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The Password Is Courage
The Password Is Courage is a 1962 British comedy-drama war film written, produced, and directed by Andrew L. Stone and starring Dirk Bogarde, Maria Perschy, and Alfred Lynch. It was based on the 1954 World War II biography of the same name of Sergeant-Major Charles Coward by Ronald Payne and John Williams Garrod (written under the joint pseudonym John Castle). It was distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Sergeant-Major Charles Coward is a senior British NCO incarcerated in the prisoner of war camp Stalag VIII-B. He encourages his fellow inmates to escape, and tries to humiliate the German guards at every opportunity.
When he is being transferred to Stalag VIII-B, the injured Coward escapes from a forced march, finding refuge in a French farmhouse and barn that is soon requisitioned by a German army unit setting up a field hospital. Believed to be a wounded German soldier, Coward is taken to a hospital, where his identity is discovered, but not before he is awarded the Iron Cross as he lies in his hospital bed.
Coward is sent on to Stalag VIII-B. On the way to the camp, he engineers the total destruction of an enemy ammunition train: He and his fellow prisoners toss flaming bundles of straw, set on fire with his cigarette lighter, into the passing rail cars.
At the camp, he and his fellow prisoner Bill Pope become involved in an elaborate escape plan. The Germans find a tunnel – but it is an old and abandoned one. Coward then attempts to deceive his camp commander and Luftwaffe officials, indicating that he has knowledge of a secret allied bomb site. He receives special favours, which he uses to bribe the camp guards to get vital materials needed for the coming escape.
When his ruse is discovered, Coward and his friend Pope are transferred to a work camp in occupied Poland. The camp's commanding officer says Coward is a traitor, hoping his fellow prisoners will kill him. The Nazi scheme fails.
The prisoners trick the Unteroffizier, into thinking he was responsible for a devastating fire that Coward actually engineered. Using this, Coward extracts an extraordinary privilege: going to and from the neighboring town without an escort. He makes contact with an attractive Polish resistance agent, who provides him with maps and other information. He also joins his fellow prisoners in acts of sabotage, including wrecking a huge supply train. He and Pope are sent back to their old Stalag, smuggling the papers past the initial strip search inspection by pretending to be infested with lice.
The escape plan proceeds apace, with every detail accounted for, and the day comes for the 100 chosen men to escape. Coward is the one to break open the vertical access tunnel into a pine grove. He strikes thick tree roots delaying the escape. This leaves 20 men stuck in the tunnel and 180 in the hut. A guard is seen approaching. The men decide to cover up by singing, pretending a party is going on. The concertina player sacrifices his place in line and goes outside, pretending to be drunk. The guard takes him away, not unkindly.
The Password Is Courage
The Password Is Courage is a 1962 British comedy-drama war film written, produced, and directed by Andrew L. Stone and starring Dirk Bogarde, Maria Perschy, and Alfred Lynch. It was based on the 1954 World War II biography of the same name of Sergeant-Major Charles Coward by Ronald Payne and John Williams Garrod (written under the joint pseudonym John Castle). It was distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Sergeant-Major Charles Coward is a senior British NCO incarcerated in the prisoner of war camp Stalag VIII-B. He encourages his fellow inmates to escape, and tries to humiliate the German guards at every opportunity.
When he is being transferred to Stalag VIII-B, the injured Coward escapes from a forced march, finding refuge in a French farmhouse and barn that is soon requisitioned by a German army unit setting up a field hospital. Believed to be a wounded German soldier, Coward is taken to a hospital, where his identity is discovered, but not before he is awarded the Iron Cross as he lies in his hospital bed.
Coward is sent on to Stalag VIII-B. On the way to the camp, he engineers the total destruction of an enemy ammunition train: He and his fellow prisoners toss flaming bundles of straw, set on fire with his cigarette lighter, into the passing rail cars.
At the camp, he and his fellow prisoner Bill Pope become involved in an elaborate escape plan. The Germans find a tunnel – but it is an old and abandoned one. Coward then attempts to deceive his camp commander and Luftwaffe officials, indicating that he has knowledge of a secret allied bomb site. He receives special favours, which he uses to bribe the camp guards to get vital materials needed for the coming escape.
When his ruse is discovered, Coward and his friend Pope are transferred to a work camp in occupied Poland. The camp's commanding officer says Coward is a traitor, hoping his fellow prisoners will kill him. The Nazi scheme fails.
The prisoners trick the Unteroffizier, into thinking he was responsible for a devastating fire that Coward actually engineered. Using this, Coward extracts an extraordinary privilege: going to and from the neighboring town without an escort. He makes contact with an attractive Polish resistance agent, who provides him with maps and other information. He also joins his fellow prisoners in acts of sabotage, including wrecking a huge supply train. He and Pope are sent back to their old Stalag, smuggling the papers past the initial strip search inspection by pretending to be infested with lice.
The escape plan proceeds apace, with every detail accounted for, and the day comes for the 100 chosen men to escape. Coward is the one to break open the vertical access tunnel into a pine grove. He strikes thick tree roots delaying the escape. This leaves 20 men stuck in the tunnel and 180 in the hut. A guard is seen approaching. The men decide to cover up by singing, pretending a party is going on. The concertina player sacrifices his place in line and goes outside, pretending to be drunk. The guard takes him away, not unkindly.