Connection with the previous post (JOE KIDD): John Syurgess Directed both films.
Richard Attenborough as Bartlett, James Coburn as Sedgwick, John Leyton as Willie, Nigel Stock as Cavendish, Robert Desmond as Griffith, Gordon Jackson as MacDonald, Donald Pleasence as Colin, and Charles Bronson as Danny
Trivia (From IMDB):
Hilts (Steve McQueen) strings a wire across the road to obtain a motorcycle. McQueen himself played the German motorcyclist who hits the wire.
Charles Bronson, who portrays the chief tunneler, brought his own expertise and experiences to the set: he had been a coal miner before turning to acting and gave director John Sturges advice on how to move the earth. As a result of his work in the coal mines, Bronson suffered from claustrophobia just as his character had.
One day, the police in the German town where the film was shot set up a speed trap near the set. Several members of the cast and crew were caught, including Steve McQueen. The Chief of Police told McQueen "Herr McQueen, we have caught several of your comrades today, but you have won the prize [for the highest speeding]." McQueen was arrested and briefly jailed.
During the climactic motorcycle chase, John Sturges allowed Steve McQueen to ride (in disguise) as one of the pursuing German soldiers, so that in the final sequence, through the magic of editing, he's actually chasing himself. McQueen played the German motorcyclist who hits the wire.
During idle periods while The Great Escape (1963) was in production, all cast and crew members - from stars Steve McQueen and James Garner to production assistants and obscure food service workers - were asked to take thin, five-inch strings of black rubber and knot them around other thin strings of black rubber of enormous length. The finished results of all this knotting were the coils and fences of barbed wire seen throughout the film.
Although Steve McQueen did his own motorcycle riding, there was one stunt he did not perform: the hair-raising 60-foot jump over a fence. This was done by McQueen's friend Bud Ekins, who was managing a Los Angeles-area motorcycle shop when recruited for the stunt. It was the beginning of a new career for Ekins, as he later doubled for McQueen in Bullitt (1968) and did much of the motorcycle riding on the television series CHiPs (1977).
During production, Charles Bronson met and fell in love with David McCallum's wife, Jill Ireland, and he jokingly told McCallum he was going to steal her away from him. In 1967, Ireland and McCallum divorced, and she married Bronson.
Several cast members were actual P.O.W.s during World War II. Donald Pleasence was held in a German camp, Hannes Messemer in a Russian camp and Til Kiwe and Hans Reiser were prisoners of the Americans.
Steve McQueen also personally attempted the jump across the border fence, but crashed. The jump was successfully performed by Bud Ekins.
Donald Pleasence had actually been a Royal Air Force pilot in World War II, who was shot down, became a prisoner of war and was tortured by the Germans. When he kindly offered advice to the film's director John Sturges, he was politely asked to keep his "opinions" to himself. Later, when another star from the film informed John Sturges that Pleasence had actually been a RAF Officer in a World War II German POW Stalag camp, Sturges requested his technical advice and input on historical accuracy from that point forward.
Wally Floody, the real-life "Tunnel King" (he was transferred to another camp just before the escape), served as a consultant to the filmmakers, almost full-time, for more than a year.
The real-life escape preparations involved 600 men working for well over a year. The escape did have the desired effect of diverting German resources, including a doubling of the number of guards after the Gestapo took over the camp from the Luftwaffe.
The motorcycle scenes were not based on real life but were added at Steve McQueen's suggestion.
With the deaths of James Garner (Robert Hendley) on July 19, 2014 and Richard Attenborough (Roger Bartlett) on August 24, 2014, David McCallum (Eric Ashley-Pitt) William Russell and John Leyton are the last surviving stars of the film.
James Garner developed his "Scrounger" character from his own personal experiences in the military during the Korean War.
Some aspects of the escape remained classified during production and were not revealed until well after. The inclusion of chocolate, coffee and cigarettes in Red Cross packages is well documented, as is their use to bribe Nazi guards. Other materials useful for escaping had to be kept secret and were not included in the novel or screenplay. Also not revealed until many years later was the fact that the prisoners actually built a fourth tunnel called "George."
Paul Brickhill, who wrote the book from which the film is based, was piloting a Spitfire aircraft that was shot down over Tunisia in March 1943. He was taken to Stalag Luft III in Germany, where he assisted in the escape preparations.
Steve McQueen accepted the role of Hilts on the condition that he got to show off his motorcycle skills.
The film was shot entirely on location in Europe, with a complete camp resembling Stalag Luft III built near Munich, Germany. Exteriors for the escape sequences were shot in the Rhine Country and areas near the North Sea, and Steve McQueen's motorcycle scenes were filmed in Fussen (on the Austrian border) and the Alps. All interiors were filmed at the Bavaria Studio in Munich.
When celebrating the Fourth of July and pouring alcohol, Hilts (Steve McQueen) is thrown off by an ad-lib by Goff (Jud Taylor). While Hilts is drinking, Goff says, "No taxation without representation." McQueen jumps out of character and gives him a look (and mouths, "What?") The director must have signaled to "just go with it" and the scene continues. But it is an obvious ad-lib.
The song sung by Ives & McDonald on 4th July is "Wha Hae the 42nd?" Contrary to common belief it is not in Gaelic but a light Scots dialect of English. The 42nd Regiment of Foot was the Scottish regiment in the British Army known as the Black Watch.
In the film, several Americans (including Hilts and Henley) were among the escapees. In real life, American officers assisted with the construction of the escape tunnel, but weren't among the escapees because the Germans moved them to a remote compound just before the escape.
The actual camp - Stalag Luft III - was located in Zagan, Poland and the remains of the camp can be found at the following map coordinates: 51.599036, 15.310030
Most of the planes in the airfield are actually American AT-6 Texan trainers painted with a German paint scheme, but the one actually flown is an authentic German plane, a Bucker Bu 181 'Bestmann.'
Although the German airfield displays mainly North American AT-6 Texan trainers, it is feasible that this was authentic. The Germans did use the AT-6 in some numbers as advanced trainers, which they had sequestrated from the French in 1940.
The tunnel sets were were constructed of wood and skins filled with plaster and dirt and open on one side with a dolly track running the length of the set in order to shoot scenes of prisoners scooting along through them.
The medal that Colonel von Luger wears around his neck is the Pour le Merite, also known as the Blue Max. Originally a Prussian military honor, in the First World War it was automatically given to fighter pilots who shot down eight planes (later raised to sixteen). The Nazis replaced it with the Knight's Cross but it could still be worn by officers who'd won it before the Third Reich.
The German characters were cast from actors out of Munich, including Hannes Messemerand Til Kiwe. Both had their own prisoner of war experiences. Messemer had been captured on the Eastern front by the Soviet army, escaped, and walked hundreds of miles to the German border. Frick served time in an American prison camp in Arizona. He tried to escape seventeen times.
For the train sequences, a railroad engine was rented and two condemned cars were purchased and modified to house the camera equipment. Scenes were shot on the single rail line between Munich and Hamburg, and a railroad representative was on hand to advise the filmmakers when to pull aside to avoid hitting scheduled oncoming trains.
