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I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

This is a deeply human and almost documentary account of the life of prisoners after Dunkirk who are not released until towards the end of the war, Michael Redgrave as the leading actor being far from alone among suffering fellow soldiers, as there is a number of tales told of dire destiny in this concentration camp of arduous fates. Redgrave is of course the most interesting case, a Czech escaped from the Germans and sought by Gestapo, hiding as an Englishman with a fake identity with suspiciously good knowledge of German, as his father was a diplomat in both London and Berlin. There is also Gordon Jackson with the loss of his sight and his despair about having to give up his betrothed, there is the family man whose wife is having a baby in his absence with that whole family story, there is the major (Basil Radford) struggling with the challenges of his responsibility, there are the sore trials used by the Germans make the camp existence more difficult than necessary for the prisoners, who nevertheless manage to break loose into comedy when an occasion arrives. It's heartrendingly human all the way, and the great love story developing in the ruins with inevitably critical consequences makes this film a definite and almost obligatory classic.

The movie is a broad photo montage of several stories--from one setting--of British soldiers who were captured early in WWII (1941) and placed in a German POW camp. Is depicts what happens to them and their loved ones, back home, as they are separated by time and space. How do the relationships change? How do they remain the same? What holds them together or drives them apart? Four years can be like a lifetime to those it affects. This is no Stalag 17 or Hogan's Heroes-type movie. I found the movie to be very engaging and enjoyable, even as half of a long-range relationship undergoes very big changes. Changes can range anywhere from physical disability, to "Dear John" letters, to birth and/or death. The relationship often—usually—depend on letters and photos back and forth.

The old saying if you're going to steal, steal from the best rings true in this case which is essentially In Which We Serve in khaki; both feature men in confined spaces reminiscing about their lives in Civvy Street with the main difference being that instead of a lifeboat we have a prison camp where a similar cross-section of Upper, Middle and Working Classes learn to rub along more or less amicably. For good measure they even ripped off the celebrated scene from Casablanca where the German singing is drowned out by 1) the Marseillaise and 2) Roll Out The Barrel, but the most blatant rip-off from the Coward masterpiece is in the two married couples, respectively Bernand Miles/ Joyce Carey/ John Mills/Kay Walsh and Jack Warner/Gladys Henson/Mervyn Johns/Rachel Thomas, who were friends before the war so much so that the two wives move in together for the duration; in each film one wife is killed and the news is broken to the widower via a letter from home to the other man so here Jack Warner gets to tell Mervyn Johns that Rachel Thomas is dead. This to one side The Captive Heart remains a compelling film because at its heart (sorry about that) is the wonderfully low-key love story between Michael Redgrave and his real-life wife Rachel Kempson of which 95 per cent is played out via under-stated letters which only mention love between the lines. The support is largely sound and trivia buffs will be interested to note that two years earlier (1944) Meriel Forbes had married Ralph Richardson so that the film boasted the real-life wives of two future theatrical knights. One to buy on DVD.

THE CAPTIVE HEART was the first WW2 film to be partly produced in Germany since the war started. The prison camp scenes were reconstructed at Morlag POW camp in Westertimke, Germany, and are very authentic. Karel Hasek (Michael Redgrave), a Czech Officer, has assumed the identity of a dead English Officer, Captain Geoffrey Mitchell, but gets captured and is interned in a German POW camp. He is forced to write to the dead man's wife, disguising his writing by injuring his hand on purpose. Mrs. Mitchell (Rachel Kempson) is pleasantly surprised by the warmth of the letters, as her marriage was on the rocks before the war started. Others in the POW camp include two former building trade partners, Corporal Ted Horsfall (Jack Warner) and Private Dai Evans (Mervyn Johns), who learns that his wife has died during child birth. Lieutenant David Lennox (Gordon Jackson) loses his sight and breaks off his engagement to Elspeth (Margot Fitzsimmons), while Lieutenant Stephen Harley (Derek Bond) is distraught after receiving a letter which states his wife is being unfaithful. Private Matthews (Jimmy Hanley), a former burglar, puts his questionable skills to good use when everyone is handcuffed in a reprisal by the orders of Herr Forster (Karel Stepanek), by immediately releasing all the prisoners. Repatriation arrives at last, and Matthews sacrifices his freedom by allowing Hasek to go in his place, and he visits the home of Celia Mitchell. She is shocked when hearing of her real husband's death, but eventually she falls in love with Hasek. Lennox and Harley are reunited with their loved ones, and Evans meets his daughter for the first time. Working as a technical adviser on THE CAPTIVE HEART was Sam Kydd, who also had a bit part as Private Sam Grant. This was Sam's first film appearance since his own experiences of captivity in a POW camp, which he related vividly in his book "For You The War is Over". If you can manage to get your hands on a copy of this marvellous book you will be rewarded for your efforts. It works as a perfect compliment to THE CAPTIVE HEART, and gives a greater understanding of the life of a POW in WW2. THE CAPTIVE HEART is a mature and realistic war film and is highly recommended. One of the scriptwriters, R.N.V.R.Lieutenant Guy Morgan, had actually been a prisoner at Morlag. The movies original title was "Lover's Meeting", but at the suggestion of future British TV stalwart Jack Warner, the title was changed to THE CAPTIVE HEART.