Frank Sinatra starring as an American pilot who is shot down over Italy and taken to a POW camp. Since he’s the senior officer, a colonel, he takes command over the mainly British prisoners which leads to some difference of opinion between the nationalities. After a chain of events, that I won’t spoil, the POWs end up taking over a train with the hope of reaching the neutral Switzerland. The part of the movie that takes place inside the POW camp is probably the best, could have been a great movie in itself. However the whole escape part is entertaining but utterly unrealistic and of classic Hollywood style. It’s a rather unstable movie with some brilliant parts and some just down right dumb.

The fact that the Italians speak Italian and the Germans speak German is a huge plus in itself — I wish more movies would do this instead of all the phony accents most movies use.