The actual escape from Stalag Luft III occurred on March 24, 1944 - which was Steve McQueen's 14th birthday.
There is a film company called Virgil Films. It uses the sound of Virgil Hilts bouncing his baseball inside the cooler as the introduction to its movies.
Jud Taylor, who played Goff, the third American in the prison, said the camp set was so authentic and impressive that one day he came upon a man walking his dog who was very distressed when he came upon the site. The man was greatly relieved, Goff said, when he learned it was just a movie set.
The nationality of a few of the prisoners in the story was changed, emphasizing American, and de-emphasizing Commonwealth and other Allied.
The gold medallion Steve McQueen wears throughout the film was a present from his wife.
According to John Sturges, the screenplay went through six writers and eleven versions, and was still a work in progress during the actual shooting. "I'm not proposing that's a good way to make a picture, but it was the right way to make this one," he later said.
When the Bavaria Studio's backlot proved to be too small, the production team obtained permission from the German government to shoot in a national forest adjoining the studio. After the end of principal photography, the company restored (by reseeding) some 2,000 small pine trees that had been damaged in the course of shooting.
During the jump sequence, the crew was warned at the last possible second that the crane was about to slam into a pole. It was withdrawn in the nick of time.
Three of the actors, Steve McQueen, James Coburn and Charles Bronson starred together in the movie The Magnificent Seven (1960), also directed by John Sturges and scored by Elmer Bernstein.
Steve McQueen and James Garner became friends on this film. They bonded over their love of cars.
No American POW's particapated in the actual "great escape "as suggested in the movie. Some american POW's helped with the digging of tunnel "Tom" but they were moved to another camp, seven months earlier before the "escape" As the Germans had suspicions something was going on.
Steve McQueen's character Hilts was based on amalgamation of several characters, including Major Dave Jones, a flight commander during Doolittle's Raid who made it to Europe and was shot down and captured and Colonel Jerry Sage, who was an OSS agent in the North African desert when he was captured. Col. Sage was able to don a flight jacket and pass as a flier otherwise he would have been executed as a spy. Another inspiration was probably Sqn Ldr Eric Foster who escaped no less than seven times from German prisoner-of-war camps.
The German National Railroad Bureau cooperated with the production to provide trains and logistics for the railway escape sequences. Platforms were fitted on passenger cars to accommodate huge arc lamps to illuminate the train interiors. On one flat car, a large Chapman crane was set up to swing out over the passenger car and film the jump from the moving train performed by two stuntmen disguised as Garner's and Pleasence's characters. The bureau attached a special radio operator to the crew to alert the train engineer to any potential traffic on the main line. The shooting schedule was squeezed in between actual runs on the rails. The bureau gave the production certain times and lengths of tracks to work on until a passenger train was scheduled to come by; the film train then had to duck onto a siding until the other passed.
The motorcycle that Hilts (Steve McQueen) rides is a cosmetically modified Triumph TR6 Trophy. Bud Ekins who actually performs the famous barbed wire leap stunt, was a Triumph dealer. Triumph was McQueen's favorite motorcycle marque. The motorcycle sidecar combination that crashes into a ditch is revealed to be a Triumph motorcycle, too. As is well known, these British motorcycle models were not in existence during the Second World War and their appearance is somewhat incongruous.
John Leyton who played Willy, the Tunneler, was one of the most popular UK pop singers in the early '60s. He recorded the title song with lyrics.
The Germans routinely confined enemy aviators in Luftwaffe prisons, regardless of which service they had been in. This accounts for the presence of Ashley-Pitt, a Royal Navy pilot, in Luft Stalag III.
Danny says that all he could say in Russian was "I love you". Charles Bronson was fluent in Russian and spoke it as a first language from childhood.
The hooch-making scene in the film, where the Americans celebrated Independence Day, is believed to be based on the British creating an alcohol distillery for Christmas Day celebrations in 1943. Captain Guy Griffiths, a Royal Marine pilot in Stalag Luft III who produced forged documents for the escape, also produced a comical illustration of the scene which survives to this day. This painting, along with many others, forms the basis for a Special Exhibition on 'Griff' at the Royal Marines Museum (Southsea, England) running from Easter 2010.
The motorcycle driven by the character of Virgil Hilts that is used for the fence jump is a 1962 Thunderbird Triumph, which was refurbished to look like a bike 20 years older.
The newspaper that Ashley-Pitt (David McCallum) reads on the train is the 'Völkischer Beobachter', a real newspaper produced for 25 years by the National Socialist German Workers Party. It served as a propaganda sheet for the Nazis and helped bring Adolf Hitler to power. At its height, it had a circulation of approximately 1.4 million. The headline for the issue seen in the film translates roughly to "Day after day, the Soviets have high, bloody losses." Given that the escape in the film occurs in the summer of 1944, this too can be viewed as propaganda. The Nazis had transferred hundreds of thousands of troops to Normandy to stop the Allied advances after D-Day, allowing for the Soviet's to launch Operation Bagration on 22 June, which pushed the Nazis back into Poland by the beginning of 13 July and sparked the Warsaw uprising. In all, the Soviet advance caused German losses of approximately 670,000 dead, missing, wounded and sick, including 160,000 captured. Although the date of the escape is unclear, given the green pastures around the Alps that the escapees encounter, one can easily surmise that the newspaper was putting a positive spin on the battles in the east.
After two months shooting in the camp, the production moved to the town of Fussen near the Austrian border for post-escape scenes. Because he was already running out of money, John Sturges decided to cut back on his original plan to film in a number of locations. Fussen had all the elements he needed to simulate the various places where the escapees run, including nearby meadowlands to shoot the required motorcycle sequence.
John Sturges shopped the film for eight years but couldn't get a major studio to bite until United Artists stepped in. Sturges credited the success of The Magnificent Seven (1960) with the eventual funding of the film.
MacDonald (Intelligence) is based on George Harsh, a very good friend of Wally Floody(the real Tunnel King). They were both transferred to Belaria before the escape. Harsh was a very interesting character who was from the American south and had joined the RCAF as a tail-gunner. In the 1920s Harsh had committed murder and was sent to jail for life. A medical student, Harsh performed an appendectomy on a dying prisoner and saved his life. The governor of Georgia granted him a pardon and he was set free. After the war, he had personal problems as he was plagued by guilt over the crime he committed as a youth; on top of adjusting to life after fifteen years in captivity (12 years on the Georgia chain gang, followed by three years as POW). On Christmas Eve 1974, he did shoot himself but survived. A stroke soon after left him partially paralyzed. When that happened, Wally Floody and his wife brought him up to their Toronto home and looked after him. He eventually went to live -at his own urging- at the Veteran's Wing at the Sunnybrook Medical Centre. He died in January of 1980.
Steve McQueen held up production because he demanded that the script be rewritten to give his character more to do.
