''Danger Within'' (U.S. title: ''Breakout'') is a 1959 British

war film War film is a film genre concerned with warfare, typically about navy, naval, air force, air, or army, land battles, with combat scenes central to the drama. It has been strongly associated with the 20th century. The fateful nature of battle s ...

directed by

Don Chaffey Donald Chaffey (5 August 1917 – 13 November 1990) was a British film director, writer, Film producer, producer, and art director. Chaffey's film career began as an art director in 1947, and his directorial debut was in 1953. He remained acti ...

and starring

Richard Todd Richard Andrew Palethorpe-Todd (11 June 19193 December 2009) was an Irish-British actor known for his leading man roles of the 1950s. He received a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer – Male, and an Academy Award for Best Actor n ...

and

Bernard Lee John Bernard Lee (10 January 190816 January 1981) was an English actor, best known for his role as M in the first eleven Eon-produced James Bond films. Lee's film career spanned the years 1934 to 1979, though he had appeared on stage from ...

. It was written by

Bryan Forbes Bryan Forbes Order of the British Empire, CBE (; born John Theobald Clarke; 22 July 1926 – 8 May 2013) was an English film director, screenwriter, film producer, actor and novelist described as a "Renaissance man"Falk Q. . BAFTA. 17 October 2 ...

and Frank Harvey, based on the 1952 novel '' Death in Captivity'' by

Michael Gilbert Michael Francis Gilbert (17 July 1912 – 8 February 2006) was an English solicitor and author of crime fiction. Early life and education Gilbert was born on 17 July 1912 in Billinghay, Lincolnshire, England, to Bernard Samuel Gilbert, a writ ...

, who had been a prisoner of war held by the Italians at PG 49 in

Fontanellato Fontanellato (Parmigiano dialect, Parmigiano: ) is a small town in the province of Parma, in northern Italy. It lies on the plains of the River Po near the Autostrada A1 (Italy), A1 autostrada, about west of Parma towards Piacenza. The town was ...

. A combination of POW escape drama and

whodunit A ''whodunit'' (less commonly spelled as ''whodunnit''; a colloquial elision of "Who asdone it?") is a complex plot-driven variety of detective fiction Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an criminal ...

, the film set in a

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war for a ...

camp in

Northern Italy Northern Italy (, , ) is a geographical and cultural region in the northern part of Italy. The Italian National Institute of Statistics defines the region as encompassing the four Northwest Italy, northwestern Regions of Italy, regions of Piedmo ...

during the summer of 1943.

Plot

A well-planned escape attempt, which seemed guaranteed to work, ends in disaster. Within seconds of leaving the POW camp, the would-be escapee, cleverly disguised as sadistic Capitano Benucci, is caught and killed by the real Capitano Benucci. This incident is witnessed by the other prisoners, who notice that Benucci seemed to be waiting for the escapee to arrive before shooting him dead in cold blood. Afterwards, the escape committee, led by Lieutenant Colonel David Baird, is convinced that there is an informer within their ranks. The prime suspect is a

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

officer, Lieutenant Coutoules. However, when Coutoules is found dead in an escape tunnel, suspicions that there is a traitor living among the POWs die down. In an effort to explain away his death to the Italian captors, Coutoules' body is placed in an abandoned escape tunnel within the camp and the Italians are informed he was suffocated by a roof fall. Based on fingerprint evidence, Benucci charges Captain Roger Byfold with the murder of Coutoules. It is obvious to the POWs that, although Byfold is completely innocent, Benucci will ensure he is found guilty and executed. The escape committee develops a desperate plan to get Byfold and two other officers out of the camp before Byfold goes on trial. The three POWs scale the camp fence with a ladder constructed from two rugby posts. However, Benucci and his men are concealed just outside the fence with a machine gun mounted on the back of a truck, and the three escapees are promptly mowed down by a hail of bullets. This is the second time Benucci has deliberately killed escaping POWs in cold blood, even though it would have been easy to capture them alive. The escape committee realises that Benucci knew when and where the three POWs planned to escape and had positioned himself in the best place to ambush them. The only logical explanation is that there really is a

traitor Treason is the crime of attacking a state (polity), state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to Coup d'état, overthrow its government, spy ...

