The Great Escape (1963) - Sturges' further manly exploits in war-adventure classic

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An elaborate, dramatically drawn and painted poster for John Sturges' The Great Escape, which effectively screws up expectations

The [in fact far from] true story of the ambitious escape mission from German POW camp Stalag Luft III during WWII by mainly English and American officers.

The Great Escape is written by W.R. Burnett (Sergeants 3 (1962)) and James Clavell (Five Gates to Hell (1959)), adapting the same-titled 1950 book by a survivor of the camp, Paul Brickhill (The Dam Busters (1951)), and directed by John Sturges (The Man Who Dared (1946)).
Compared to some of the other great prison escape films, I don't count The Great Escape among the most suspenseful, and the filmmakers' multi-character approach carries a large part of the guilt for this. Even so this popular classic is ripe with beautiful images, (cinematography by Daniel L. Fapp (A New Kind of Love (1963))) and in the very manly cast especially Richard Attenborough (Secret Flight (1946)) is in top shape in it.

Related posts:

John Sturges:  The Eagle Has Landed (1976) - Sturges' enjoyable, last man's adventure
Chino/Valdez, Il Mezzosangue/Valdez the Half BreedThe Valdez Horses (1973) - Bronson is his own man only in Sturges' good spaghetti western

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 3.8-4 mil. $ (different accounts)
Box office: In excess of 11.9 mil. $
= Uncertain - but at least a box office success and more likely a big hit (returned at least 2.92 times its cost in North America alone)
[The Great Escape premiered 20 June (London) and runs 172 minutes. Brickhill played a minor part in the escape mission in the Stalag Luft III camp but lived to tell the story: 50 allied airmen were executed as punishment for the escape, which only succeeded in getting 3 free; two Norwegians and one Dutch. The book had first been adapted for TV in 1951. Many in the star-studded cast had served in the war, including Attenborough, Charles Bronson and Donald Pleasance (who actually spent a year captured in the German Stalag Luft I POW camp); James Garner (The Pink Jungle (1968)) served in the Korean War. Shooting took place from June - October 1962 in Germany. Steve McQueen (The Reivers (1969)) did his own driving in the film's famous climactic motorcycle chase, except for the jump stunt, which was performed by stuntman Bud Ekins. The film changes the actual history on several fronts, making composite characters of altered nationalities and changing many facts surrounding the escape. It was the year's 10th highest rental grossing title in North America and likely similarly popular internationally, although gross numbers are regrettably not reported online. It was nominated for an Oscar: Best Editing, lost to How the West Was Won. It was also nominated for a Golden Globe and won a National Board of Review award, among other honors. It has been re-released many times, recently a 2019 re-release in the UK grossed the film another 227k $. An unofficial TV movie sequel was made; The Great Escape II: The Untold Story (1988). IMDb's users have voted the film in at #137 on the site's Top 250, sitting between Howl's Moving Castle (2004) and All about Eve (1950). Sturges returned with The Satan Bug (1965). McQueen returned in Soldier in the Rain (1963)); Garner in The Thrill of It All (1963)); and Attenborough in The Third Secret (1964). The Great Escape is certified fresh at 94 % with an 8.27/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Great Escape?

The Fly (1958) - Neumann's great existential angst sci-fi classic

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An excitement-building, eerily creepy poster for Kurt Neumann's The Fly

A brilliant scientist works to create a teleportation device in his basement laboratory, but when he starts to experiment, a terrible mistake takes place.

The Fly is a wholly incredible experience, an extraordinarily well-made sci-fi horror drama. Its first half is quite entertaining; its second half produces an anxiety-provoking fear that is extremely rarely provoked by films. The existential anxiety that grabbed me felt as if it completely consumed me on my first time of watching the film, and to me The Fly will always have something insanely eerie, mysteriously terrifying about it.
The Fly is written by Australian James Clavell (Savage Justice (1967)) (his first produced screenplay), based on the same-titled 1957 Playboy magazine short story by George Lagelaan (The Dolphin Speaks Too (1964)), and directed by great German filmmaker Kurt Neumann (The Big Cage (1933)). It marks the major horror genre entrance for Vincent Price (Diary of a Madman (1963)), who went on to become one of the genre's biggest stars of all time, and is shot in glorious colors by Karl Struss (It's a Small World (1950)).

Watch the great, Vincent Price-hosted trailer for the film here

Cost: 350k $ - 495k $ (different reports)
Box office: 3 mil. $
= Huge hit
[The Fly was released 16 July (USA) and runs 93 minutes. The film was to be distributed by Fox's B movie sub-company Regal Pictures, but Fox upgraded the film and took it for its own in the end, probably realizing its high quality. The laboratory set cost 28k $ to produce. Filming took place in Montreal, Canada and in Los Angeles, California for 18 days in March 1958. The film is reportedly loyal to Langelaan's story for the most part; it does change the setting from France to Canada and erases a suicide by the Hélène character in the end. In North America, the film was released on a double bill with Space Master X-7 by Edward Bernds. It earned 1.7 mil. $ in rentals and was one of Fox's biggest hits of the year and reportedly the 8th highest-grossing film of the year overall. Neumann passed away a few weeks after the premiere and did not live to realize that he had made his career's most successful film. Two sequels were made; Return of the Fly (1959), by Bernds, with Price, and Curse of the Fly (1965), without either of them. David Cronenberg made an acclaimed new version, The Fly (1986), which had one sequel, The Fly II (1989). Price returned in Have Gun - Will Travel (1958, TV-series) and theatrically in House on Haunted Hill (1959). Neumann had completed 3 more pictures that were released after The Fly: Machete (1958), Watusi (1959) and Counterplot (1959). The Fly is fresh at 95 % with a 7.1/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Fly?