Colditz: Escape of the Birdmen

I first saw this made for television movie * back in the 1970s when it aired on the ABC network. I've seen it a few times in years since, but the original title was "The Birdmen." The movie was "based" on a true story, to an extent, about Allied prisoners of war who built a glider inside the German Colditz Castle, an old castle used as a prison for Allied officers during World War Two. It seems that later on, when a dvd recording was released, the movie had "Colditz" added into the name, undoubtedly for marketing purposes, but it was more than a little misleading, for while the movie script had been based upon certain parts of happenings at Colditz during World War Two, the movie calls the prison "Beckstadt," a fictional name, and has it located just a few miles from the Swiss border in southwestern Germany. On the other hand, Colditz is a town in the German state of Saxony, in eastern central Germany, hundreds of miles from Switzerland, and in fact, it was not really "close" to any border, although (the then) Czechoslovakia was about 75 miles away, but it was then under German occupation; so it was hardly a safe haven. Of course there is always the possibility of there having been legal issues with the movie, and in order to avoid lawsuits or having to pay for "rights" to certain parts of the actual Colditz material, the movie changed the name of the castle and its location (this is PURELY a guess on my part for possible motivation). The British made a movie about Colditz in the mid 1950s, called "The Colditz Story" (you've got to admit, that's a unique title, haha), but it was not based on the same story as "The Birdmen" later was.

 

Main Cast:  

 

Doug McClure as Major Harry Cook, an American OSS officer** and escape expert sent to free scientist Brevik from the Germans and to bring him to the U.S. for work on an atomic bomb.

Richard Basehart as Colonel Schiller (camp commandant), a Luftwaffe Colonel whose plane had been shot down by American planes, causing injury to one of his legs; he walks with a cane; thus, he was put in charge of the prison camp. He loves scotch whiskey. 

 

Chuck Connors as Colonel Morgan Crawford, initial head of the camp escape committee, he is unhappy with Harry's increasing influence with the other prisoners.

Rene Auberjonois as Norwegian Flight Lieutenant Olav Volda, really a nuclear scientist named Harlen Brevik, who is using the cover of being a Norwegian pilot to hide from the Nazis as a prisoner of war. The Germans want him to work with their scientists to develop an atomic bomb, and the Allies want him to help them with the same development. The Norwegian is more of an intellectual, but he admires Harry's drive and risk taking and he wants to be more like him.

Max Baer, Jr. as Tanker

Greg Mullavey as Sparrow

Don Knight as Flaherty (the kite maker)

Paul Koslo as Davies (British commando blinded during an earlier raid into Norway)

Tom Skerritt as Fitz, an engineer and administrator for the camp library 

The film opens with a 1943 Allied bombing raid on a factory complex next to a prisoner of war camp in northern Germany near Wilhelmshaven. The raid gives cover to Olav Volda and Harry Cook to escape from the camp, but they are back in custody by the next morning. Cook is an American OSS agent who has been given the mission to get Volda out of Germany, so that he can aid the Allies in developing a super weapon (an atomic bomb) that will likely end the war. Volda's real name is Harlen Brevik and he is a nuclear physicist, but at this time, the Germans don't know his real name. The Germans send the two men to Beckstadt, an old castle being used as a prison facility for officers who have escaped from POW camps, as Beckstadt is considered to be escape proof. The castle is located at the top of some cliffs high above a river and it is only ten miles from Switzerland. Upon arrival, Cook and Volda are taken to the camp commandant, Colonel Schiller, who offers the two men some scotch whiskey, but they decline. Schiller not only likes the scotch, "one of my English habits," he says, but he also says it dulls the terrible pain in his injured leg. Schiller tells them he'll treat the men fairly as long as they don't try to escape. The two are put in with Colonel Crawford and some other men, all suspicious of the new men, as they fear the Germans may be placing agents among them. At first the other men treat Cook and Volda coldly and rudely, and Cook and Crawford clash, but everything changes when the Germans discover an escape tunnel and kill a prisoner inside the tunnel and put another prisoner into solitary confinement. At the funeral service for the man killed, the prisoners all sing a German folk song called "Die Gedanken Sind Frei,"*** and Crawford and the other prisoners are now convinced that the two newcomers are not German agents and that they must all work together to come up with a new plan for an escape. 

