Don J Whistance's
The Great Escape Locations Site
The philosophical notion of a "sense of place," unexplained "place experiences" linked psychologically to the footsteps and the spirit of The Great Escape Film, underpins The Great Escape Locations Site which sets out to discover where the scenes were filmed in the Munich, Fussen and Pfronten areas of southern Germany and to eventually locate the stretch of land where the 'jump' took place and where Steve McQueen crashed into The Great Escape iconic 'fence'.......
Actor Steve McQueen, star of 'The Great Escape', discussing picture with film's producers, the Mirisch Brothers.
Location - Hollywood,CA, USA
Date taken - June 1963
Director John Sturges and his crew arrived at Geisel Gasteig Studios in
rural Bavaria in April 1962. Art director Fernando Carrere immediately began
designing the tunnel sets on the studio's sound stages. They were
constructed of wood and skins filled with plaster and dirt and open on one
side with a dolly track running the length of the set in order to shoot
scenes of prisoners scooting along through them.
The barracks interiors for The Great Escape were also constructed on
sound stages at the German studio.
The Making of The Great Escape PART 1
Jud Taylor, who played Goff, the third American in the prison, said the camp set was so authentic and impressive that one day he came upon a man walking his dog who was very distressed when he came upon the site. The man was greatly relieved, Goff said, when he learned it was just a movie set.
The Making of The Great Escape PART 2
In early May 1962, Richard Harris
backed out, partly because filming on his new movie, This Sporting Life
(1963), was badly behind schedule but also because he was displeased with
the diminished role of Big X after script changes had been made. Sturges
quickly hired British actor Richard Attenborough.
The filming of The Great Escape began in June 1962 but because of
heavy rains, the schedule was changed to shoot interiors from the middle
portion of the picture first.
Early on in the production, Sturges began receiving memos from distributor
United Artists requesting female roles in the picture. One even suggested
having the dying Ashley-Pitt (played by David McCallum in the film) cradled
in the lap of a beautiful girl in a low-cut blouse. The studio wanted to
cast this bit by having a Miss Prison Camp contest in Munich. Sturges would
have none of it.
The Making of The Great Escape PART 3
According to Sturges, The Great Escape screenplay went through six writers and eleven versions, and was still a work in progress during the actual shooting. "I'm not proposing that's a good way to make a picture, but it was the right way to make this one," he later said.
The Making of The Great Escape PART 4
In July, Sturges showed the rushes of the first six weeks shooting, and McQueen decided his part was minor and undeveloped. He was particularly upset that his character virtually disappears from the film for about 30 minutes in the middle so he walked out demanding rewrites. Sturges admitted the half-hour gap was likely a problem, but with the production already behind schedule due to the heavy rain, he felt he couldn't take time out to do rewrites and rescheduling. Co-star James Garner said he and cast member James Coburn got together with McQueen to determine what his specific gripes were. Garner later said it was apparent McQueen wanted to be the hero but didn't want to be seen doing anything overtly heroic that contradicted his character's cool detachment and sardonic demeanor. At the same time, McQueen never really liked his character's calm acquiescence to his time in the cooler or the famous bit with the catcher's mitt and ball. Sturges considered writing the character out of the story altogether, but United Artists informed him they considered McQueen indispensable to the picture's success and would spring for the extra money to hire another writer, Ivan Moffit, to deal with the star's demands. McQueen returned to work.
"McQueen was an impossible bastard," Burnett said. "Oh, he drove you crazy."
McQueen reportedly rarely mingled with others away from the set, preferring to stay in the chalet he rented for himself and his family and travelling to the set each day in a chauffeur-driven limousine.
"[James Garner] is a bright and likable, uncomplicated, and talented guy. He's an awfully good actor and I admire him as a person," Sturges was quoted in Garner's biography by Raymond Strait (St. Martin's Press, 1985). "McQueen and Garner got on quite well because they had so many common interests. Both were interested in cars and racing and that sort of thing."
Co-star James Coburn later commented on John Sturges's direction: "He had great faith in the actor. He would storyboard everything. He never talked to me about character or about anything. What was in the script was what was shot; what was on the storyboard was the way it was shot."
Jud Taylor said that Sturges "gave you [as an actor] a great deal of freedom to try things, but he had a very clear sense of when he liked something."
James Garner also brought earlier military experiences to bear for his role. During the Korean War, he was a "scrounger" for an entire company, much like his character in the picture, "so I knew a little bit about the hustle...and I knew basically what Hendley would be like."
Wally Floody, who was the real-life "Tunnel King" on whom Charles Bronson's character was based, was hired as technical adviser. His tasks (such as exploring the tunnel sets to determine if they were accurate in size) kept him busy as much as twelve hours a day. Floody told Sturges's assistant (and uncredited stunt pilot) Robert Relyea that he knew the production was on the right track and close to reality when he began to get nightmares about his prison camp experiences.
David McCallum said that when anyone, cast or crew, was sitting around the camp set with time on their hands, they were handed a length of rubber string around which they wrapped other pieces of rubber at six-inch intervals to create the hundreds of yards of "barbed wire" needed to surround the prison. The entire fence, McCallum said, was made by the company in its spare time.
