Review of The One That Got Away (1957) by Walter M — 14 Apr 2015

"The One that Got Away" starts with Oberleutnant Franz Von Werra(Hardy Kruger) crash landing his airplane in England. When he sees the man with the meat cleaver running towards him, he knows the gig is up and surrenders promptly. But he has no intention of sticking around long for the polite English interrogation, promptly requesting a move to a prison camp. That's before he makes a bet with an English commanding officer that he will successfully escape.

You can have your gaudy special effects. I'll take some good old fashioned exciting filmmaking like which is featured in "The One that Got Away," directed as well as it is by Roy Ward Baker, even if it does start a little slow.(Great title, too.) For my money's worth, Von Werra making a break for it is the most breathtaking sequence I have seen in a good long time. While there are hints to his backstory, this is also detailed in life on the homefront of England during World War II where men do not listen to women at their own peril.(Short of the current television series "Manhattan," this is also one of the few post-war entertainments that connects the World Wars.) As far as Von Werra who survived on pure bravado goes, this was actually only part of his journey, as the endnote puts it with no shortage of irony.