Captured! 1933

Leslie Howard as Captain Fred Allison bids farewell to his new wife, Margaret Lindsay as Monica Allison, whom he has known for only six days, and heads off to World War I, only to become a prisoner of war haunted by the silence of her letters from the two years behind bars.

When a fellow inmate shoots a guard, the prisoners mount a desperate, but unsuccessful, attempt to break free, resulting in bloodshed on both sides. In response, they are confined to a crowded cell for about a month. A new commandant, Paul Lukas as Oberst Carl Ehrlich, arrives and agrees to ease the punishment after Allison intercedes, cementing a tense, uneasy cooperation between captor and captive.

A fresh batch of POWs arrives, and Allison is thrilled to find his oldest and closest friend among them: Lieutenant Jack “Dig” Digby, played by Douglas Fairbanks Jr.. Yet Dig isn’t just glad to see him; he is determined to escape at all costs, even if it endangers others. Dig soon makes his move, stealing an aircraft from a nearby airfield and slipping away into the night.

The camp grows shadowed by tragedy when the coat found near the dead body of Elsa, who delivered fresh food to the prisoners, carries handwriting that implicates Monica and Dig in a six-month-long affair. Ehrlich, alerted by the discovery, writes to the Allies demanding Dig’s return for trial on rape and murder. Allison, initially reluctant, recognizes the handwriting on a letter found in the coat and eventually signs Ehrlich’s request, allowing Dig to be brought back on the Allies’ order.

Dig is put on trial and, without offering a defense, declares only that he knows Allison’s motive for returning him. He is found guilty and sentenced to death by firing squad. The real killer, Strogin, writes a confession and then hangs himself. Allison finds the note but crumples it and does not reveal it to the Germans. Before Dig’s execution, Allison finally reveals the confession to Ehrlich, and then confronts the painful truth he must face: he will give Monica up.

For months, Allison has been secretly planning a large-scale breakout. Seizing a machine gun at the gate, he buys time for his comrades to flee, and the POWs surge toward the airfield, overpowering the aircrews and climbing into a squadron of bombers awaiting their nightly raid. The daring escape reaches its climax as Allison is fatally wounded by a grenade, and Ehrlich, discovering his body, salutes a doomed man who chose mercy and courage over self-preservation.