The Wooden Horse tells the true story of the escape in Summer 1943 of three English prisoners from Stalag Luft III – a Luftwaffe-run prisoner of war camp for Allied aircrew during World War II – using a vaulting horse to hide their escape attempt.
The vaulting horse is carried day after day to the same spot in the exercise ground of the camp where a couple of men, hidden in the belly of the horse, painfully scoop out a tunnel underneath, while the rest of the POW’s leap over the top.
The German guards – very properly represented here as soldiers on duty and not as incredible monsters or figures of fun – are not surprised to find the English employing so many hours a day in the practice of sport and exercise.
They are convincingly fooled, just long enough for the three officers to escape. They crawl out of the shaky- tunnel into the thin German pinewoods.
The action only really becomes compelling outside Stalag Luft III as the escapees make their way to Lubek, to Copenhagen, to Sweden, to freedom
Leo Genn, Anthony Steel and David Tomlinson, as the men who escape, do exactly what is needed of them, and the rest of the cast members justify the word “supporting.”
Based on the novel by Flight Lieutenant Eric Williams – one of the three real prisoners who escaped – the film was made mostly in Germany and Denmark, with the help of the British War Office and Air Ministry.
Peter Howard
Leo Genn Phil Rowe
David Tomlinson John Clinton
Anthony Steel Bennett
David Greene Nigel
Peter Burton GC Wardley
Patrick Waddington Robbie
Michael Goodliffe Pomfret
Anthony Dawson Paul
Bryan Forbes David
Dan Cunningham Bill White
Philip Dale “Wings” Cameron
Russell Waters Commandant
Franz Schafheitlin Charlie
Hans Meyer Kamma
Lis LØwert André
Jacques Brunius Sigmund
Helge Erickssen
