Trivia: While Steve McQueen performed most of his own stunts, the only stunt he didn't perform was the 60 foot jump over the Austrian-Swiss border fence. The jump was performed by stuntman Bud Ekins, who later doubled for McQueen in "Bullitt."
Trivia: Paul Brickhill, who wrote the novel the film is based on, was a member of the X organization which planned the escape.
Trivia: The motorcycle used by Steve McQueen is the same motorcycle Henry Winkler used on "Happy Days."
Trivia: Steve McQueen, James Coburn, and Charles Bronson previously starred together in another John Sturges movie, "The Magnificent Seven."
Trivia: Jill Ireland was married to David McCallum at the time this film was made. She later married Charles Bronson.
Trivia: In the scene following Hilts' theft of a German motorcyle, he rolls into a German town, where he is stopped by a police officer; the officer says something to Hilts, who then kicks him away and rides off. He was asked for identification papers he didn't have.
Trivia: Donald Pleasance is the only actor to appear in both this film and the 1988 TV movie "The Great Escape II: The Untold Story"; here he plays one of the would be great escapees, and in the sequel, he played a member of the S.S.
Trivia: Donald Pleasence was an RAF pilot and a genuine POW. His plane was shot down, and he was interned in a German camp. In an interview about The Great Escape he said that the film's producers weren't interested in hearing his suggestions about making the camp scenes more realistic, so "I simply learned to shut my mouth."
Trivia: David McCallum, whose character is killed at the railway station while trying to escape, says that his daughter Sophie has never been able to watch this movie, "Because she cannot stand the thought of seeing her father shot."
Trivia: The actual camp site, which can still be visited, is in Zagan, Poland, which was, during the war, part of the Greater Reich.
Trivia: The actor Steve McQueen was no stranger to "cooler life"; he had a criminal record as a youth and while in the US Marines spent 41 days in the brig.
Suggested correction: Hilts was a POW for a few years before being transferred to this camp. His current clothing likely changed from when he was originally captured in his uniform, so he would not have been considered a spy. After multiple escape attempts, his uniform could have been ruined. The Geneva Convention required that POWs receive shelter, food, clothing, medical care, etc. The Red Cross delivered care packages to POW camps containing food, miscellaneous apparel, and other essentials. Sweatshirts have existed since the 1920s and changed little. Also, chino pants have been around since the late 19th century. Hilts was an U.S. Air Force pilot, and light-colored khaki trousers (similar to chinos) were standard-issue uniform for some U.S. military branches, along with leather bomber jackets for Air Force pilots. Therefore, he is dressed appropriately for his military branch.
raywest ★
And none of them would have been available to a prisoner in a German POW camp in Poland in the mid 1940s. Not one single item of hipster fashion would have found its way into the camp. Even if it did, do you really think the German authorities would allow a prisoner to lounge about in civilian clothing? Talk about an escape risk.
The camp was in Germany, not Poland. Other than the sweatshirt, Hilts appears to wear military clothing - a leather bomber's jacket with military sleeve insignia, and U.S. Air Force khaki trousers. So not "hipster" '60s civilian clothing. The sweatshirt could be military appropriate (even issued) and something Hilts acquired at a different camp. He arrived with a small duffel bag that presumably had some misc clothing. He and two other POWs are the only Americans and have different uniforms. The current camp commandant, who apparently disdained Hitler and his Nazi minions, would decide what POWs could wear.
raywest ★