After two months shooting in the camp, the production moved to the town of Fussen near the Austrian border for post-escape scenes. Because he was already running out of money, Sturges decided to cut back on his original plan to film in a number of locations. Fussen had all the elements he needed to simulate the various places where the escapees run, including nearby meadowlands to shoot McQueen's required motorcycle sequence.
Although McQueen was an expert motorcyclist, the major stunt of jumping the barbed wire fence was considered too risky by the studio for a star of his caliber, so a friend of his, Bud Ekins, was hired to perform the shot. Before leaving for Germany, Ekins bought two Triumph motorcycles and converted them to look like authentic German bikes of the period.
Ekins's scene was one of the last shot during principal photography on The Great Escape.
Ekins did the jump scene, but McQueen did all the rest, including playing his own German pursuers when it turned out the hired German stunt riders couldn't keep up with him. The scene would be shot first with McQueen fleeing the Nazis on his bike. Then he would change costume and shoot again as a pursuer with his face obscured.
The German National Railroad Bureau co-operated with Sturges' production to provide trains and logistics for the railway escape sequences. Platforms were fitted on passenger cars to accommodate huge arc lamps to illuminate the train interiors. On one flat car, a large Chapman crane was set up to swing out over the passenger car and film the jump from the moving train performed by two stuntmen disguised as Garner's and Pleasence's characters. The bureau attached a special radio operator to the crew to alert the train engineer to any potential traffic on the main line. The shooting schedule was squeezed in between actual runs on the rails. The bureau gave the production certain times and lengths of tracks to work on until a passenger train was scheduled to come by; the film train then had to duck onto a siding until the other passed.
During the jump sequence, the crew was warned at the last possible second that the crane was about to slam into a pole. It was withdrawn in the nick of time.
Sturges's assistant Robert Relyea was an amateur pilot and offered to fly the plane himself for the sequence in which Garner and Pleasence commandeer a plane for their escape. In one segment he had to simulate the plane losing power and descending over a line of trees. According to Relyea, a farmer in his field saw the plane with its Nazi insignia coming in low over his head and threw his rake at it. Another time Relyea was arrested when he had to put the plane down in a field that happened to belong to a German aviation official. He also piloted the plane in the crash shot, knocking himself unconscious and being taken to the hospital where he woke up later feeling a sharp pain down his back.
Robert E.Relyea
(Click on the image to order the book)
The Great Escape section: page 150 - 175
Steve McQueen: The Actor and his Films is the definitive account of every film that the iconic actor made. This lavishly illustrated book devotes nearly 500 pages to Steve McQueen's career and tracks his journey from juvenile delinquent, to Marine, to an aspiring actor breaking into Hollywood, until he became a global superstar and the highest-paid actor of his era. Included are numerous behind the scenes tales of events that occurred leading up to and during filming, and fascinating insights into McQueen's acting techniques and motivations.
Each film is allocated one chapter. The chapters begin with a precis of the particular movie. Then events surrounding its making are described, uncovering new facts and insights. This is followed by an analysis of its success, and finally a significant scene is discussed in detail. Steve McQueen: The Actor and his Films is extensively illustrated with over 1000 colour and black & white images, including posters from around the world, lobby cards, memorabilia, many never-before seen candid stills and rare vintage advertising materials.
(The Great Escape section pp.222-243)
CONTENTS
'Stooling' is the craze NEW**
LINKS
The First Steve McQueen Site
Behind the Camera – The Great Escape
The Great Escape (1963)
The Great Escape film locations
were recorded using a digital camera; videos were uploaded onto YouTube
and
two loyal friends drove 2,000 miles in helping to capture this adventure during a
week in the month of August 2010........
Returned to The Great Escape locations on Monday, 8th August 2011 using an easyjet flight and returned to Gatwick Airport on Thursday, 11th August 2011 with lots of thoughts and information.
Stayed at the superb Hotel Guglhupf.de info@hotelguglhupf.de
Monika is the gorgeous owner of the high quality hotel and can be contacted on: info@hotelguglhupf.de
She is the one on the left............
The two sisters split the week and work superbly during the busy breakfast mornings.
Tina
Angie also sings and can be heard on You Tube by clicking on the above photograph.
IF YOU TAKE ON THIS JOURNEY AND ACTUALLY LOCATE
THE GREAT ESCAPE 'fence'
THEN PLEASE EMAIL YOUR PICTURE AND IT WILL FEATURE
ON THIS WEBSITE......