 

Since Harry is an escape specialist with the mission to get Volda/Brevik out of Germany, he is always looking for possible ways of escape and for things that might aid in an escape. As Harry becomes familiar with the castle, he notes that there is a window in one of the towers that cannot be seen from the courtyard of the castle, and that the room where the window is located has numerous wooden crates and other materials there. He also finds that one of the men cleans, starches and presses the men's shirts, with the starch simply being breakfast porridge. A British prisoner passes the time by making kites in a little workshop the Germans allow him to have and he then flies the kites out over the river. When Harry asks him how the kites maintain such an altitude, the man tells him that warm air comes up the river valley and then rises up the side of the cliffs. All he has to do it put a kite out over that area and the rising air picks up the kite and carries it high into the sky, with the pull often breaking the kite's string. Harry recalls one of the German guards telling him when he arrived, that the only way to escape from Beckstadt is to become a bird and fly. Harry goes to the prison library where there is a German book on aerodynamics (the study of the interaction of objects and air flow). Fitz, the prisoner who takes care of the library, is an engineer, and before long, Harry and Fitz develop an idea for a glider to be built on the premises and then flown out in an escape. 

 

When Colonel Crawford is told of the glider idea, he quickly rejects it, likely persuaded more by his growing fear of Harry's influence with the prisoners than with the plan's good or bad points. The prisoners want to build a small model, a 'dodo,' to see if it flies and provides them with necessary data about what they'll need for a true glider capable of carrying two men out of Beckstadt and into Switzerland. The British officer and kite builder makes the small model. The Germans see what is going on, but they find a small model plane harmless and it is a good way to keep the prisoners occupied. The 'dodo' is tossed out over the river and it flies for a few moments, but it then circles back, and one of its wings breaks off and the little model crashes into the courtyard of the castle. The Germans laugh and Crawford feels vindicated for his opposition, but the other men are happier with the demonstration and the information they glean from the short flight. The men choose to press forward as the whole idea gives them hope, but Crawford refuses to support the idea. Harry tells Crawford not to pursue any other escape plan, as it could endanger the glider project. This is not something Crawford will likely abide by. The plan is to first build a false wall in the attic room in the tower, with the window where they can build the glider out of sight of the Germans if they look into the attic from the access hatch in the attic floor. The morale of the prisoners skyrockets as the project starts, a fact that does not go unnoticed by Colonel Schiller, who assumes there must be some escape plan in the works. He summons Harry and offers him some scotch, which Harry again declines. Schiller then asks Harry to tell of the escape plan, but of course, Harry denies there's an escape plan. Schiller expresses some anger and he tells Harry there will be lots of roll calls and inspections until he can find out about the escape plan. 

 

The prisoners continue work on the glider, and they set up a system to alert the men working on the glider to be prepared for roll calls. During one of the roll calls Crawford is missing initially, but he comes running out into the courtyard with a towel wrapped around him, seemingly having been caught by the roll call while taking a bath. Harry confronts Crawford after the incident, because while Crawford acted as if he had been washing, his hands are filthy, as if he had been digging in the dirt. If you get into a bathtub, your hands will be washed to a great extent, even if you don't scrub them first. Crawford is angry that Harry has found out what he has been up to. The constant roll calls and inspections have caused lots of work disruptions and the prisoners are feeling the stress and frustration. Harry sees that the situation has to be changed, so he pays a visit to Schiller, but this time Harry asks Schiller how his leg is feeling. Schiller is a bit confused and asks Harry why his leg should concern him. Harry tells him that if Schiller's leg is in pain, he might be drinking scotch to dull the pain, and that he might offer him a glass. Schiller almost delightedly tells Harry, "As a matter of fact Major, my leg is killing me." The two have some scotch. We don't hear the conversation, but what follows tells us what had happened; that is, Harry reported Crawford for digging a tunnel on his own. Schiller has Crawford locked up in solitary confinement, and Schiller seems to be satisfied that any escape plan has been thwarted. The constant roll calls stop.

 

The work progresses on the glider, as the men scrounge for all sorts of parts to complete the glider. The porridge used to starch shirts is put to use to coat the fabric on the glider, bringing the German cook to wonder why the men are suddenly so interested in his porridge. A pulley system is rigged up, and when Volda goes to take a bath, the bathtub is missing, and Volda shouts "Harry!" in total frustration. The tub will be hooked up to a system of ropes and pulleys and then dropped to provide thrust to the lightweight glider, but before that happens, Schiller wants to see Harry again. Schiller tells Harry that the Gestapo has just contacted him about Volda and that they are on their way to the castle to question the Norwegian, but Schiller doesn't know that the Gestapo wants Volda because they have information that he is the nuclear physicist the Nazis want to help them build a super weapon. Since Harry had come to the prison with Volda, and because he reported Crawford for digging a tunnel, Schiller decides to give Harry the chance to be transferred to another prison camp, one with lax security where the clever man will have a decent chance to escape. So, Harry's hand is now forced. Volda will be in the hands of the Gestapo shortly and Harry himself could be shipped out; thus, Harry's mission to get the scientist out of Germany will end. 