John Sturges' assistant Robert E. Relyea was an amateur pilot and offered to fly the plane himself for the sequence in which Hendley and Blythe commandeer a plane for their escape. In one segment he had to simulate the plane losing power and descending over a line of trees. According to Relyea, a farmer in his field saw the plane with its Nazi insignia coming in low over his head and threw his rake at it. Another time Relyea was arrested when he had to put the plane down in a field that happened to belong to a German aviation official. He also piloted the plane in the crash shot, knocking himself unconscious and being taken to the hospital where he woke up later feeling a sharp pain down his back.
After viewing the rushes, Steve McQueen decided his part was minor and undeveloped. He was particularly upset that his character virtually disappears from the film for about 30 minutes in the middle so he walked out demanding rewrites. John Sturges admitted the half-hour gap was likely a problem, but with the production already behind schedule due to the heavy rain, he felt he couldn't take time out to do rewrites and rescheduling. James Garner said he and James Coburn got together with McQueen to determine what his specific gripes were. Garner later said it was apparent McQueen wanted to be the hero but didn't want to be seen doing anything overtly heroic that contradicted his character's cool detachment and sardonic demeanor. At the same time, McQueen never really liked his character's calm acquiescence to his time in the cooler or the famous bit with the catcher's mitt and ball. Sturges considered writing the character out of the story altogether, but United Artists informed him they considered McQueen indispensable to the picture's success and would spring for the extra money to hire another writer, Ivan J. Moffitt, to deal with the star's demands. McQueen returned to work.
Richard Attenborough was an RAF air gunner/photographer who served in the RAF for three years unlike his character, based on Squadron Leader Roger Bushell who was a Spitfire Pilot in 92 Squadron in the early years of World War Two.
Early on in the production, John Sturges began receiving memos from distributor United Artists requesting female roles in the picture. One even suggested having the dying Ashley-Pitt cradled in the lap of a beautiful girl in a low-cut blouse. The studio wanted to cast this bit by having a Miss Prison Camp contest in Munich. Sturges would have none of it.
One of the masterminds for the real Great Escape was Wing Commander Harry Day. He isn't directly portrayed in this film, however the book which the film is based on (by Paul Brickhill) correctly tells his story. Arguable his story is the most impressive of the lot, having participated in at least 4 other mass breakout and 2 solo attempts prior to the Great Escape (twice getting free from the camp before recapture). He was one of the first out of the tunnel but was recaptured in Stettin trying to get help to gain passage out of Germany. He was spared execution and sent to Sachsenhausen concerntration camp with 3 other escapees. There they dug another tunnel and escaped with another British officer being held there. It's is widely believed they were the only people ever to survive an escape from that camp. All were recaptured and held in solitary confinement until being used as a hostage at the end of the war. Escaping from his captives he reached allied lines and was instrumental in securing the safe release of the other hostages.
The film was shot on location in a German forest. To make room for the camp set, several trees had to be bulldozed. John Sturges had to show the West German Minister of the Interior his plans and, to get permission to bulldoze, had to promise to plant two seeds for every tree felled when production was over.
The 3 real POWs to escape were Norwegians Per Bergsland and Jens Muller (who escaped by ship to Sweden after taking a train from Sagan to Stettin via Berlin) and Dutchman Bram van der Stok (who travelled across Europe to Spain)
The was another earlier mass escape attempt from the same compound as the Great Escape. Masterminded by the same 'X organisation', in June 1943 a large party of 26 prisoners escaped while being escorted by fake guards (prisoners disguised as Germans) being taken to another compound for delousing. All got clear of the camp but were all recaptured. Several were also participants of the later Great Escape. Two POWs, Lorne Welch and Walter Morison, attempted to steal an aircraft but were caught before they could start the engine. It was this real event that gave inspiration to certain events in the film. The 2 real officers were sent to Colditz castle and both survived the war.
Richard Harris was originally cast as Roger Bartlett, but dropped out because filming This Sporting Life (1963) was behind schedule and he was displeased with the diminished role of Big X after script changes had been made.
Walter Mirisch originally wanted Burt Lancaster for Hendley and Kirk Douglas for Hilts.
Group Captain Ramsey, is largely based on the real Senior British Officer Herbert Massey. Massey was injured when shot down and walked with a pronounced limp which prevented him from the escape attempt. James Donald walks with a limp and uses a walking stick in the film in honour of Massey.
James Coburn's Australian accent was non-existent, so the movie uses other devices to emphasise his nationality. For example, on entering the workshop, Roger's exasperation with Sedgewick follows with: "Bluey, where the hell is the air pump?" "Bluey" is an affectionate term for a person with red hair, found in Australian slang in the first half of the twentieth century. The consequence of Roger's use of the term, though made in support of the character, was too subtle for wider audiences and the credit of "Louis" appears for Sedgewick on many lists.
Richard Attenborough said many years later working with Steve McQueen on this film was one of the toughest challenges he had ever faced and their on set relationship was not peaceful. McQueen was not combative but he wouldn't hesitate to let anyone know if things were not as he would wish them to be or believed that they ought to be.
Richard Attenborough was cast on short notice after the first choice pulled out.
The character of von Luger was actually based on Friedrich von Lindeiner-Wildau. As with von Luger, the real commandant was an Oberst (Colonel), a general staff officer, and a holder of the "Blue Max" (Pour le Merite) medal. However, while the pictures on the wall of von Luger's office are of World War I flying units, von Lindeiner-Wildau earned his Blue Max in the East Africa campaigns in 1905-07 and served as an infantry officer before and during World War I. He retired from the Army in 1919 and only joined the Luftwaffe in 1937 at 'Hermann Goring''s personal invitation.
Steve McQueen reportedly rarely mingled with others away from the set, preferring to stay in the chalet he rented for himself and his family and travelling to the set each day in a chauffeur-driven limousine.
On entering the workshop, Roger is heard to exclaim: "Bluey, where the hell is the air pump?" "Bluey" is an Australian slang term for someone with red hair.
The film features no main female characters.
In the scene following Hilts' theft of a German motorcycle, he rolls into a nearby town, and stopped by a police officer. He tells Hilts something in German, to which Hilts kicks him away and rides off. The officer asked Hilts for identification papers Hilts doesn't have.
The barracks interiors were constructed on sound stages at the German studio.
The filming schedule was changed due to heavy rain, meaning that interiors from the middle portion of the picture were shot first.
The uniforms of the camp guards represent a mixture of Luftwaffe branches. The officers and half the guards wear gold-yellow collar patches of air crews, including pilots and ground personnel. Strachwitz, the senior NCO, and the other enlisted guards wear the red collar patches of the anti-aircraft artillery.
There are six different languages spoken or sung in the movie: English, German, French, Russian and one word in Spanish as well as two words of Latin "Lanius Nubicus" when Flight Lieutenant Blythe is describing the masked shrike or butcher bird in the forgery scene. There is also a song in a light Scots dialect where Ives and MacDonald are singing "Wha Hae the 42nd" in the 4th of July scene just before "Tom" is discovered.
Ramsey's title, 'S.B.O' stands for Senior British Officer.
