This TV film has gone by different titles, among them: "The Birdmen," "Escape of the Birdmen, and "Colditz: Escape of the Birdmen." I have the latter. Nowhere does the name, Colditz Castle, appear in the movie. The film centers around a fictional German camp called Bechstadt or something like that. But, the script refers to it as the German POW camp for Allied officer escapees; so, obviously, it would be Colditz – the only such camp. This film seems to be a mix of two or more wartime movies I've seen. It borrows themes and sub-plots here and there and puts them together in this one movie of action and escape. But it has too many far-fetched situations to be believable. It has a Norwegian scientist posing as a Norwegian pilot who has been on the lamb for a year trying to get over to the Allies. But, the movie takes place in 1943, and the Germans occupied Norway in April 1940. So what was the scientist doing and where was he the first two years of German occupation? Next we have an American major in the OSS (military secret service) who intentionally gets captured so he can help the Norwegian escape. But, how did the two happen to hook up in a northern German POW camp? In the opening scene, a German patrol boat intercepts a radio message to London. The message reads, "Chess board in position," and that is what accounts for the setup for this film. Then we see the hero, American Major Harry Cook (played just fairly by Doug McClure) working in the supply room of a German POW camp near the Baltic Sea. How and where did he get captured? The Norwegian scientist-pilot, Halden Brevik, is a brand new arrival at that camp drawing his supplies. When and where did he get captured? How did the Allies know in advance of Brevik's capture? How could they put one of their own in the very POW camp Brevik would go to – and ahead of him? How did the two know the password to identify each other?Next we see a diversion back in London. Plans are taking shape for a bombing raid. One scene has a phony voice-over of a briefing with an officer pointing to a target on a blackboard. The production quality is terrible. Then, during an Allied bombing raid, Cook and Brevik escape the POW camp together. Soon they are re-captured. Since they are escapees, they are now sent to the special maximum security prison for such Allied officers. That would be Colditz Castle, but they call it Bechstadt here.In reality, Colditz had British, French, Belgian, Dutch and Polish POWs, with a smattering of others. Just a few Americans were sent there near the end of the war. But, most of the main characters in this film are Americans. The ranking POW officer is one – Col. Morgan Crawford, played very poorly by Chuck Connors. Indeed, most of the real British officers from Colditz are made into or replaced by Americans. The film has a number of well-known actors for the period, but no one gives a very good performance. Another big discrepancy is a number of prisoners killed, and a graveyard within the castle. Only one prisoner was killed trying to escape from Colditz during its six years as a prison. One recurring thing in this film has no basis in history. But, I suppose the filmmakers saw in this some great pull with the American TV audience. We see and hear men singing a 19th Century German folk song, "Die Gedanken sind frei." Crawford tells Cook that it's a song about freedom of thought that Jewish prisoners sing in the concentration camps. This is 1943, and the Allied forces knew about the existence of concentration camps but very little more. How in the world would Allied pilots who have been imprisoned since 1940 to 1943 know anything about a song that Jews were singing in concentration camps? I've never read or heard anything like this. Today this seems to be just a piece of gratuitous fiction thrown into the script for this movie. It's a good example of why we shouldn't trust movies for our knowledge of history. The castle in this film is located near the Swiss border. In a couple of scenes, Commandant Schiller (played fairly well by Richard Basehart), admires the view of the Swiss Alps "just 10 miles away." But we don't see it ourselves. In reality, Colditz Castle is located about 25 miles SE of Leipzig in eastern Germany. That's more than 300 miles from the Swiss Alps. It is about 35 miles from the Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic) border, and about 45 miles from Poland.At the very end of this movie, Crawford and Brevik escape together in a glider that the prisoners launched from a roof of the castle. The Colditz prisoners actually had built and concealed a glider, with plans to launch it from the roof for an escape in the direction of Poland. But, by that time, the U.S. Army captured the town and liberated the Colditz prisoners in April 1945. This movie has some good early action and bombing scenes. But, I can't rate it higher than five stars. The acting is just fair at best; the production qualities are very poor, and the setup is just too far- fetched. Again, the script and plot imply a location and historical events, but the film hardly resembles the real place and events. For a very good film about the famous Colditz Castle POW camp, see the 1955 British movie, "The Colditz Story." It's based on a book by Patrick Reid, one of the first escapees to get back home to England.

There is a song in this film which the prisoners sing. It is from the Death Camps and they taunt the Nazis with it when they burn their uniforms. I am trying very hard to get a copy of the film or the soundtrack so that I can have that music....I would be very grateful to anyone who could help me obtain the music.Odd that such an obscure film should have such an affect on so many people so many years later. I think that I saw the movie on TV once (or maybe twice, I am not sure). I have never been able to forget the movie. Some parts that I remember mostly are when the blind pilot insists that they allow the plane to be used by the intelligence operative and the phony officer who is really a nuclear scientist. What a great story! I am very humbled that so many of you admit that the film had such an affect on you. It did on me also. I entered the Service and stayed for almost 24 years active duty in the U.S. Coast Guard. I had some Marine Corps reserve time in college before that.What a wonderful film! I would really like to have that music!Tom Barnes [email protected]

Reply to your comment of 28 June 2004 Author: Walter Collins ([email protected]) from Shreveport, LA USA on IMDb.com - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066833/#commentRe: The Birdmen (1971) (TV) – I saw the same movie. The same scene that you mentioned, the POW singing a German song, is the scene I remember the most. At the time I went to the library and was able to locate the song in a book about protest songs.Here's some information from the internet Die Gedanken sind Frei the German title translate to Our (My) Thoughts Are Free and here is a YouTube link, if your interested http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_6YQ-knKFw&mode=related&search= And finally here is an English translation of the German lyrics.Die Gedanken Sind Frei (Our Thoughts Are Free)Die Gedanken sind frei My thoughts freely flower, Die Gedanken sind frei My thoughts give me power. No scholar can map them, No hunter can trap them, No man can deny: Die Gedanken sind frei!I think as I please And this gives me pleasure, My conscience decrees, This right I must treasure; My thoughts will not cater To duke or dictator, No man can deny-- Die Gedanken sind frei!And if tyrants take me And throw me in prison My thoughts will burst free, Like blossoms in season. Foundations will crumble, The structure will tumble, And free men will cry: Die Gedanken sind frei!Neither trouble or pain Will ever touch me again. No good comes of fretting, My hope's in forgetting. Within myself still I can think as I will, But I laugh, do not cry: Die Gedanken sind frei!-- Traditional(Source for translation of song - http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/1185.html )

I saw this movie in Saudi Arabia in the late seventies with my brother. The other day he asked me if I remembered this war movie about a glider and starring Chuck Connors. Before he could say another word, I started to sing the tune. He was quite shocked that I still remembered. We tried Connors and McClure's autobiography on other websites with no success. This was the first site that I found that has all this information. Thanks a lot. I will now try to get this movie. Maybe my brother and I will get together, watch a movie, and reminisce. I never new if he enjoyed the movie, or even remembered it, as I did. He tried researching for the title to no avail. That is what spurred me on. That song is very catchy.