30 TO ZERO in the 9th INNING.

Rating: 6/10 (25 November 2006)

When we first saw this movie in 1963 at Washington DC's RKO KEITH'S THEATRE, all 1,850 seats were filled and there were several hundred standees, no doubt in violation of the fire codes. I've never seen such a full movie-house. I was fully taken in by the star studded cast, the patriotic true story, the starring score by Elmer Bernstein, and the wonderful cinematography of the European landscape. I could not understand the Luke-warm reviews in Washington's four newspapers. 43 years later I can see the reviewers were right. This was a mediocre movie designed simply as a popular entertainment.
Where John Sturges and James Clavel went wrong was stacking the deck so totally in favor of the American prisoners and against their German captors, the film has all the suspense of a 30 to zero ball game. While the Americans plot and execute the escape, at no time do the Germans lift a finger to prevent it. Everything goes smoothly according to plan. Anything and everything the prisoners need is simply found with no great effort amongst the prison grounds. How silly! Even when the Germans stumble upon the tunnel entrance under the stove, their only reaction is to look down the hole. No disciplinary action follows, not even yelling.
In 1963, Hollywood hadn't yet learned to hate America. This was NOT a rotten revisionist history travesty such as Jerry Bruckheimer's PEARL HARBOR or Steven Spielberg's PRIVATE RYAN. The filmmaker's hearts were in the right place. But the 50 men to whom the film is dedicated truly were deserving of a good film being made in their honor. More a kid-flick than a serious drama, this picture does not deserve inclusion in the top 250 --- or 2,000.