The scene where Hilts is removing bed boards for tunnel use and Cavendish, not realizing too many boards were removed, comes crashing down through the bunks, is reminiscent of a real incident in Stalag Luft III as described in Paul Brickhill's book upon which this film is based. During a drive to scrounge as many bed boards as possible, Roger Bushell (the real-life prisoner who was portrayed by Richard Attenborough as Roger Bartlett) wanted to set an example and donated all of his boards and convinced his bunk-mate to do likewise. A string system was rigged to keep the mattresses in place, but on the first attempt, the strings gave way and Roger came crashing down through the bed on top of his bunk-mate.
Donald Pleasence's character was based partly on London-born John Cordwell, later a Chicago architect and then proprietor of the Red Lion Pub on the city's N. Lincoln Avenue. Cordwell died in 1999. Stories about him and the Red Lion are told from various points of view in the collection "Tales from the Red Lion" (Chicago: Twilight Tales, 2007, ISBN 0977985623).
John Mills turned down the role of Roger Bartlett.
Although the film is based on an historical event, all of the characters are fictional.
In issue 73 of Your Sinclair magazine in January 1992, the Spectrum stealth game adaptation of this movie was voted the 23rd best game of all time.
Although top billed, Steve McQueen's salary was $87,500, while James Garner earned $150,000.
Included among the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider.
The three tunnels were named Tom, Dick and Harry.
The working title of the film was The Last Escape.
In 1951, Philco-Goodyear Play house did an adaptation of THE GREAT ESCAPE with E.G. Marshall, Everett Sloane, and Rod Steiger.
Bartlett, referring to the S.S.'s decision to imprison him with so many other escapees, remarks "There's madness in their method." This is a reversal of "Though this be madness, yet there is method in it," from Shakespeare's Hamlet. Richard Attenboroughlater appeared in Hamlet (1996). The line is spoken by Polonius, who many scholars believe to have been modeled after Sir William Cecil, the character Attenborough later played in Elizabeth (1998).
Actor William Russell starred as security chief Sorren in this film. It was released on 4th July 1963, just weeks before he signed on for Doctor Who (1963) as the first male companion. Angus Lennie and Nigel Stock also appeared in Doctor Who but not with William Russell.
An urban legend persists that future Hollywood actor Harrison Ford turns up in this film as an uncredited non-speaking extra, 4 years before his first credited appearance in a film or on TV. The scene where this theory came from is where Bartlett and Macdonald are on-board the train and find themselves sat down opposite two uniformed German officers and are then asked for their travel passes by an undercover Gestapo man. As the camera changes angles, In the foreground there is a Nazi youth with a brown shirt, tie and a swastika band on his left arm. This youth does indeed bear a striking resemblance to a youthful Harrison Ford who would have been 19 or 20 years old when this scene was filmed in 1962 however there are two facts that indicate this is almost certainly not Ford. Firstly the film was shot completely in Southern Germany so it is more than likely a local person who was hired as an extra. The second fact is that on close examination of the person in question he seems to have a Kirk Douglas type dimple chin, which Ford does not appear to have.
The ball glove Hilts uses is not from the early forties since the fingers are sewn together. It probably did not show up until the early fifties.
First appearance of Seth Greens infamous 'Hacker' character. He has reprised the role in over 30 films and TV shows since.
The individual incidents in the film are mostly true, but were rearranged as to both the timing and the people involved. (A note at the start of the film acknowledges this.) For instance, of the 76 who escaped, there were indeed 3 who got away and 50 who were murdered in reprisal, but the murders occurred in small groups, not all at once. (14 Germans were executed after the war for their parts in them.)
Roger Bartlett is modeled after Roger Bushell, a British officer who was involved in the real escape and, like Bartlett, was executed for his role therein. The scarring around Richard Attenborough's eyes is a tribute to Bushell, who received such scarring from a competitive skiing accident.
The shooting of the recaptured escapees was one of the charges at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial of Hermann Göring and other Nazi leaders.
There is a superstition that whenever a prisoner attempting escape is told "good luck" by a fellow prisoner, the escape will fail. Ironically, these are the same words that the German officer uses to capture Bartlett and MacDonald near the end of the film.
The real camp can be visited today in Sagan, Poland. It's a ruin now, that's mostly used for archaeological purpose. A replica of the camp is located 40 kilometres south, where you can enter a model of tunnel Harry yourself. In the film they confused the actual names of the tunnels.
The actual tunnel 'Tom' was discovered in August 1943 (not on the 4th of July as shown in the film). It's was this tunnel that was being rushed to finish to allow it to be used by a number of Americans who had helped greatly with its construction and organisation. The rush was due to it being known that all Americans in the compound were shortly to be moved to the new South compound a short distance away. Tunnel 'Harry' was completed more slowly over the following winter and 'Dick' was used as storage for contraband items and a place to hide earth from 'Harry'. There was a final rush to use the tunnel as the winter hadn't been kind to the woodwork particularly around the trap door enterance and the prisoners were very concerned it would be spotted. The night chosen was the next moonless night, despite the weather and ground conditions being far from ideal (it was very cold and snow covered). It was felt that the tunnel would not have survived intact or undiscovered for another month if they had decided to wait for better conditions.
The compound where the real escape occurred from (North compound of Stalag Luft 3) was opened in late March 1943. Prisoners being transferred from other compounds of this camp as well as other camps around occupied Europe. The escape occurred on the night of 24/25th March 1944, and the last of the executions was believed to have happened on 12 April 1944. Therefore the time frame for the film is a little over a year.
Of the real 23 recaptured POWs who were spared execution - 17 were returned to the camp, 4 sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp and 2 to Colditz castle.
In real life, the forger was James Hill, so obviously the stuff about him going blind and being shot dead is fiction.
The German officer who arrives at the camp at film's end to arrest Von Luger is the same officer who captures Bartlett and returns him to the Gestapo.
RATINGS: IMDB ―8.2/10, Rotten Tomatoes ― 93%, ME ― 90%
Bartlett: Gentlemen, no doubt you've heard the immortal words of our new commandant: devote your energies to things other than escape, and sit out the war as comfortably as possible.
Sedgwick: [derisively] Ha!
Bartlett: Well, that's exactly what we're going to do. We're going to devote our energies to sports and gardening, all the cultural pursuits as far as they're concerned. In fact, we're going to put the goons to sleep. Meanwhile, we dig. Now, even a superficial look at the compound shows us that Huts 104 and 5 are closest to the woods. The first tunnel goes out from 105, directly east under the vorlager, the cooler, and the wire.
Willie: But that's over three hundred feet, Roger!
Bartlett: Did you make a survey, Dennis?
Cavendish: Only a temporary one, sir. I make it just over three hundred and thirty-five feet.
Bartlett: Let me know when you've got an exact one. Willie, this time we'll dig straight down thirty feet before we go horizontal. That'll rule out any question of sound detection or probing.
Willie: All right, Roger. But did you say "the first tunnel"?
Bartlett: I did. There will be three. We'll call them Tom, Dick, and Harry. Tom, as I said, goes out directly east from 104. Dick goes north from the kitchen, and Harry goes out parallel to Tom from 105. If the goons find one, we'll move into the other.
