One of only four Hammer war films, this is an extremely effective and often harrowing prisoner of war drama. It has a very strong script by John Manchip White and Val Guest while the latter's direction is excellent as he is able to maintain a very high level of tension for much of the film. The film takes place on a small island - which is being used as a prison camp by the occupying Japanese forces - off the coast of Malaya, as it then was, in August 1945. Brutal and unrelenting by the standards of the time, it does not pull any punches in its depiction of Japanese atrocities against their prisoners and, as such, it was criticised for being gratuitously violent when it was released. The film was allegedly based on a real incident. It is not on the same level as Hammer's later war film "Yesterday's Enemy", which was likewise directed by Guest, but it is nevertheless an excellent film.
The film stars André Morell, the studio's best leading man after Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, in an excellent performance as the senior officer Colonel Lambert. He is a strong disciplinarian who does not suffer fools gladly and refuses to allow standards to slip in spite of the fact that he and his men have been imprisoned for more than three years. While he is not the "father to his men" type of commanding officer, he is deeply concerned about the well- being of his fellow prisoners. The reason that Lambert is so keen to maintain discipline is that he believes that it gives the men a structure in their lives which helps them to survive and I think that he has a point there. Lambert is obstinate and authoritarian but these are character traits that serve him well under the circumstances and, ultimately, serve the other prisoners well. Having ordered a campaign of sabotage against the Japanese equipment, their captors' radios are not working. Consequently, they are unaware that the Japanese surrender was announced several days earlier, something which is helped by their isolation from the mainland. However, Lambert and Piet van Elst were able to hear a report on the surrender before they knocked out all of the radios. As the sadistic Commander Yamamitsu has pledged to execute every man, woman and child in the two prison camps on the island when Japan loses the war, Lambert is understandably desperate to keep the news from him.
The film benefits from having Hammer's very best leading lady Barbara Shelley in the cast as Kate Keiller, the doctor in the women and children's camp who must deal with dreadful sanitary conditions and a cholera outbreak. She is a resourceful woman with a great deal of inner strength to draw upon but she has been pushed to the limit of her endurance after three years of captivity, as have many other male and female prisoners. After her recaptured husband Robert is killed in front of her, Kate tells a Japanese officer exactly what she thinks of him and the way in which the prisoners are treated, which makes for a great scene. Walter Fitzgerald is very good as the former British Commissioner Cyril Beattie, who naively believes that Yamamitsu can be reasoned with if the situation is explained to him. It is only after the death of his beloved wife Helen that he realises his mistake.
One thing that is very distracting about the film is that, extras aside, none of the Japanese characters are played by actors who look even remotely Japanese. Hammer veteran Marne Maitland, who was born in India, is the least convincing as the camp's second-in-command Captain Sakamura and the only other Japanese character to receive a name. He puts on a silly voice that is very distracting and very disappointing since he is excellent in many of his other films. Ronald Radd does not have any dialogue in English but he is suitably intimidating as Yamamitsu. However, Hammer's most prolific actor Michael Ripper has a bizarre cameo as a jovial Japanese driver who is delighted that the war is over. He is the closest thing that the film has to a sympathetic Japanese character. The film features nice performances from some of the studio's other stalwarts such as Michael Goodliffe, Michael Gwynn, Wolfe Morris, Edwin Richfield and Richard Wordsworth as well as Phil Brown as the US Navy pilot Lt. Commander Peter Bellamy who almost reveals that the war is over.
Overall, this is an extremely enjoyable film which pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable in British cinema in the late 1950s with its depiction of violence.
The film stars André Morell, the studio's best leading man after Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, in an excellent performance as the senior officer Colonel Lambert. He is a strong disciplinarian who does not suffer fools gladly and refuses to allow standards to slip in spite of the fact that he and his men have been imprisoned for more than three years. While he is not the "father to his men" type of commanding officer, he is deeply concerned about the well- being of his fellow prisoners. The reason that Lambert is so keen to maintain discipline is that he believes that it gives the men a structure in their lives which helps them to survive and I think that he has a point there. Lambert is obstinate and authoritarian but these are character traits that serve him well under the circumstances and, ultimately, serve the other prisoners well. Having ordered a campaign of sabotage against the Japanese equipment, their captors' radios are not working. Consequently, they are unaware that the Japanese surrender was announced several days earlier, something which is helped by their isolation from the mainland. However, Lambert and Piet van Elst were able to hear a report on the surrender before they knocked out all of the radios. As the sadistic Commander Yamamitsu has pledged to execute every man, woman and child in the two prison camps on the island when Japan loses the war, Lambert is understandably desperate to keep the news from him.
The film benefits from having Hammer's very best leading lady Barbara Shelley in the cast as Kate Keiller, the doctor in the women and children's camp who must deal with dreadful sanitary conditions and a cholera outbreak. She is a resourceful woman with a great deal of inner strength to draw upon but she has been pushed to the limit of her endurance after three years of captivity, as have many other male and female prisoners. After her recaptured husband Robert is killed in front of her, Kate tells a Japanese officer exactly what she thinks of him and the way in which the prisoners are treated, which makes for a great scene. Walter Fitzgerald is very good as the former British Commissioner Cyril Beattie, who naively believes that Yamamitsu can be reasoned with if the situation is explained to him. It is only after the death of his beloved wife Helen that he realises his mistake.
One thing that is very distracting about the film is that, extras aside, none of the Japanese characters are played by actors who look even remotely Japanese. Hammer veteran Marne Maitland, who was born in India, is the least convincing as the camp's second-in-command Captain Sakamura and the only other Japanese character to receive a name. He puts on a silly voice that is very distracting and very disappointing since he is excellent in many of his other films. Ronald Radd does not have any dialogue in English but he is suitably intimidating as Yamamitsu. However, Hammer's most prolific actor Michael Ripper has a bizarre cameo as a jovial Japanese driver who is delighted that the war is over. He is the closest thing that the film has to a sympathetic Japanese character. The film features nice performances from some of the studio's other stalwarts such as Michael Goodliffe, Michael Gwynn, Wolfe Morris, Edwin Richfield and Richard Wordsworth as well as Phil Brown as the US Navy pilot Lt. Commander Peter Bellamy who almost reveals that the war is over.
Overall, this is an extremely enjoyable film which pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable in British cinema in the late 1950s with its depiction of violence.