Great Escape, The (1963)

The Great Escape is based on Paul Brickhill’s account of the 1944 breakout from Stalag Luft III, where he had himself been a prisoner. Seventy-six men escaped; only three reached home, and fifty of those recaptured were executed. Steve McQueen did much of his own motorcycle riding, even doubling as some of the German soldiers chasing him, but the famous leap over the wire was performed by his friend, the stuntman Bud Ekins. For decades a fixture of British bank-holiday television, it is perhaps the best-loved war film in this country.

The British Quad, with artwork by Frank McCarthy, puts McQueen in an RAF jacket he never wears in the film, a nod to British audiences. It is probably the most collectable of all war film Quads and one of the hardest British posters of the 1960s to find. Linen-backed.

• Year: 1963
• Nationality: United Kingdom
• Condition: Linen-backed
• Type: Original British Quad
• Size: 30 x 40 inches
• Product Code: P1025