Excellent but underrated film

A different way of telling a story

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

It gets the high score it deserves for daring to be different in so many ways.Yes, its a POW film. Yes, their trying to escape.So why is it so different?Their jailers are the Italians who we so rarely see in POW films. We have a murder mystery, a Who Done It to solve! We also have a spy in the camp revealing the escape plans to the Italians.It's a pretty good name cast with Richard Todd, Richard Attenborough and William Franklyn as the more notable names.The film looks good, it's well scripted and you have an excellent bad guy in Benucci, the Italian Camp Commander.The great storyline that they find the man they think is the spy dead in a tunnel which totally throws them off starts the who done it. It also stops them thinking about spies until they do reveal who the actual traitor is (I won't spoil that for you).The ending after the escape is a tad weak, I would have liked to have watched more of their escape once they were outside the camp.Overall its a very decent movie for its age. Thumbs up and recommended to those who like their War or POW films.

It's not too bad and has good pace, although from the comments already made I was expecting a little more. The cast list is nothing special - mostly second string names, bar Richard Attenborough, though Peter Arne manages a good turn as the commandant.But there was much glossing over the catastrophic mistakes they made - getting the wrong man, the continuing escape failures, and even when it's less than certain that the next plan will work, the British commander decides to opt for the most hare-brained plan of them all - insane!The potential 'whodunnit' surrounding why their plans keep failing is missed entirely, suggesting a low budget necessitating plot simplification, which was a pity. Plot holes a-plenty, badly filled in e.g. the late laundry van. Elements of better films could be seen here, but most of the actors seem all too fit and healthy for it to be anything more than a bit of fun, rather than a more serious attempt to portray the conditions in a POW camp.Indeed, the portly British commander (did he get stuck in that hole? - certainly looked like it!) once berates an officer for 'treating the place like a holiday camp'. Well, they're obviously well fed and bathed (enough spare water to clean up the dead man at the start), plenty to smoke, matches (!), candles, they have music, drama (with costume) and sports, sunbathing - why would you want to break out?? ;-)

This is one of my favourite POW films. But in fact 'Danger Within' is not just a POW film as such, it also falls into the Britfilm murder mystery genre.The source for the story is a Michael Gilbert mystery 'Death in Captivity'published in the mid 1950's. It,s a cracking read and compliments the film as some narrative elements had to be changed for filmed purposes. The play within the story is different, and motivation of hero and villain is slightly more efficiently. It also gives you a glimpse into what happened after the mass escape.For the Buff, spot Michael Caines first screen appearance, note the film's technical relationship to 'The League of Gentlemen', made in 1960 and watch the two on the same bill for a rewarding afternoon viewing.To my mind this film also lifted Terrance Alexander from the rather predicable comedy character roles he was playing to top notch light drama actor. And Bernard Lee once again proved how dependable and useful he was in films filled with better known faces.

Although similar but not as good as Stalag 17, this is one of the best British POW movies. The script is fast paced, the cast is excellent, the acting is top draw , without hamming it up. And like Stalag 17 there is a traitor in the camp. The film blends drama with a good whodunit, and throw in the Camp's production of Hamlet as a ploy to enable a mass escape is an absolute joy. Dennis Price, Bernard Lee,Richard Todd, Peter Arne and a who's who of British actor's make this such an enjoyable film. Richard Attenborough's performance as always is superb. I rate this film and recommend it to anyone who enjoys War-Drama movies. Danger Within is being shown on Channel Four on Tuesday afternoon 12th of July, please watch it, if i had a VCR i would record it!. This film deserves a quality DVD release in it's original aspect ratio, so whoever own's the rights please do something about it.