The Great Escape Film will be 50 years old in 2012 so it has been decided to organise a 'tour' for all those fans interested in joining the fun. Please contact me if you are interested in joining us from the 6th August 2012.The meeting point will be at the Hotel Guglhupf where hopefully all interested parties will reside.....
i read all of your work on the great escape and congratulations, your work is the best I read since many years. I'm a French journalist and the great escape is one my favourite movies I'm 45 years old and when I was 10, I saw this film and never forget it....anyway, I contact you because I want to make a tv report on it next year with of course the travel tour you will organise next year. 50 years later....I will be enjoy to find James Garner, David mc cullum, Sir richard Attenborough and Katherine Sturges for interviews and maybe some others you maybe help me to find. Can I reach you by phone to talk with you.
best
Chris Espenan ( steadrunner@sfr.fr )
(9.10.11)
Hi Don,
I’ve been visiting your site since you first put it up last year, when you did your first trip to Bavaria. Without wishing to sound corny or sycophantic, I’ve been a Steve McQueen fan for as long as I can remember and The Great Escape is my all-time number one film, very closely followed by Bullitt. This kind of fan-orientated attention to detail on the film is something I’ve always aspired to attempt myself, however twentieth century living has got in the way, children, work, bills, etc, etc,..,so when I saw you were hoping to organise a trip for the fiftieth anniversary of the filming, I was cock-a hoop with excitement. If you manage to pull it off Don, I would be very interested to be offered a place on this trip for this once in a lifetime opportunity. Congratulations on the site Don, it’s absolutely fantastic, but then again I knew it would be, because I’ve followed your Clash site for ages,
All the best Don, and hope to hear from you soon,
Kind Regards,
Sten Sawicz ( sten.sawicz@o2.co.uk )
Accrington,NW England.
Regarding the tour next Aug. 6. I will be looking at changing my plans to join you and letting my cousin in the UK know about it also as he might have some interest in the tour. First will it just be a one day tour of the sites on Aug. 6 or do you
plan on being there a day or two before and after the 6th? My plan was to fly home to Vancouver from Frankfurt on Aug 9th or 10th as I want to give myself enough time for the tour and any extra time.
Rob (rmhowell@telus.net ) (24.11.11)
Another question regarding this August in Fussen. Will this be your last trip to the area regarding Great Escape movie location sites etc? It seems you have located most if not all the locations for the movie will it culminate this August with the 50th anniversary of the movie for those couple of days in Fussen for those of us who will be there. It should be a fun time.
As I have told in previous emails about my 2 trips to Fussen - 2008 / 2011 - I had fun checking out the sites from the information on your website and will be looking forward to finalizing the locations of all the sites hopefully this year. The added enjoyment was riding around the area on my motorcycle for those days. Not only retracing the locations, but also the scenery of the area. It is a great riding area for motorcyclists.
For the trip to Fussen prior to my flight home to Vancouver from Frankfurt. I will have to sort out how I will get to Fussen. I will either rent a car from Frankfurt or take the train. If I took the train I would have to hope I could share a ride with someone for the time in Fussen. I will sort this out at it gets closer. Before deciding to take the train I will post an email on your site for anyone attending about sharing a ride with them - along with offering to pay for gas and some beers -/.
Would it be possible for you to have all the people who have plans on going to Fussen this August be on the same group emailing list so we know who is going and can contact each other if we want?
Talk to you later,
Robert
(rmhowell@telus.net
) (9.1.12)
Dear Don,
I was very excited to come across your site today.
I am a Canadian writer currently working on a book about Michael Paryla, a
family relative and a German-born actor and refugee from Nazism who had the
part of the Gestapo agent in The Great Escape: he arrives by motorcade to
‘Neustadt’ and then boards the train and has some lines opposite Richard
Attenborough and David McCallum and Gordon Jackson. Mr Paryla was living in
Munich when he was cast as an extra. He is not credited. He died three years
later, tragically, in Hamburg. Interestingly, this is where the British
tried the war criminals responsible for murdering the 50 escaped prisoners;
Mr Paryla played one of these characters in the movie. It is ironic that he
also died there, and is buried — ironically as well — south of Munich, in
Waldfriedhof Cemetery which is in Grunewald, very close to the
Bavariafilmstadt.
I visited the Bavaria Film studios in October/November of 2010, on a
research mission, very much like your own. The attendants at the gates to
the film studio told me that ‘an American’ had recently been here and that
he was also looking for area where the prison camp was built, and for the
train station Neustadt. I was sent by these people on a wild goose chase of
sorts— judging from your photos we walked the same roads, crossed the same
bridges. I was happy to see in your photos the same old brick train station
that I came across; I was not sure it was the one, but now I am.
I have read an amount about the movie and its making but you seem to be more
of an expert than me. I was wondering if perhaps I could ask you some
questions, as I am on a research mission that is both personal and
professional (I am writing a book called This Great Escape about Michael
Paryla). I saw in your photos a call sheet from the movie; where is that
from? I would love to find some material from the making of the movie with
Mr Paryla’s name on it. I have been trying to contact the casting agency
Stalmaster Lister with no luck. Anyways, mind if I get in touch? Parallels
between Mr. Paryla’s life and the film and the history behind the film are
quite interesting.
Sincerely
Andrew Steinmetz (
asteinmetz@rogers.com )
Ottawa, Canada
Judith ( judith.bullitt@btinternet.com )
Please click here email if you wish to leave a message or to add any information to this website.