The Password Is Courage

I First saw this film on its release in 1962. Unfortunalely, I had read John Castle's biography of sargant- major Charles Coward before I saw the film. A large section of the book deals with Coward's attempts to help Jews escape from the Auchwitz death camp. The film dealt with this by having a five minute segment where Henry Piek's drawings of the horrors of Auchwitz are shown with Dirk Bogarde giving a voice over commentary. Well, at least it was a film that mentioned the Hollocaust . A very rear thing in the early 1960's. I saw this film again just recently on television and the Auchwitz segment had been edited out of the film. So, now the film is just another Second World War adventure movie along with an unlikely romantic interest that was not in the biography (Coward was married and very much devoted to his wife). But, there is something about this film that makes it different from other British war time escape films. It is about ordinary soldiers and not officers. These soldiers have been put to work by the Germans and the p.o.w. camps do not have the air of the British public school. These other ranks do not just try to escape but commit dangerous acts of sabotage. Therefore, on the whole this film is still worth seeing. It it was great to see the wonderful Dirk Bogarde playing a cockney character part that he does so well.

First of all this film is based on Charlie Cowards Biography so a lot of it is quite correct,but like all films artistic licence has crept in for the sake of continuity,all in all the film is entertaining,now lets look at when it was made.The Early 60s, when a lot of memories from World War 2 were still fresh in peoples minds so a lot what was in Charlie Cowards book would have had the red pencil put through it as unsuitable.

Lastly not only was Charlie Coward a Technical Adviser on this film he also appeared in it as an ordinary British Soldier in the scene where they are having a party after he is released from solitary confinement

John Wignall

Not just very much like The Great Escape - both films shared prisoners using the same techniques for obtaining materials, tunneling, disposal of dirt from the tunnel, hiding the tunnel entrance under stoves & the same slight issue with the tunnel exit.

I'd not seen this Borgarde film before TCM aired it, so it was startling how many plot similarities it shared with it's much more well known compatriot - I understand that both were in production around the same time (though Courage came out first), so neither were remakes of the other, but whether both referenced the same source material (Courage was apparently derived from the memoirs of Sgt Major Charles Coward), I'm not sure.

A side note: Anyone familiar with railways in England in the 60's will quickly notice that all the railway scenes in Courage, while supposed to be in continental Europe, were clearly filmed in England with a few cosmetic tweaks (German signage, smoke deflectors on the steam locomotives) to try to disguise things. The film also originally had a sequence representing events at Auschwitz, that was pulled at some point - presumably for being too dark a subject matter. You can still tell where this sequence was intended to be, as a narrative piece alludes to it, but the film immediately moves on.

All of the characters in that well-known film, "The Great Escape", were commissioned officers. But what about the "other ranks"? How did they fare under German captivity? "The Password is Courage" attempts to shed some light on the lives of the enlisted prisoners-of-war. It follows the experiences of a British Sergeant-Major, bearing the unlikely name of Coward, who proves to be anything but. Played by Dirk Borgarde, Sgt.-Maj. Coward was among the many British troops who couldn't manage to make it out of France after the fall of Dunkirk in 1940. Although taken prisoner, he did not consider himself out of the war and. For the next four years he did everything he could to make keeping him a prisoner as inconvenient as possible for his captors.

Some of the film seems far-fetched. However, it was based upon the exploits of a real man. In fact, there seems to be every reason to believe that Charlie Coward's real experiences were, if anything, even more extraordinary than those depicted in the movie. All in all, a top- drawer British "ripping yarn".

This rarely seen film was presented on cable recently. In a way, this is a story that has been done before. The best thing about it is how well the copy that was shown has been kept. The black and white photography of David Boulton still looks fresh. Andrew L. Stone adapted the material as well as directed it.

Most comments seem to be divided as to this version being a carbon copy of "The Great Escape", or "Hogan Heroes", in a way, it kept reminding us of "Stalag 17", which was the basis for the television series. While the movie is not up to the above mentioned models, it shows a more realistic approach to the insanity of war and the humor the British prisoners brought to their predicament.

One thing comes clear, Dirk Bogarde was brilliant in his portrayal of Sgt. Maj. Charles Coward, a man that played a game of cat and mouse with his Nazi captors. Coward seemed to know how to escape from the Germans, only to end up being taken prisoner again, and again. He even finds love with a partisan girl during the time of war!

The film was obviously shot is England. Evidently, this was a low budget effort, and it shows. Had it been a Hollywood production, it would have been blown out of proportion, but what we really enjoy from "The Password is Courage" is the bonding one watches among all the prisoners.