MacDonald: How many men do you plan to take out, Roger?
Bartlett: Two hundred and fifty.
[Shocked stares]
Bartlett: There will be no half-measures this time, gentlemen. There will be identification papers and documents for everyone. And Griff, we'll need outfits for the lot.
Griffith: Two hundred and fifty?
Bartlett: Mostly civilian clothes.
Griffith: Yes, but, um... okay, Roger.
Bartlett: Mac. Maps, blankets, rations, compasses for all the walkers, and timetables for every train.
MacDonald: Right, Roger.
[Blythe enters]
Colin: Sorry I'm late, Roger.
Bartlett: It's all right, Colin. Sit down. We're going to tunnel.
Colin: Splendid.
Bartlett: Willie, you and Danny will be tunnel kings. Danny, you'll be in charge of traps, and I'll work out the exact location with you tomorrow.
Danny: Good.
Bartlett: Sedgwick, manufacturer. Griffith, I said, tailor. Nimmo and Hayes, diversions. Mac, of course, will take care of intelligence. Hendley? We haven't met. Scrounger?
Richard Attenborough as Bartlett, James Coburn as Sedgwick, John Leyton as Willie, Nigel Stock as Cavendish, Robert Desmond as Griffith, Gordon Jackson as MacDonald, Donald Pleasence as Colin, and Charles Bronson as Danny
Trivia (From IMDB):
Hilts (Steve McQueen) strings a wire across the road to obtain a motorcycle. McQueen himself played the German motorcyclist who hits the wire.
Charles Bronson, who portrays the chief tunneler, brought his own expertise and experiences to the set: he had been a coal miner before turning to acting and gave director John Sturges advice on how to move the earth. As a result of his work in the coal mines, Bronson suffered from claustrophobia just as his character had.
One day, the police in the German town where the film was shot set up a speed trap near the set. Several members of the cast and crew were caught, including Steve McQueen. The Chief of Police told McQueen "Herr McQueen, we have caught several of your comrades today, but you have won the prize [for the highest speeding]." McQueen was arrested and briefly jailed.
During the climactic motorcycle chase, John Sturges allowed Steve McQueen to ride (in disguise) as one of the pursuing German soldiers, so that in the final sequence, through the magic of editing, he's actually chasing himself. McQueen played the German motorcyclist who hits the wire.
During idle periods while The Great Escape (1963) was in production, all cast and crew members - from stars Steve McQueen and James Garner to production assistants and obscure food service workers - were asked to take thin, five-inch strings of black rubber and knot them around other thin strings of black rubber of enormous length. The finished results of all this knotting were the coils and fences of barbed wire seen throughout the film.
Although Steve McQueen did his own motorcycle riding, there was one stunt he did not perform: the hair-raising 60-foot jump over a fence. This was done by McQueen's friend Bud Ekins, who was managing a Los Angeles-area motorcycle shop when recruited for the stunt. It was the beginning of a new career for Ekins, as he later doubled for McQueen in Bullitt (1968) and did much of the motorcycle riding on the television series CHiPs (1977).
During production, Charles Bronson met and fell in love with David McCallum's wife, Jill Ireland, and he jokingly told McCallum he was going to steal her away from him. In 1967, Ireland and McCallum divorced, and she married Bronson.
Several cast members were actual P.O.W.s during World War II. Donald Pleasence was held in a German camp, Hannes Messemer in a Russian camp and Til Kiwe and Hans Reiser were prisoners of the Americans.
Steve McQueen also personally attempted the jump across the border fence, but crashed. The jump was successfully performed by Bud Ekins.
Donald Pleasence had actually been a Royal Air Force pilot in World War II, who was shot down, became a prisoner of war and was tortured by the Germans. When he kindly offered advice to the film's director John Sturges, he was politely asked to keep his "opinions" to himself. Later, when another star from the film informed John Sturges that Pleasence had actually been a RAF Officer in a World War II German POW Stalag camp, Sturges requested his technical advice and input on historical accuracy from that point forward.
Wally Floody, the real-life "Tunnel King" (he was transferred to another camp just before the escape), served as a consultant to the filmmakers, almost full-time, for more than a year.
The real-life escape preparations involved 600 men working for well over a year. The escape did have the desired effect of diverting German resources, including a doubling of the number of guards after the Gestapo took over the camp from the Luftwaffe.
The motorcycle scenes were not based on real life but were added at Steve McQueen's suggestion.
With the deaths of James Garner (Robert Hendley) on July 19, 2014 and Richard Attenborough (Roger Bartlett) on August 24, 2014, David McCallum (Eric Ashley-Pitt) William Russell and John Leyton are the last surviving stars of the film.
James Garner developed his "Scrounger" character from his own personal experiences in the military during the Korean War.
Some aspects of the escape remained classified during production and were not revealed until well after. The inclusion of chocolate, coffee and cigarettes in Red Cross packages is well documented, as is their use to bribe Nazi guards. Other materials useful for escaping had to be kept secret and were not included in the novel or screenplay. Also not revealed until many years later was the fact that the prisoners actually built a fourth tunnel called "George."
Paul Brickhill, who wrote the book from which the film is based, was piloting a Spitfire aircraft that was shot down over Tunisia in March 1943. He was taken to Stalag Luft III in Germany, where he assisted in the escape preparations.
Steve McQueen accepted the role of Hilts on the condition that he got to show off his motorcycle skills.
The film was shot entirely on location in Europe, with a complete camp resembling Stalag Luft III built near Munich, Germany. Exteriors for the escape sequences were shot in the Rhine Country and areas near the North Sea, and Steve McQueen's motorcycle scenes were filmed in Fussen (on the Austrian border) and the Alps. All interiors were filmed at the Bavaria Studio in Munich.
When celebrating the Fourth of July and pouring alcohol, Hilts (Steve McQueen) is thrown off by an ad-lib by Goff (Jud Taylor). While Hilts is drinking, Goff says, "No taxation without representation." McQueen jumps out of character and gives him a look (and mouths, "What?") The director must have signaled to "just go with it" and the scene continues. But it is an obvious ad-lib.
The song sung by Ives & McDonald on 4th July is "Wha Hae the 42nd?" Contrary to common belief it is not in Gaelic but a light Scots dialect of English. The 42nd Regiment of Foot was the Scottish regiment in the British Army known as the Black Watch.
In the film, several Americans (including Hilts and Henley) were among the escapees. In real life, American officers assisted with the construction of the escape tunnel, but weren't among the escapees because the Germans moved them to a remote compound just before the escape.
The actual camp - Stalag Luft III - was located in Zagan, Poland and the remains of the camp can be found at the following map coordinates: 51.599036, 15.310030
Most of the planes in the airfield are actually American AT-6 Texan trainers painted with a German paint scheme, but the one actually flown is an authentic German plane, a Bucker Bu 181 'Bestmann.'
Although the German airfield displays mainly North American AT-6 Texan trainers, it is feasible that this was authentic. The Germans did use the AT-6 in some numbers as advanced trainers, which they had sequestrated from the French in 1940.
