The Wooden Horse

When Eric Williams wrote a book on the escape of two British officers from a prison camp in East Germany, it was just a matter of time before some movie producer gobbled it up. Fortunately a British outfit found it first, and produced "The Wooden Horse," a film so faithful it hurts.

Typical of the English, author Williams did his best to make the hair-raising escape sound undramatic, and film director Jack Lee has kept the movie equally dry. Leo Genn, Eric Steele, and David Tomilson in the feature roles dig a forty foot long tunnel, escape from the camp, and make their way to Sweden with the air of cricketeers playing a weekly match. The fact that neither author, director, nor actors could make the story unexciting is a tribute to the two British officers themselves.

Despite this underplaying, "The Wooden Horse" is well worth seeing. C. Pennington-Richard's photography is not only realistic, but worthy of any photographic salon, and the music has the benefit of the London Symphony Orchestra.