The Last Escape (1970)

The last in a cycle of low budget war movies produced by Oakmont Productions for Mirisch in the late sixties, The Last Escape, although filmed in 1968, wasn't released until 1970.  As can be seen from the trailer and in common with other films in the series, it makes liberal use of stock footage from other films to provide action sequences, in this case 633 Squadron and Operation Crossbow.  The repurposing of the 633 Squadron sequences, (which had also been cannibalised wholesale for the first film in the Oakmont series, Mosquito Squadron), is actually quite imaginatively done, (it probably helped that Walter Graumann directed both films).  In this respect, it is another fine example of 'cut and paste' film making, where by a new production is fashioned around existing footage.  

The low budget shows not just in the recycling of old footage, but also in the fact that the same tanks, (thinly disguised US M41 tanks), turn up at various points as German, Soviet and US tanks.  Indeed, at the end they confront themselves - watch the sequence where there is stand off between the Red Army and the US Army: the two sets of tanks are never in shot at the same time.  While most of the Oakmont war films were shot in the UK, this one was shot in Germany, (the other one with location filming was Hell Boats, shot in Malta).  Also in common with most of the series, this one features a second ranked US star, in this case the ubiquitous Stuart Whitman.  Previous US stars featured in these movies included Lloyd Bridges, Ben Murphy, James Franciscus and James Caan.  The exception was Mosquito Squadron, which starred David McCallum who, whilst not American, was, at the time starring on US TV in The Man From Uncle.  As the trailer indicates, The Last Escape is entirely action orientated, with lots of guns blazing and explosions going off.  As such, it is a reasonably entertaining ninety minutes of b-Movie level thrills, but doesn't really offer anything original.