{"product_id":"this-great-escape-the-case-of-michael-paryla-9781927428337","title":"This Great Escape: The Case of Michael Paryla","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eSHORTLISTED FOR THE $60,000 HILARY WESTON WRITERS TRUST PRIZE FOR NONFICTION\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"What the hell kind of great escape is this? No one escapes!\"\u003cbr\u003e--L.B. Mayer, on the 1963 film \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eHe had fifty-seven seconds of screen time in the most lavish POW film Hollywood ever produced. He was blond. A Gestapo agent. Sauntering down the aisles of a speeding train, he speaks in terse German to Richard Attenborough, Gordon Jackson, David McCallum. The film is \u003ci\u003eThe Great Escape\u003c\/i\u003e (by John Sturges, starring Steve McQueen); the actor, though uncredited, is Michael Paryla. He was part Jewish. Shortly after filming he died. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eThis Great Escape\u003c\/i\u003e, Andrew Steinmetz tenderly reconstructs the life of a man seen by millions yet recognized by no one, whose history--from childhood flight from Nazism to suspicious death twenty years later--intersects bitterly, ironically, and often movingly with the plot of Sturges's great war film. Splicing together documentary materials with correspondence, diary entries, and Steinmetz's own travel journal, \u003ci\u003eThis Great Escape\u003c\/i\u003e does more than reconstruct the making of a cinema classic: it is a poignant and moving testament to the complexity of human experience, a portrait of a family for whom acting was a matter of survival, and proof that our most anonymous, uncredited, and undocumented moments can brush against the zeitgeist of world history.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Biblioasis\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 10\/15\/2013\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781927428337\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 256\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.70lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.40h x 5.40w x 0.80d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAward:\u003c\/b\u003e Hilary Weston Prize for Nonfiction - Finalist\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e 08\/26\/2013\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eQuill \u0026amp; Quire\u003c\/i\u003e 10\/01\/2013 pg. 33\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Andrew Steinmetz","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51616355647669,"sku":"9781927428337","price":14.41,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/files\/img_d60a7a89-d9d7-4c00-a14e-ebd9def4996d.jpg?v=1756189115","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/this-great-escape-the-case-of-michael-paryla-9781927428337","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}