An American POW leads a group of mainly British prisoners to escape from the Germans in WWII.An American POW leads a group of mainly British prisoners to escape from the Germans in WWII.An American POW leads a group of mainly British prisoners to escape from the Germans in WWII.
- Nominated for 1 Oscar
- 1 win & 3 nominations total
Raffaella Carrà
- Gabriella
- (as Raffaella Carra)
Ian Abercrombie
- English POW
- (uncredited)
Don Ames
- Prisoner of War
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaMichael Goodliffe, who plays Capt. Stein, was an actual Prisoner of War during WWII. He was captured at Dunkirk and spent the next five years in a German POW camp.
- GoofsAll of the German soldiers carrying MP38/40 sub-machine guns (including all of the guards on the train) were wearing the wrong ammo pouches. The MP38/40 fired 9mm pistol ammunition from a 32-round detachable box magazine. The soldiers were all wearing cartridge pouches designed to hold 5-round stripper clips of 7.92mm ammunition for a bolt-action Mauser rifle. This means none of the Germans carrying sub-machine guns had any ready ammunition available once they fired the 32 rounds in their only magazine. This is a common mistake in WWII TV shows and movies.
- Quotes
Maj. Eric Fincham: It would take you too long to strangle a man, Colonel. The average Nazi would get impatient while you were doing it.
- Crazy creditsThe film credits and all promotion publicity still say "A Cinemascope Picture", and Alfred Newman's "extended" 20th Century-Fox fanfare is still heard on the soundtrack as the picture begins, but most of the film was actually shot in Panavision, at Frank Sinatra's insistence.
- Alternate versionsWhen originally released theatrically in the UK, the BBFC made cuts to secure a 'U' rating. All cuts were waived in 1988 when the film was granted a 'PG' certificate for home video.
- ConnectionsEdited into Galactica 1980: Galactica Discovers Earth: Part 2 (1980)
Featured review
Sinatra shines in classic war movie
what a marvellous performance by Sinatra and Trevor Howard in this classic World War 11 movie.A great script and some strong supporting roles make this movie a wonderful piece of entertainment.Sharp movie fans may even notice a young James Brolin in a small role,but the greatest thing about this movie is the wonderful line uttered by Trevor Howard to Frank(as Von Ryan)when Sinatra tries to tie a knot to show how to strangle a german guard (which fails) and Trevor Howard shows Sinatra how to really tie a strangle knot ,and says the immortal line"learn that from the cowboy films did you?".what a great put down,its worth watching just for that.The ending is a surprise and really leaves one a bit flat but all in all wonderful escapism.
helpful•2818
- lonniebealeusa
- Jun 21, 2002
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Languages
- Also known as
- Colonel von Ryans Expreß
- Filming locations
- Málaga, Andalucía, Spain(final shootout on rail track on mountain)
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $5,760,000 (estimated)
- Runtime1 hour 57 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1
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