 

Harry rushes to the attic room and tells the men they need to act now. The attic window is removed, the launch ramp is mounted on the roof and the glider is assembled on the ramp. Throughout the glider project the idea was that the prisoners would draw straws later to see who the two passengers will be, but now, they all agree that Harry is the only man to fly the glider. Now Harry has to be honest and tell everyone that Volda is the only man who can be the other passenger because he's an important scientist. Crawford enters, as Schiller has just had him released from solitary, and he challenges Harry's claim about Volda. Davies, the blind British commando, speaks up and asks Harry the scientist's name. When Harry answers with the name "Brevik," Davies says that Harry is telling the truth, but Crawford asks Davies how he knows this. Davies tells the group he was blinded on the raid into Norway to rescue Brevik. He states part of a pass code to Brevik (I'll now use his proper name), and Brevik answers with his part of the code. Davis tells them this was the pass code that was used for the raid to get Brevik out of Norway originally. They all now know Davies is correct, but Davies puts the finishing touches on the situation when he tells all of the men, "I don't know why he's (Brevik) important, but I know I gave up my ruddy eyes trying to get him out. Now, if you're still soldiers, the least you can do is to finish the job." The men immediately respond and the race is on to launch the glider as the Gestapo car pulls into the castle courtyard. Schiller has the prisoners assembled for roll call, but while that goes on, the men in the attic try hoisting the heavy bathtub up on the pulleys to provide the weight to launch the glider, but it slips down and breaks Harry's leg. Due to his injury, Harry asks Crawford to fly the glider out and Brevik and Crawford get into the glider. Down in the courtyard Schiller is able to see one of the wingtips protruding on the roof of the tower. He gets a number of soldiers and they head to the tower. As Schiller and his men enter the attic, all they see is the false wall the prisoners had built, but they can hear voices, and so they burst through the false wall just as the bathtub drops thrusting the glider along the ramp and out over the river. Crawford steers as the glider dips briefly until the warm column of air lifts the glider and keeps it airborne. Schiller stands over Harry, who is unable to walk because of his leg injury. Schiller says, "Major ... I'm afraid we both are in a great deal of trouble." Harry says, "Why don't you break out the scotch; my leg is killing me." Even Schiller has a chuckle. The glider crosses the German-Swiss border as a Swiss border guard looks up at it in amazement. In the courtyard, the prisoners cheer as the Gestapo men can only look on. 

 

NOTE: To be clear, in the real Colditz during World War Two, the prisoners did BUILD a glider, BUT it was NEVER flown. The prisoners were freed by American troops during April 1945, but the area was part of the Soviet occupation zone. The fate of the glider is unknown.                    

 

* By the late 1960s and early 1970s, American television networks had become desperate for films to satisfy their audiences' voracious appetite for movies. Most (I didn't say 'all') movies dating back over the decades had been used up, and new movies released to theaters were frequently sold to television at a much faster clip than in the past, and the movie industry just couldn't produce enough movies, and at a fast enough pace, to keep up with demand. So the television networks began to have movies produced for television, although "I believe" in some cases, they might have released them to movie theaters in some other countries. These movies tended to have much smaller budgets and, with some exceptions, the public was not likely to see big name movie stars starring in most of the pictures; rather, the networks hired performers often best known from television shows. For instance, in this movie I'm covering here, "The Birdmen," Doug McClure was best known for years of work on the NBC western series "The Virginian," while Chuck Connors was well known for his role in the ABC western series "The Rifleman." Richard Basehart was known for some movies, including "Moby Dick" and "Titanic" (the 1953 version), but he also became popular in the weekly television series version of "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea," which ran for several years on ABC. Max Baer Jr. was totally identified in the public mind with his role as Jethro in the CBS comedy "The Beverly Hillbillies."

 

** OSS=Office of Strategic Services, an intelligence part of the U.S. military services and forerunner of the CIA.

 

*** "Thoughts Are Free," with the lyrics showing that even though locked up, one's thoughts are still free. I have the words to the song in another article at this link:  https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2011/09/german-question-part-one-hundred-fifty.html

 

Photo is of the 2011 Timeless Media Group dvd  

WORD HISTORY:

Attic-The ultimate origin of this word is unknown. It goes back to transliterated Ancient Greek "Attĭkós," meaning, "of or having to do with Attica;" that is, "of Athens and vicinity." Latin borrowed the word as "atticus," with the same meaning, but with increasing application to a style of architecture of decorative columns associated with Athens. This then passed into Latin-based French as "attique," and English borrowed the word in the latter part of the 1500s, initially with the "having to do with Athens" adjective meaning, then the noun was taken in the mid 1600s meaning, "the Ancient Greek dialect of the Athens region." It wasn't until the early 1700s that the architectural usage for the decorative column tops came to also be applied to the "room or space behind the top of the decorative columns;" thus, the "story or level just below the roof," which initially was called the "attic story," which then was simply shortened to "attic" by circa 1800.