The Password Is Courage (1962)

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Not just very much like The Great Escape - both films shared prisoners using the same techniques for obtaining materials, tunneling, disposal of dirt from the tunnel, hiding the tunnel entrance under stoves & the same slight issue with the tunnel exit.I'd not seen this Borgarde film before TCM aired it, so it was startling how many plot similarities it shared with it's much more well known compatriot - I understand that both were in production around the same time (though Courage came out first), so neither were remakes of the other, but whether both referenced the same source material (Courage was apparently derived from the memoirs of Sgt Major Charles Coward), I'm not sure.A side note: Anyone familiar with railways in England in the 60's will quickly notice that all the railway scenes in Courage, while supposed to be in continental Europe, were clearly filmed in England with a few cosmetic tweaks (German signage, smoke deflectors on the steam locomotives) to try to disguise things. The film also originally had a sequence representing events at Auschwitz, that was pulled at some point - presumably for being too dark a subject matter. You can still tell where this sequence was intended to be, as a narrative piece alludes to it, but the film immediately moves on.

It's seldom you meet with a film so full of natural cheer as this one and under the direst circumstances. It's almost like a yarn of Munchhausen all the way, but this is actually a true story, truer than "The Great Escape" some year later, concentrating on the titbits of the adventures of the constantly escaping prisoner sergeant-major Charles Coward (However did he get his name?) and his exploits and mates during the second world war, four years of imprisonment and finally making it just in time for the end of the war. Dirk Bogarde is perfect for the job, all his mates help in keeping up the show whenever necessary, the keyword is inventiveness which is practiced to extreme levels, and there is even a lovely woman with at least a moment's romance by the way. The Germans are not overly ridiculed, only just enough to keep you happy, they actually do their best to keep up war prison standards, although they can't really see the fun the prisoners are having. After 55 years this film is still as fresh and exhilarating as new as if the war just had finished, and it's ideal entertainment for anyone who needs some cheer-up.

All of the characters in that well-known film, "The Great Escape", were commissioned officers. But what about the "other ranks"? How did they fare under German captivity? "The Password is Courage" attempts to shed some light on the lives of the enlisted prisoners-of-war. It follows the experiences of a British Sergeant-Major, bearing the unlikely name of Coward, who proves to be anything but. Played by Dirk Borgarde, Sgt.-Maj. Coward was among the many British troops who couldn't manage to make it out of France after the fall of Dunkirk in 1940. Although taken prisoner, he did not consider himself out of the war and. For the next four years he did everything he could to make keeping him a prisoner as inconvenient as possible for his captors.Some of the film seems far-fetched. However, it was based upon the exploits of a real man. In fact, there seems to be every reason to believe that Charlie Coward's real experiences were, if anything, even more extraordinary than those depicted in the movie. All in all, a top- drawer British "ripping yarn".

The Password is Courage was made for International Refugee Year in 1959 and I seem to remember that was why Dirk Bogarde did the film. At the time I was living in East Anglia (as I do now) and reports of the filming were shown on the local news. There was also an interview with Charlie Coward, who was then a bookmaker.I think that a lot of the shaky locations were due to the limited budget, but I thoroughly enjoyed the film at the time. I also saw it at Liverpool University in the 60's, where it was put in its historical context and it stood up well.Lose the reasons for making it and the truth behind it and I suspect it could become a very poor film.