Grand Illusion
French Captain de Boeldieu leads a disparate group of POWs in a daring WWI escape, while navigating bitter class divides and the relentless scrutiny of an aristocratic German officer who both respects and opposes them.
“A Great Drama of Human Emotions”
Synopsis
In a World War I German prison camp, a group of French soldiers, including the patrician Captain de Boeldieu and the working-class Lieutenant Maréchal, confront their class differences after being captured. As tensions arise, the men are transferred to a high-security fortress, where they must devise an escape plan under the scrutiny of the aristocratic German officer von Rauffenstein, who has developed an unexpected bond with de Boeldieu.
Credits
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How many hands made this film
The scale of the collaboration
Principal cast & crew: 31
These are the principals we have on file — the full crew ran to the hundreds. Every film this size was made by far more hands than any credits list ever names.
Why a floor?
This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.
Craft leads on file
Edited by Marthe HuguetShot by Christian MatrasScored by Joseph KosmaDesigned by Eugene Lourie
Box Office
1937 · Box office
Grossed $173K worldwide
Worldwide gross
$173K
Also known as
- Die grosse Illusionde
- Die große Illusionde
- Grand Illusionen
- Grand Illustionen
- La gran ilusiónes
- La Grande Illusionfr
- La grande illusioneit
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Cast & Crew
31 unique people credited
Top billed cast
Jean Gabin
as Le lieutenant Maréchal
Dita Parlo
as Elsa
Pierre Fresnay
as Le capitaine de Boëldieu
Erich Von Stroheim
as Le capitaine von Rauffenstein
Marcel Dalio
as Le lieutenant Rosenthal
Julien Carette
as Cartier - l'acteur
Georges Peclet
as Le serrurier
Werner Florian
as Le sergent Arthur
Gaston Modot
as L'ingénieur
Jean Daste
as L'instituteur
Sylvain Itkine
as Le lieutenant Demolder
Jacques Becker
as L'officier anglais
Supporting cast
11Habib Benglia
as Le sénégalais
Pierre Blondy
as Un soldat
Albert Brouett
as Un prisonnier
Georges Fronval
as Le soldat allemand qui vise le capitaine de Boëldieu
Karl Heil
as Un officier de la forteresse
Carl Koch
as Un gendarme de campagne
Little Peters
as Lotte, la petite fille d'Elsa
Claude Sainval
as Le capitaine Ringis
Michel Salina
Claude Vernier
as L'officer prussien
Geo Forster
as Maison-Neuve
Directors
1Writers
2Other crew
6Parents Guide
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