The tunnel sets were were constructed of wood and skins filled with plaster and dirt and open on one side with a dolly track running the length of the set in order to shoot scenes of prisoners scooting along through them.
The medal that Colonel von Luger wears around his neck is the Pour le Merite, also known as the Blue Max. Originally a Prussian military honor, in the First World War it was automatically given to fighter pilots who shot down eight planes (later raised to sixteen). The Nazis replaced it with the Knight's Cross but it could still be worn by officers who'd won it before the Third Reich.
The German characters were cast from actors out of Munich, including Hannes Messemerand Til Kiwe. Both had their own prisoner of war experiences. Messemer had been captured on the Eastern front by the Soviet army, escaped, and walked hundreds of miles to the German border. Frick served time in an American prison camp in Arizona. He tried to escape seventeen times.
For the train sequences, a railroad engine was rented and two condemned cars were purchased and modified to house the camera equipment. Scenes were shot on the single rail line between Munich and Hamburg, and a railroad representative was on hand to advise the filmmakers when to pull aside to avoid hitting scheduled oncoming trains.
The actual escape from Stalag Luft III occurred on March 24, 1944 - which was Steve McQueen's 14th birthday.
There is a film company called Virgil Films. It uses the sound of Virgil Hilts bouncing his baseball inside the cooler as the introduction to its movies.
Jud Taylor, who played Goff, the third American in the prison, said the camp set was so authentic and impressive that one day he came upon a man walking his dog who was very distressed when he came upon the site. The man was greatly relieved, Goff said, when he learned it was just a movie set.
The nationality of a few of the prisoners in the story was changed, emphasizing American, and de-emphasizing Commonwealth and other Allied.
The gold medallion Steve McQueen wears throughout the film was a present from his wife.
According to John Sturges, the screenplay went through six writers and eleven versions, and was still a work in progress during the actual shooting. "I'm not proposing that's a good way to make a picture, but it was the right way to make this one," he later said.
When the Bavaria Studio's backlot proved to be too small, the production team obtained permission from the German government to shoot in a national forest adjoining the studio. After the end of principal photography, the company restored (by reseeding) some 2,000 small pine trees that had been damaged in the course of shooting.
During the jump sequence, the crew was warned at the last possible second that the crane was about to slam into a pole. It was withdrawn in the nick of time.
Three of the actors, Steve McQueen, James Coburn and Charles Bronson starred together in the movie The Magnificent Seven (1960), also directed by John Sturges and scored by Elmer Bernstein.
Steve McQueen and James Garner became friends on this film. They bonded over their love of cars.
No American POW's particapated in the actual "great escape "as suggested in the movie. Some american POW's helped with the digging of tunnel "Tom" but they were moved to another camp, seven months earlier before the "escape" As the Germans had suspicions something was going on.
Steve McQueen's character Hilts was based on amalgamation of several characters, including Major Dave Jones, a flight commander during Doolittle's Raid who made it to Europe and was shot down and captured and Colonel Jerry Sage, who was an OSS agent in the North African desert when he was captured. Col. Sage was able to don a flight jacket and pass as a flier otherwise he would have been executed as a spy. Another inspiration was probably Sqn Ldr Eric Foster who escaped no less than seven times from German prisoner-of-war camps.
The German National Railroad Bureau cooperated with the production to provide trains and logistics for the railway escape sequences. Platforms were fitted on passenger cars to accommodate huge arc lamps to illuminate the train interiors. On one flat car, a large Chapman crane was set up to swing out over the passenger car and film the jump from the moving train performed by two stuntmen disguised as Garner's and Pleasence's characters. The bureau attached a special radio operator to the crew to alert the train engineer to any potential traffic on the main line. The shooting schedule was squeezed in between actual runs on the rails. The bureau gave the production certain times and lengths of tracks to work on until a passenger train was scheduled to come by; the film train then had to duck onto a siding until the other passed.
The motorcycle that Hilts (Steve McQueen) rides is a cosmetically modified Triumph TR6 Trophy. Bud Ekins who actually performs the famous barbed wire leap stunt, was a Triumph dealer. Triumph was McQueen's favorite motorcycle marque. The motorcycle sidecar combination that crashes into a ditch is revealed to be a Triumph motorcycle, too. As is well known, these British motorcycle models were not in existence during the Second World War and their appearance is somewhat incongruous.
John Leyton who played Willy, the Tunneler, was one of the most popular UK pop singers in the early '60s. He recorded the title song with lyrics.
The Germans routinely confined enemy aviators in Luftwaffe prisons, regardless of which service they had been in. This accounts for the presence of Ashley-Pitt, a Royal Navy pilot, in Luft Stalag III.
Danny says that all he could say in Russian was "I love you". Charles Bronson was fluent in Russian and spoke it as a first language from childhood.
The hooch-making scene in the film, where the Americans celebrated Independence Day, is believed to be based on the British creating an alcohol distillery for Christmas Day celebrations in 1943. Captain Guy Griffiths, a Royal Marine pilot in Stalag Luft III who produced forged documents for the escape, also produced a comical illustration of the scene which survives to this day. This painting, along with many others, forms the basis for a Special Exhibition on 'Griff' at the Royal Marines Museum (Southsea, England) running from Easter 2010.
The motorcycle driven by the character of Virgil Hilts that is used for the fence jump is a 1962 Thunderbird Triumph, which was refurbished to look like a bike 20 years older.
The newspaper that Ashley-Pitt (David McCallum) reads on the train is the 'Völkischer Beobachter', a real newspaper produced for 25 years by the National Socialist German Workers Party. It served as a propaganda sheet for the Nazis and helped bring Adolf Hitler to power. At its height, it had a circulation of approximately 1.4 million. The headline for the issue seen in the film translates roughly to "Day after day, the Soviets have high, bloody losses." Given that the escape in the film occurs in the summer of 1944, this too can be viewed as propaganda. The Nazis had transferred hundreds of thousands of troops to Normandy to stop the Allied advances after D-Day, allowing for the Soviet's to launch Operation Bagration on 22 June, which pushed the Nazis back into Poland by the beginning of 13 July and sparked the Warsaw uprising. In all, the Soviet advance caused German losses of approximately 670,000 dead, missing, wounded and sick, including 160,000 captured. Although the date of the escape is unclear, given the green pastures around the Alps that the escapees encounter, one can easily surmise that the newspaper was putting a positive spin on the battles in the east.
After two months shooting in the camp, the production moved to the town of Fussen near the Austrian border for post-escape scenes. Because he was already running out of money, John Sturges decided to cut back on his original plan to film in a number of locations. Fussen had all the elements he needed to simulate the various places where the escapees run, including nearby meadowlands to shoot the required motorcycle sequence.
John Sturges shopped the film for eight years but couldn't get a major studio to bite until United Artists stepped in. Sturges credited the success of The Magnificent Seven (1960) with the eventual funding of the film.
