Nigel Stock, who plays Cole, mentions digging the tunnel 25 feet deep to stay hidden from the microphones. In The Great Escape (1963), he played Cavendish, the surveyor, who miscalculated the length of the tunnel.
Akin to a British version of Stalag 17 (1953), The Password Is Courage (1962) is the true story of a British WWII hero with the unlikely name of Charles Coward. Coward was a sergeant major who was captured in 1940 and spent the remainder of the war as a POW -but not without causing major trouble for the Germans. Even on his initial trip to the prison camp, he managed to set fire to a passing Nazi munitions train and twice tried to escape. He made seven more escape attempts over the next five years, culminating in a massive tunnel break, and was re-captured six times.
But more importantly, he created small irritations and, when possible, carried out larger-scale acts of sabotage against the Germans. He damaged millions of marks' worth of German equipment, brazenly saved lives at Auschwitz by substituting dead men for live ones, sent word back to England of the coming blitz, and after the war testified at the Nuremburg Trials. At one point, his fluent German allowed him to pose as a wounded solider in a German field hospital, and he was awarded the German Iron Cross.
But more importantly, he created small irritations and, when possible, carried out larger-scale acts of sabotage against the Germans. He damaged millions of marks' worth of German equipment, brazenly saved lives at Auschwitz by substituting dead men for live ones, sent word back to England of the coming blitz, and after the war testified at the Nuremburg Trials. At one point, his fluent German allowed him to pose as a wounded solider in a German field hospital, and he was awarded the German Iron Cross.
The tagline claims that Charles Coward is the only man to get an Iron Cross from the enemy. This is untrue. Double agent Eddie Chapman was awarded the Iron Cross by the Nazis while working loyally for the British.
Hogan's Heroes (1965) shared many similarities to this movie. The regular characters in Hogan's Heroes (1965) are characters straight out of this movie, and many of the antics in the series are things that happen in the movie. However, there is no mention of Charles Coward's autobiography or of this movie in any of the "Hogan's Heroes" credits.
The 2-6-4T LMS locomotive involved in the crash was bought by MGM for £3,500 from the railroad. The studio then turned around and sold it for scrap for £5,000.