Cinema: The Secret War of Harry Frigg

In this amiable little situation com edy, Paul Newman is Private No-Class Harry Frigg, who is so unskillful at concealing his contempt for the World War II brass that he is constantly being thrown into the stockade for insulting officers. But he is just as constantly escaping, which leads to the fulfillment of a dogface's daydream: instant promotion to two-star general.

The terms of the fantasy require that five funny brigadiers—two Americans, two British, one French—have been captured by the Italians in a Tunisian Turkish bath. They are incarcerated in a luxurious villa, where the commandant is a former hotel manager and the guards behave like well-trained batmen. The setup is anything but escape-proof, but there they stay, having a lovely war, unable to agree on a plan because all have identical rank. Private Frigg, escape artist extraordinary, is summoned to spring the goldbricking generals by getting himself captured, and is given a spurious spot promotion that will enable him to give them orders.

Breaking out begins to seem somewhat less urgent, however, when Major General Frigg meets the villa's owner, the young and widowed Contessa di Montefiore (Sylva Koscina), who lives in the gatehouse outside the wire. And when Frigg finds a secret passageway that leads from his bedroom directly into hers, it becomes clear to him that his generals will need weeks of preparation—calisthenics, Italian lessons, etc. —before an escape attempt is feasible.

At this point, as the comedy bogs down along with the escape plans, the Germans move in and transfer the group to a sadistic stalag, where Frigg has a real chance to strut his stuff. This leads, of course, to a bit of bang-bang, followed by a spot of kiss-kiss, and then it's time to wake up.