# The Elusive Corporal > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/The_Elusive_Corporal > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/The_Elusive_Corporal.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elusive_Corporal > Source revision: 1355653521 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) 1962 film directed by Jean Renoir The Elusive Corporal Film poster Directed by Jean Renoir Written by Guy Lefranc Jacques Perret Jean Renoir Produced by Adry De Carbuccia Roland Girard Georges Glass Starring Jean-Pierre Cassel Claude Brasseur Cinematography Georges Leclerc Edited by Renée Lichtig Music by Joseph Kosma Production company Les Films du Cyclope Distributed by Pathé Consortium Cinéma Release date 23 May 1962 (1962-05-23) Running time 105 minutes Country France Language French Box office $16.9 million[1] ***The Elusive Corporal*** ([French](/source/French_language): ***Le Caporal épinglé***) is a 1962 French film directed by [Jean Renoir](/source/Jean_Renoir) that stars [Jean-Pierre Cassel](/source/Jean-Pierre_Cassel), [Claude Brasseur](/source/Claude_Brasseur), and [Claude Rich](/source/Claude_Rich).[2] It was entered into the [12th Berlin International Film Festival](/source/12th_Berlin_International_Film_Festival).[3] Renoir shot his film in Austria in 1961 from [Jacques Perret](/source/Jacques_Perret_(writer))'s book based on his own [prisoner of war](/source/Prisoner_of_war) experiences.[4] Renoir's friend and assistant director [Guy Lefranc](/source/Guy_Lefranc) had also been a World War II prisoner of war[5] and had developed the project for seven years.[6] The story serves as a companion piece to the director's 1937 film, *[Grand Illusion](/source/Grand_Illusion_(film))*, once more bringing together men from across the broad social spectrum of French society to depict one man's Sisyphean efforts to escape captivity in a German POW camp. ## Plot Among over a million French prisoners of war taken to work in camps in Germany in 1940 is the Corporal, a young man of good background who, finding the oppressiveness of Nazi Germany and the misery of prison life unbearable, makes repeated efforts to escape. Escapes from a logging camp, a brick factory, and a dairy farm all result in recapture, followed by weeks in a punishment camp. Taken into town for dental treatment, he wins the affection of the dentist's teenage daughter, Erika. His last foray, with two companions, uses the trick of measuring the roadway through the camp gates and then disappearing once in open country. Ringing at the dentist's door, Erika lets them in and, when asked for civilian clothes, she kits them out. Taking a train. they are identified as foreigners by a passenger and the [military police](/source/Feldgendarmerie) are called. At that moment the train runs into an Allied bombing raid, upon which everybody jumps out. Escaping cross country, they encounter a farmer who proves to be another French escapee: he gives them food and describes a safe route to the frontier. The Corporal and his remaining companion part on a bridge in Paris, free men among friends in the country they love. ## Cast - [Jean-Pierre Cassel](/source/Jean-Pierre_Cassel) as Le caporal / The Corporal - [Claude Brasseur](/source/Claude_Brasseur) as 'Papa' / 'Pop' - [O. E. Hasse](/source/O._E._Hasse) as Le voyageur ivre dans le train - [Claude Rich](/source/Claude_Rich) as Ballochet - [Jacques Jouanneau](/source/Jacques_Jouanneau) as Penche-à-gauche - [Sacha Briquet](/source/Sacha_Briquet) as L'évadé grimé en vielle femme - Raymond Jourdan as Hippolyte Dupieu - [Guy Bedos](/source/Guy_Bedos) as Le prisonnier qui bégaye - [Philippe Castelli](/source/Philippe_Castelli) as Le prisonnier électricien - [Gérard Darrieu](/source/G%C3%A9rard_Darrieu) as L'homme qui louche / The cross-eyed man - [Cornelia Froboess](/source/Cornelia_Froboess) as Erika Schmidt (as Conny Froboess) ## Production [Guy Lefranc](/source/Guy_Lefranc) was assistant director on the film. The film's sets were designed by the [art director](/source/Art_director) [Wolf Witzemann](/source/Wolf_Witzemann). [Location shooting](/source/Location_shooting) took place around [Paris](/source/Paris) and [Vienna](/source/Vienna). ## References 1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** ["Le Caporal Epingle (1962) - JPBox-Office"](http://www.jpbox-office.com/fichfilm.php?id=9343). 1. **[^](#cite_ref-NY_Times_2-0)** [Crowther, Bosley](/source/Bosley_Crowther) (2011). ["New York Times: The Elusive Corporal"](https://web.archive.org/web/20110520065746/http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/15644/The-Vanishing-Corporal/overview). Movies & TV Dept. *[The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times)*. Archived from [the original](https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/15644/The-Vanishing-Corporal/overview) on 20 May 2011. Retrieved 19 July 2008. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-imdb_3-0)** ["IMDB.com: Awards for The Elusive Corporal"](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055827/awards). *imdb.com*. Retrieved 6 February 2010. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** ["- Jacques Perret"](https://www.orlandosentinel.com/1992/12/12/-jacques-perret/). 1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** Bergan, Ronald *Jean Renoir: Projections of Paradise* Overlook Press, 1995 1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** p.58 Durgnat, Raymond *Jean Renoir* University of California Press, 1974 ## External links - [*The Elusive Corporal*](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055827/) at [IMDb](/source/IMDb_(identifier)) v t e Jean Renoir Bibliography Filmography Films directed The Whirlpool of Fate (1925) Nana (1926) Charleston Parade (1927) Marquitta (1927) The Little Match Girl (1928) Le Bled (1929) On purge bébé (1931) La Chienne (1931) Night at the Crossroads (1932) Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932) Chotard and Company (1933) Madame Bovary (1934) Toni (1935) Life Belongs to Us (1936) The Crime of Monsieur Lange (1936) The Lower Depths (1936) La Grande Illusion (1937) La Marseillaise (1938) La Bête Humaine (1938) The Rules of the Game (1939) Swamp Water (1941) This Land Is Mine (1943) The Southerner (1945) The Diary of a Chambermaid (1946) "Partie de campagne" (1946) The Woman on the Beach (1947) The River (1951) The Golden Coach (1952) French Cancan (1955) Elena and Her Men (1956) The Doctor's Horrible Experiment (1959) Picnic on the Grass (1959) The Elusive Corporal (1962) The Little Theatre of Jean Renoir (1970) Books written Renoir, My Father (1962) The Notebooks of Captain Georges (1966) My Life and My Films (1974) Related Louis Lumière / conversation avec Langlois et Renoir Catherine Hessling (wife) Alain Renoir (son) Pierre-Auguste Renoir (father) Aline Charigot Renoir (mother) Pierre Renoir (brother) Gabrielle Renard Marguerite Renoir Authority control databases: National United States Israel --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [The Elusive Corporal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elusive_Corporal) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elusive_Corporal?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.