among the POWs, who has betrayed them by passing information to Benucci. That also means that Benucci must already know about another tunnel they are working on, intended for a mass escape of POWs. The prisoners realise that Benucci could easily intervene to prevent the next escape attempt from taking place, if he wanted to. They assume that Benucci prefers to let preparations continue so the informer can tell him the date and time of the escape, allowing Benucci to wait at the other end of the tunnel to machine-gun as many POWs as he can. The race is on to find the informer, and for the rest of the inmates to escape en masse before the camp is handed over to the

Nazis Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

, following the

Italian Armistice The Armistice of Cassibile ( Italian: ''Armistizio di Cassibile'') was an armistice that was signed on 3 September 1943 by Italy and the Allies, marking the end of hostilities between Italy and the Allies during World War II. It was made public ...

. The escape plan, devised by Lieutenant Colonel Huxley, is for the prisoners to make their escape during the day, under the cover of a production of ''

Hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

'' in the theatre hut by a group of POWs led by Captain Rupert Callender. They assume that Benucci would never expect the POWs to attempt an escape in broad daylight.

Cast

as Lieutenant Colonel David Baird *

as Lieutenant Colonel Huxley *

Michael Wilding Michael Charles Gauntlet Wilding (23 July 1912 – 8 July 1979) was an English stage, television, and film actor. He is best known for a series of films he made with Anna Neagle; he also made two films with Alfred Hitchcock, '' Under Capric ...

as Major Charles Marquand *

Richard Attenborough Richard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough (; 29 August 192324 August 2014) was an English actor, film director, and Film producer, producer. Attenborough was the president of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and the British Acade ...

as Captain 'Bunter' Phillips * Dennis Price as Captain Rupert Callender * Donald Houston as Captain Roger Byfold *

William Franklyn William Leo Franklyn (; 22 September 1925 – 31 October 2006) was an English actor, perhaps best known for voicing the "Schhh... You Know Who" adverts for Schweppes from 1965 to 1973. He also performed on stage, film, television and rad ...

as Captain Tony Long *

Vincent Ball Vincent Martin Ball, (born 4 December 1923) is an Australian retired actor of film, theatre and radio active in the industry for nearly 55 years (with a brief return) firstly in Britain starting in the late 1940s and then his native Australia ...

as Captain Pat Foster *

Peter Arne Peter Arne (born Peter Randolph Michael Albrecht; 29 September 19181 August 1983) was a British actor. He made more than 50 film appearances including roles in '' Ice Cold in Alex'', '' The Moonraker'', '' Conspiracy of Hearts'' and '' Victor/Vi ...

as Capitano Benucci * Peter Jones as Captain Alfred Piker * Ronnie Stevens as Lieutenant Meynell, 'The Sewer Rat' *

Terence Alexander Terence Joseph Alexander (11 March 1923 – 28 May 2009) was an English film and television actor, best known for his role as Charlie Hungerford in the British TV drama '' Bergerac'', which ran for nine series on BBC1 between 1981 and 1991. Ea ...

as Lieutenant Gibbs *

Andrew Faulds Andrew Matthew William Faulds (1 March 1923 – 31 May 2000) was a British actor and Labour Party politician. After a successful acting career on stage, on radio and in films, he was a Member of Parliament from 1966 to 1997. Early life Faul ...

as Lieutenant Commander 'Dopey' Gibbon, R.N. * Steve Norbert as Lieutenant Pierre Dessin *

Cyril Shaps Cyril Leonard Shaps (13 October 1923 – 1 January 2003) was an English actor of radio, television and film, with a career spanning over seven decades. Early radio Shaps was born in the East End of London to Polish-Jewish parents; his father ...

