Another:

  Class film, shot in the never get bored, despite the length. Even top performances by the actors. As a teenager, I liked the film really happy, but when I look at it today, I find the humor very inappropriate, especially the cheerful music theme.

  This observation about the music is bang on. Elmer Bernstein’s plucky score—the parade snare hijinks, the “much quoted merry whistle along”—smacks of post-war propaganda.

  I’m still very interested to know what Germans nowadays feel about the movie’s characterization of Second World War Goons. You would think there would be a dissertation available on this from which I could crib. Several German Studies scholars whom I contacted conscientiously agreed that German reaction to Sturges’ movie would be an excellent dissertation topic. They advised that I search for reviews in FAZ and Filmkritik and even Der Spiegel. German print periodicals. But I’m impatient and much prefer the unauthorized views expressed at the Online-Filmdatenbank.

  “The Germans are depicted as not only the evil, despicable beasts,” writes one reviewer.

  “Also encouraging is that not all Germans are depicted in the film as the usual flat bang batches. There are people, not dull thugs,” opines another.

  I take it that ‘flat bang batches’ is a reference to Hitler’s juvenile bowl cut. But I’m not really sure, and that’s the fun thing about doing business with Google and its friend Babelfish: not everything is so boring and exact or precise.

  In particular, the figure of the camp director by Luger (Hannes Messemer) revealed an unusual image of the Nazi officer. He is a man who likes it quiet. He has no interest to spoon-feed the prisoners, but is cultivated. When he meets the most senior British officer at the first meeting serving beverages, he does not condescendingly, due to mutual respect. He does his job, and he with the nationalist ideology has not care much, it shows … The same goes for the guard Werner (Robert Graf), who in the credits is given “man with a heart”. The other characters were filled with German native speakers, which gives the film added authenticity.

  Michael, for example, is a native speaker who adds much authenticity to the film. But for all his value-addedness, he gets no simple ‘man with a heart’ credit.

  I found this note on historical accuracy to be especially poetic:

  Ultimately, the film pays homage to its historical origins insofar as he [Sturges] remains with the number of the fugitives, and how it came about that so few of them arrived at the truth.

  Here I understand the phrase about so few fugitives arriving ‘at the t
ruth’ to mean so few of the escapees—only three—made it to freedom. To equate freedom with truth is brilliant. You could not get an opium-addled English Romantic poet to come up with this stuff. You might get something very close, but not exactly this.

  Despite some minor grumbles then, there appears to be consensus that in Gesprengte Ketten the Goons were fairly treated by their American movie masters.

  Meanwhile the entertainment value of the movie itself is never in doubt. “Without exaggeration simply great.” Online you find comments like these:

  Great Escape means more than three and a half hours of excitement and thrills!

  And!

  Sturges filmed this authentic story that pulls the audience right from the start in their wake.

  And!

  Be it the bold and incredibly handsome Steve McQueen, James Garner, the heroic, to the particular firm Charles Bronson and Richard Attenborough as Major Bartlett—here is the big Hollywood stars in the hand. Terrific actors, who manage to captivate the audience for nearly four hours—what can you expect from a good movie more? 1