MacDonald (Intelligence) is based on George Harsh, a very good friend of Wally Floody(the real Tunnel King). They were both transferred to Belaria before the escape. Harsh was a very interesting character who was from the American south and had joined the RCAF as a tail-gunner. In the 1920s Harsh had committed murder and was sent to jail for life. A medical student, Harsh performed an appendectomy on a dying prisoner and saved his life. The governor of Georgia granted him a pardon and he was set free. After the war, he had personal problems as he was plagued by guilt over the crime he committed as a youth; on top of adjusting to life after fifteen years in captivity (12 years on the Georgia chain gang, followed by three years as POW). On Christmas Eve 1974, he did shoot himself but survived. A stroke soon after left him partially paralyzed. When that happened, Wally Floody and his wife brought him up to their Toronto home and looked after him. He eventually went to live -at his own urging- at the Veteran's Wing at the Sunnybrook Medical Centre. He died in January of 1980.
Steve McQueen held up production because he demanded that the script be rewritten to give his character more to do.
John Sturges' assistant Robert E. Relyea was an amateur pilot and offered to fly the plane himself for the sequence in which Hendley and Blythe commandeer a plane for their escape. In one segment he had to simulate the plane losing power and descending over a line of trees. According to Relyea, a farmer in his field saw the plane with its Nazi insignia coming in low over his head and threw his rake at it. Another time Relyea was arrested when he had to put the plane down in a field that happened to belong to a German aviation official. He also piloted the plane in the crash shot, knocking himself unconscious and being taken to the hospital where he woke up later feeling a sharp pain down his back.
After viewing the rushes, Steve McQueen decided his part was minor and undeveloped. He was particularly upset that his character virtually disappears from the film for about 30 minutes in the middle so he walked out demanding rewrites. John Sturges admitted the half-hour gap was likely a problem, but with the production already behind schedule due to the heavy rain, he felt he couldn't take time out to do rewrites and rescheduling. James Garner said he and James Coburn got together with McQueen to determine what his specific gripes were. Garner later said it was apparent McQueen wanted to be the hero but didn't want to be seen doing anything overtly heroic that contradicted his character's cool detachment and sardonic demeanor. At the same time, McQueen never really liked his character's calm acquiescence to his time in the cooler or the famous bit with the catcher's mitt and ball. Sturges considered writing the character out of the story altogether, but United Artists informed him they considered McQueen indispensable to the picture's success and would spring for the extra money to hire another writer, Ivan J. Moffitt, to deal with the star's demands. McQueen returned to work.
Richard Attenborough was an RAF air gunner/photographer who served in the RAF for three years unlike his character, based on Squadron Leader Roger Bushell who was a Spitfire Pilot in 92 Squadron in the early years of World War Two.
Early on in the production, John Sturges began receiving memos from distributor United Artists requesting female roles in the picture. One even suggested having the dying Ashley-Pitt cradled in the lap of a beautiful girl in a low-cut blouse. The studio wanted to cast this bit by having a Miss Prison Camp contest in Munich. Sturges would have none of it.
One of the masterminds for the real Great Escape was Wing Commander Harry Day. He isn't directly portrayed in this film, however the book which the film is based on (by Paul Brickhill) correctly tells his story. Arguable his story is the most impressive of the lot, having participated in at least 4 other mass breakout and 2 solo attempts prior to the Great Escape (twice getting free from the camp before recapture). He was one of the first out of the tunnel but was recaptured in Stettin trying to get help to gain passage out of Germany. He was spared execution and sent to Sachsenhausen concerntration camp with 3 other escapees. There they dug another tunnel and escaped with another British officer being held there. It's is widely believed they were the only people ever to survive an escape from that camp. All were recaptured and held in solitary confinement until being used as a hostage at the end of the war. Escaping from his captives he reached allied lines and was instrumental in securing the safe release of the other hostages.
The film was shot on location in a German forest. To make room for the camp set, several trees had to be bulldozed. John Sturges had to show the West German Minister of the Interior his plans and, to get permission to bulldoze, had to promise to plant two seeds for every tree felled when production was over.
The 3 real POWs to escape were Norwegians Per Bergsland and Jens Muller (who escaped by ship to Sweden after taking a train from Sagan to Stettin via Berlin) and Dutchman Bram van der Stok (who travelled across Europe to Spain)
The was another earlier mass escape attempt from the same compound as the Great Escape. Masterminded by the same 'X organisation', in June 1943 a large party of 26 prisoners escaped while being escorted by fake guards (prisoners disguised as Germans) being taken to another compound for delousing. All got clear of the camp but were all recaptured. Several were also participants of the later Great Escape. Two POWs, Lorne Welch and Walter Morison, attempted to steal an aircraft but were caught before they could start the engine. It was this real event that gave inspiration to certain events in the film. The 2 real officers were sent to Colditz castle and both survived the war.
Richard Harris was originally cast as Roger Bartlett, but dropped out because filming This Sporting Life (1963) was behind schedule and he was displeased with the diminished role of Big X after script changes had been made.
Walter Mirisch originally wanted Burt Lancaster for Hendley and Kirk Douglas for Hilts.
Group Captain Ramsey, is largely based on the real Senior British Officer Herbert Massey. Massey was injured when shot down and walked with a pronounced limp which prevented him from the escape attempt. James Donald walks with a limp and uses a walking stick in the film in honour of Massey.
James Coburn's Australian accent was non-existent, so the movie uses other devices to emphasise his nationality. For example, on entering the workshop, Roger's exasperation with Sedgewick follows with: "Bluey, where the hell is the air pump?" "Bluey" is an affectionate term for a person with red hair, found in Australian slang in the first half of the twentieth century. The consequence of Roger's use of the term, though made in support of the character, was too subtle for wider audiences and the credit of "Louis" appears for Sedgewick on many lists.
Richard Attenborough said many years later working with Steve McQueen on this film was one of the toughest challenges he had ever faced and their on set relationship was not peaceful. McQueen was not combative but he wouldn't hesitate to let anyone know if things were not as he would wish them to be or believed that they ought to be.
Richard Attenborough was cast on short notice after the first choice pulled out.
The character of von Luger was actually based on Friedrich von Lindeiner-Wildau. As with von Luger, the real commandant was an Oberst (Colonel), a general staff officer, and a holder of the "Blue Max" (Pour le Merite) medal. However, while the pictures on the wall of von Luger's office are of World War I flying units, von Lindeiner-Wildau earned his Blue Max in the East Africa campaigns in 1905-07 and served as an infantry officer before and during World War I. He retired from the Army in 1919 and only joined the Luftwaffe in 1937 at 'Hermann Goring''s personal invitation.
Steve McQueen reportedly rarely mingled with others away from the set, preferring to stay in the chalet he rented for himself and his family and travelling to the set each day in a chauffeur-driven limousine.
On entering the workshop, Roger is heard to exclaim: "Bluey, where the hell is the air pump?" "Bluey" is an Australian slang term for someone with red hair.
The film features no main female characters.
In the scene following Hilts' theft of a German motorcycle, he rolls into a nearby town, and stopped by a police officer. He tells Hilts something in German, to which Hilts kicks him away and rides off. The officer asked Hilts for identification papers Hilts doesn't have.
