Danger Within

Danger Within
Directed by	Don Chaffey
Produced by	Colin Lesslie
Written by	Bryan Forbes Frank Harvey Michael Gilbert (novel)
Starring	Richard Todd Bernard Lee Michael Wilding Richard Attenborough
Music by	Francis Chagrin
Cinematography	Arthur Grant
Editing by	John Trumper
Distributed by	British Lion Films
Release date(s)	1959
Running time	101 min
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Danger Within is a 1959 British war film set in a prisoner of war camp in Northern Italy during the summer of 1943. It is based upon the novel Death in Captivity by Michael Gilbert, who had been a prisoner of war, held by the Italians.

Plot

When a clever escape attempt which seemed guaranteed to work fails, resulting in the escapee being shot dead within seconds of leaving the POW camp, the escape committee led by Lieutenant Colonel David Baird (Richard Todd) suspects there is an informer within their ranks. The prime candidate is a Greek officer, Lieutenant Coutoules (Cyril Shaps). However, when Coutoules is found dead in an escape tunnel, suspicions that there is an informer among the POWs die down. In an effort to explain away his death to the Italian captors, Coutoules' body is placed in an abandoned tunnel within the camp and the Italians are informed he was suffocated by a roof fall.

Based on the flimsiest of evidence, sadistic Capitano Benucci (Peter Arne) charges Captain Roger Byfold (Donald Houston) with the murder of the Coutoules. It is obvious to the POWs that although Byfold is completely innocent, Benucci will ensure that he is found guilty and executed. The escape committee forms a desperate plan to get Byfold and two other officers (played by Peter Jones and Michael Wilding) out of the camp before Byfold goes on trial. The three POWs scale the camp fence with a ladder constructed from two rugby posts. Unfortunately, Benucci is concealed just outside the fence with a machinegun, and promptly shoots them all dead. The escape committee realise that Benucci knew exactly when and where the three POWs planned to escape, and he was waiting for them to arrive.

The race is then on to find the informer and for the rest of the inmates to escape en masse before the camp is handed over to the Germans as part of the Italian Armistice. The escape plan devised by Lieutenant Colonel Huxley (Bernard Lee) is for the prisoners to make their escape during the day, under cover of a production of Hamlet in the theatre hut by a group of POWs led by Captain Rupert Callender (Dennis Price).

Cast

• Richard Todd as Lieutenant Colonel David Baird
• Bernard Lee as Lieutenant Colonel Huxley
• Michael Wilding as Major Charles Marquand
• Richard Attenborough as Captain 'Bunter' Phillips
• Dennis Price as Captain Rupert Callender
• Donald Houston as Captain Roger Byfold
• William Franklyn as Captain Tony Long
• Vincent Ball as Captain Pat Foster
• Peter Arne as Capitano Benucci
• Peter Jones as Captain Alfred Piker
• Ronnie Stevens as Lieutenant Meynell, 'The Sewer Rat'
• Terence Alexander as Lieutenant Gibbs
• Andrew Faulds as Lieutenant Commander 'Dopey' Gibbon, R.N.
• Steve Norbert as Lieutenant Pierre Dessin
• Cyril Shaps as Lieutenant Cyriakos Coutoules
• Eric Lander as Lieutenant Tim O'Brien
• Harold Siddons as Captain 'Tag' Burchnall
• John Dearth as Lieutenant Robson
• Michael Caine as POW (uncredited)

Filming locations

Locations for the film were Chobham Common, Surrey and Shepperton Studios.

Notes

The film was retitled Breakout for the US market.

See also

• Stalag 17 (similar war film involving an informer inside an American POW camp)

External links

• Danger Within at the Internet Movie Database