WW2 Prison Camp Movie With Audience Escaping Using Applause Box?

December 4, 2004 1:06 AM

"Stalag 17" and "The Great Escape" are rerun constantly, but this was a WW2 prison camp movie I saw 20-odd years ago, and have never seen since.

The only thing I remember is that the prisoners escaped while watching a prison camp show. As the show progressed. the audience left the building one by one (to go to the tunnel?), until at the end there was one prisoner with an “applause machine” - a large wheel which he turned with a crank to make a clapping noise, kinda like when you used to put cardboard in the spokes of your bicycle to make and engine noise. (You think I’m making all this up don’t you?)

posted by TiredStarling to media & arts (9 comments total)

Could it be one of these IMDb recommendations for people who liked The Great Escape?
posted by icontemplate at 6:08 AM on December 4, 2004

<unhelpful> Maybe it was an episode of Hogan's Heroes? </unhelpful>
posted by neckro23 at 9:00 AM on December 4, 2004

I actually vote for the Hogan's Heroes idea. Or some other TV show. It sounds more like a TV episode than a movie.
posted by bingo at 9:27 AM on December 4, 2004

Hogan's Heroes is a possibility..it's also ringing some vague bells for M*A*S*H, maybe as some sort of a prank or something...? (Out on a limb here.)
posted by Miko at 9:42 AM on December 4, 2004

On a tangent, how about the name of the one where the POWs Flew one of their own out of camp in a home made glider?
posted by page404 at 11:20 AM on December 4, 2004

page404: Could it be The Birdmen? I came across the summary looking for the one above. Sounds similar.

Sounds similar to Chicken Run too.
posted by icontemplate at 12:13 PM on December 4, 2004

Chicken Run was based partly on Colditz. They're both UK productions and the allusion was comically familiar to British viewers of a certain age, coincidentally the Director's generation. (I was at school with Nick Park). Here's the famous Colditz glider.
posted by punilux at 12:51 PM on December 4, 2004

I haven't seen Colditz, but Chicken Run seemed unabashedly modeled on The Great Escape to me. Maybe it was a mishmash.
posted by bingo at 8:31 PM on December 4, 2004

I third Colditz; note this summary of a key personage in the real thing:

The {secret} radio was powered from the castle supply and the hide was furnished with maps to make the news from Allied and German broadcasts more easily intelligible. Yule's responsibility for maintaining the flow of news to other inmates convinced him that he should join no further escape attempts; but he also had another contribution to make to his comrades' morale.

Always fascinated by music and the theatre, he became involved in putting on pantomimes and revues, the Ballet Nonsense being among the best-remembered. He also arranged music for the prisoners band, equipped with instruments acquired in one way or another from the German guards. The noise of band performances or revues, including the applause, was frequently used to drown sound of preparation for escape attempts or distract key members of the guard while an attempt was made. One successful home run began from beneath the theatre stage.
posted by dhartung at 3:10 AM on December 5, 2004