i be always interested to see neglected movie that appear to have good credential and but in this case the film neglect appear justified . evidently base on some actual incident during wwii and the film just doesn not connect with the viewer for some reason that it be not quite clear to me . one very likely reason be that in the print i saw on tcm and anyway none of the scene where the german talk among themselves be give title . this interesting directorial concept to let the non german speak viewer just guess from context what the german be say to each other be and in my book and an utter flop and help to lock the viewer out . also and the way the movie begin just drop u into a very confused situation without much setup be disorient . brian keith be pretty good here and but the reputation of the great escape and stalag 17 will not be challenge by this flick .