The barracks interiors were constructed on sound stages at the German studio.
The filming schedule was changed due to heavy rain, meaning that interiors from the middle portion of the picture were shot first.
The uniforms of the camp guards represent a mixture of Luftwaffe branches. The officers and half the guards wear gold-yellow collar patches of air crews, including pilots and ground personnel. Strachwitz, the senior NCO, and the other enlisted guards wear the red collar patches of the anti-aircraft artillery.
There are six different languages spoken or sung in the movie: English, German, French, Russian and one word in Spanish as well as two words of Latin "Lanius Nubicus" when Flight Lieutenant Blythe is describing the masked shrike or butcher bird in the forgery scene. There is also a song in a light Scots dialect where Ives and MacDonald are singing "Wha Hae the 42nd" in the 4th of July scene just before "Tom" is discovered.
Ramsey's title, 'S.B.O' stands for Senior British Officer.
The scene where Hilts is removing bed boards for tunnel use and Cavendish, not realizing too many boards were removed, comes crashing down through the bunks, is reminiscent of a real incident in Stalag Luft III as described in Paul Brickhill's book upon which this film is based. During a drive to scrounge as many bed boards as possible, Roger Bushell (the real-life prisoner who was portrayed by Richard Attenborough as Roger Bartlett) wanted to set an example and donated all of his boards and convinced his bunk-mate to do likewise. A string system was rigged to keep the mattresses in place, but on the first attempt, the strings gave way and Roger came crashing down through the bed on top of his bunk-mate.
Donald Pleasence's character was based partly on London-born John Cordwell, later a Chicago architect and then proprietor of the Red Lion Pub on the city's N. Lincoln Avenue. Cordwell died in 1999. Stories about him and the Red Lion are told from various points of view in the collection "Tales from the Red Lion" (Chicago: Twilight Tales, 2007, ISBN 0977985623).
John Mills turned down the role of Roger Bartlett.
Although the film is based on an historical event, all of the characters are fictional.
In issue 73 of Your Sinclair magazine in January 1992, the Spectrum stealth game adaptation of this movie was voted the 23rd best game of all time.
Although top billed, Steve McQueen's salary was $87,500, while James Garner earned $150,000.
Included among the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider.
The three tunnels were named Tom, Dick and Harry.
The working title of the film was The Last Escape.
In 1951, Philco-Goodyear Play house did an adaptation of THE GREAT ESCAPE with E.G. Marshall, Everett Sloane, and Rod Steiger.
Bartlett, referring to the S.S.'s decision to imprison him with so many other escapees, remarks "There's madness in their method." This is a reversal of "Though this be madness, yet there is method in it," from Shakespeare's Hamlet. Richard Attenboroughlater appeared in Hamlet (1996). The line is spoken by Polonius, who many scholars believe to have been modeled after Sir William Cecil, the character Attenborough later played in Elizabeth (1998).
Actor William Russell starred as security chief Sorren in this film. It was released on 4th July 1963, just weeks before he signed on for Doctor Who (1963) as the first male companion. Angus Lennie and Nigel Stock also appeared in Doctor Who but not with William Russell.
An urban legend persists that future Hollywood actor Harrison Ford turns up in this film as an uncredited non-speaking extra, 4 years before his first credited appearance in a film or on TV. The scene where this theory came from is where Bartlett and Macdonald are on-board the train and find themselves sat down opposite two uniformed German officers and are then asked for their travel passes by an undercover Gestapo man. As the camera changes angles, In the foreground there is a Nazi youth with a brown shirt, tie and a swastika band on his left arm. This youth does indeed bear a striking resemblance to a youthful Harrison Ford who would have been 19 or 20 years old when this scene was filmed in 1962 however there are two facts that indicate this is almost certainly not Ford. Firstly the film was shot completely in Southern Germany so it is more than likely a local person who was hired as an extra. The second fact is that on close examination of the person in question he seems to have a Kirk Douglas type dimple chin, which Ford does not appear to have.
The ball glove Hilts uses is not from the early forties since the fingers are sewn together. It probably did not show up until the early fifties.
First appearance of Seth Greens infamous 'Hacker' character. He has reprised the role in over 30 films and TV shows since.
Spoilers ―
According to David McCallum, the barbed wire that Hilts (Steve McQueen) crashes into near the end of the film, which was actually made of rubber, was made by the cast and crew during their free time by tying small pieces of rubber around larger ones.
The individual incidents in the film are mostly true, but were rearranged as to both the timing and the people involved. (A note at the start of the film acknowledges this.) For instance, of the 76 who escaped, there were indeed 3 who got away and 50 who were murdered in reprisal, but the murders occurred in small groups, not all at once. (14 Germans were executed after the war for their parts in them.)
Roger Bartlett is modeled after Roger Bushell, a British officer who was involved in the real escape and, like Bartlett, was executed for his role therein. The scarring around Richard Attenborough's eyes is a tribute to Bushell, who received such scarring from a competitive skiing accident.
The shooting of the recaptured escapees was one of the charges at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial of Hermann Göring and other Nazi leaders.
There is a superstition that whenever a prisoner attempting escape is told "good luck" by a fellow prisoner, the escape will fail. Ironically, these are the same words that the German officer uses to capture Bartlett and MacDonald near the end of the film.
The real camp can be visited today in Sagan, Poland. It's a ruin now, that's mostly used for archaeological purpose. A replica of the camp is located 40 kilometres south, where you can enter a model of tunnel Harry yourself. In the film they confused the actual names of the tunnels.
The actual tunnel 'Tom' was discovered in August 1943 (not on the 4th of July as shown in the film). It's was this tunnel that was being rushed to finish to allow it to be used by a number of Americans who had helped greatly with its construction and organisation. The rush was due to it being known that all Americans in the compound were shortly to be moved to the new South compound a short distance away. Tunnel 'Harry' was completed more slowly over the following winter and 'Dick' was used as storage for contraband items and a place to hide earth from 'Harry'. There was a final rush to use the tunnel as the winter hadn't been kind to the woodwork particularly around the trap door enterance and the prisoners were very concerned it would be spotted. The night chosen was the next moonless night, despite the weather and ground conditions being far from ideal (it was very cold and snow covered). It was felt that the tunnel would not have survived intact or undiscovered for another month if they had decided to wait for better conditions.
The compound where the real escape occurred from (North compound of Stalag Luft 3) was opened in late March 1943. Prisoners being transferred from other compounds of this camp as well as other camps around occupied Europe. The escape occurred on the night of 24/25th March 1944, and the last of the executions was believed to have happened on 12 April 1944. Therefore the time frame for the film is a little over a year.
Of the real 23 recaptured POWs who were spared execution - 17 were returned to the camp, 4 sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp and 2 to Colditz castle.
In real life, the forger was James Hill, so obviously the stuff about him going blind and being shot dead is fiction.
The German officer who arrives at the camp at film's end to arrest Von Luger is the same officer who captures Bartlett and returns him to the Gestapo.
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