Rent Danger Within (1959)

POW Drama (spoiler). - Danger Within review by Steve

Erratic World War II prison drama, set in Italy in '43. While the narrative mostly addresses the murder of a suspected collaborator, it is staged at an interesting time in the campaign, with the Italians about to surrender to the Allies, and the Nazis intending to take over the camp. Only every single prisoner escapes before the changeover!

Earlier scenes rely on the skilled acting of many veterans of the screen war, because the script is packed with witless banter and high jinks. In fact, so flippant and conventional are these scenes that it's almost a send up. But the POW film is a resilient breed and when the mood darkens for the climactic breakout, its motifs work again.

Richard Todd is top billed as the dour Scot running the escape committee. But the screen time is spread evenly among a large cast. With the early focus on comedy, Michael Wilding and Dennis Price are prominent as a pair of thespian fops putting on Hamlet. Later on, Bernard Lee is typically unflappable as the senior officer.

This is less about the experiences of captive British soldiers, than a pastiche of other POW films. And it's just possible to sense the last gasp of this durable genre. Maybe so many were made because budget requirements were modest. But it's still an entertaining film, and ultimately exciting, despite overfamiliarity.