as Lieutenant Cyriakos Coutoules *

Eric Lander Eric Steven Lander (born February 3, 1957) is an American mathematician and geneticist who is a professor of biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and a professor of systems biology at Harvard Medical School. Eric Lander is ...

as Lieutenant Tim O'Brien * John Dearth as Lieutenant Robson *

Robert Bruce Robert I (11 July 1274 – 7 June 1329), popularly known as Robert the Bruce (), was King of Scots from 1306 until his death in 1329. Robert led Scotland during the First War of Scottish Independence against England. He fought successfully dur ...

as 'Doc' Simmonds, R.A.M.C. * Harold Siddons as Captain 'Tag' Burchnall * Ian Whittaker as 2nd Lieutenant Betts-Hanger *

Michael Caine Sir Michael Caine (born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite, 14 March 1933) is a retired English actor. Known for his distinct Cockney accent, he has appeared in more than 160 films over Michael Caine filmography, a career that spanned eight decades an ...

as POW (uncredited)

Production

The film was inspired by escape involving producer Colin Lesslie. Richard Todd agreed to make the film in part because he was attracted to true war stories. Todd tried to make a sequel about Lesslie's adventures in Italy but no film resulted. Locations for the film were Chobham Common,

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

and

Shepperton Studios Shepperton Studios is a film studio located in Shepperton, Surrey, England, with a history dating back to 1931. It is now part of Pinewood Group, the Pinewood Studios Group. During its early existence, the studio was branded as Sound City (not ...

Reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin The ''Monthly Film Bulletin'' was a periodical of the British Film Institute published monthly from February 1934 until April 1991, when it merged with '' Sight & Sound''. It reviewed all films on release in the United Kingdom, including those wi ...

'' wrote: "After an initial cheap, and pointless joke, sustained through the titles, the film's merits of ingenuity and tight construction soon take firm hold, while the atmosphere of camp life is established with economy and insight. If attention tends to slacken during moments of crisis, this is mainly because of a certain too-familiar reliance on the virtues of understatement. This, and one other flaw – a sadistic Italian officer given only one-dimensional characterisation – narrowly detracts from the film's considerable sense of style. Bernard Lee's solid and thoughtful performance stands out in a generally workmanlike cast." In ''British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959'' David Quinlan rated the film as "good", writing: "Although some way behaind ''Stalag 1''7, film carries a good share of tension, excitement and humour." ''The

Radio Times ''Radio Times'' is a British weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio programme schedules, with other features such as interviews, film reviews and lifestyle items. Founded in September 1923 by John Reith, then general manage ...

Guide to Films'' gave the film 3/5 stars, writing: "Anyone who has seen

Billy Wilder Billy Wilder (; ; born Samuel Wilder; June 22, 1906 – March 27, 2002) was an American filmmaker and screenwriter. His career in Hollywood (film industry), Hollywood spanned five decades, and he is regarded as one of the most brilliant and ver ...

's PoW-camp classic ''Stalag 17'' will find this workmanlike British imitation somewhat predictable. The story has a whodunnit element that is cleverly and wittily plotted, but prisoners and guards alike are cardboard cutouts and it takes some competent character acting to make them even half credible. Richard Attenborough and Bernard Lee come off best, while Richard Todd trots out all his gruff officer mannerisms. Director Don Chaffey sustains the suspense with unfussy ease."

Leslie Halliwell Robert James Leslie Halliwell (23 February 1929 – 21 January 1989) was a British film critic, encyclopaedist and television rights buyer for ITV, the British commercial network, and Channel 4. He is best known for his reference guides, '' Fi ...

said: "Escape plans of officers in a prisoner-of-war camp are threatened by an informer. Familiar comedy and melodrama with an added whodunnit element, smartly handled and very entertaining."

References

External links