May 17, 1963 - “The Great Escape,” a Mirisch Company-United Artists drama of World War II with Steve McQueen (right), James Garner, James Coburn, Richard Attenborough, and Charles Bronson, has been named the official United States entry in the third international film festival to be held in Moscow from July 7 to July 21. John Sturges (left), the director and producer, will attend what is the first competitive showing of an American feature at the Russian festival. The true story depicted in the film had previously been adapted as a live television production, screened by NBC as an episode of “The Philco Television Playhouse” on January 27, 1951. The film was made on location in Germany at the Bavaria Film Studio in the Munich suburb of Geiselgasteig in rural Bavaria, where sets for the barrack interiors and tunnels were constructed. The camp was built in a clearing of the Perlacher Forest near the studio. The film's music was composed by Elmer Bernstein (“To Kill a Mockingbird”), who gave each major character their own musical motif based on the picture’s main theme.
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