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    Home»Movies»Movies by Decade»Movies - 1950s
    Movies - 1950s Movies - C 3 Mins Read

    Camp on Blood Island, The (1958)

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    This Hammer production presented a story of Japanese cruelty to Allied prisoners of war during World War II.

    While it was based on a true incident, the slick, shock-treatment technique that made a success ofΒ The Curse of FrankensteinΒ (1957) was no way to recall the floggings, the executions, and the incredible refinements of torture practised by the Japanese.

    The critics accused director Val Guest – and Anthony Hinds and James Carreras of Hammer – of staging a “Roman circus” to exploit the WWII atrocities for their entertainment value.

    AndrΓ© Morell plays a limping, battle-scarred colonel in charge of several hundred Allied prisoners on a Japanese-held island in the Malay Peninsula. After three years in the cage, he still carries on a private war with his captors.

    Sick and starved, he drills his ragged company into shape. “They’ve got nothing left but discipline,” he declares. “Take that away and they’ll fall apart.”

    Morell has a fearful responsibility. By means of a concealed radio, he learns that the war is over but he dares not reveal the news. The Commandant of the island (Ronald Radd) has threatened to massacre every prisoner if Japan is defeated.

    The Japanese radio has been sabotaged by Morell’s men and the guards still strut about in murderous ignorance, but whether the Allies will arrive before the news of the surrender is a question of life and sudden death.

    Tormented by worry about his wife and child – who are prisoners in an adjoining camp – the former governor of the island (Walter Fitzgerald) wants to make a deal with the Commandant. “Let’s throw ourselves on his mercy,” he pleads.

    “We’ve seen three years of his mercy,” retorts Morell, nodding towards the overcrowded camp graveyard.

    When an American airman (Phil Brown) bales out over the island, Morell expects his secret to be given away. But Brown is warned in time. Flogged and beaten, he does not reveal that the war has ended.

    Morell orders the prisoners to arm themselves for a last battle, and with homemade knives, clubs, and six rusty grenades, they launch their attack.

    The Japanese are defeated and the war on Blood Island is over.

    Well written and well-acted – especially by AndrΓ© Morell and Michael Goodliffe as a peace-loving priest –Β The Camp on Blood IslandΒ is a skillfully constructed film, but the ingredients – which include a flogging, an execution, and a sexy camp trollop – make the film look like a well-thumbed horror comic.

    Lambert
    AndrΓ© Morell
    Dutch
    Carl MΓΆhner
    Beattie
    Walter Fitzgerald
    Dawes
    Edward Underdown
    Bellamy
    Phil Brown
    Kate
    Barbara Shelley
    Anjou
    Michael Goodliffe
    Shields
    Michael Gwynn
    Yamamitsu
    Ronald Radd
    Sakamura
    Marne Maitland
    Interpreter
    Wolfe Morris
    Keiller
    Richard Wordsworth
    Helen
    Mary Merrall
    Betts
    Barry Lowe
    Hallam
    Max Butterfield
    Mala
    Liliane Sottane
    Thornton
    Peter Forbes-Robertson (as Peter Wayn)
    Davis
    Michael Brill
    Nurse
    Jan Holden
    Female Prisoners
    Betty Cooper
    Anne Ridler
    Barbara Yu Ling (as Barbara Lee)
    Grace Denbeigh-Russell
    Ursula Granville
    Jacqueline Curtis
    Aza Caralova
    Aileen Lewis
    Pat Lewis
    Male Prisoners
    Jack Armstrong
    Geoffrey Bayldon
    Robin Burns
    Alf Casha
    Jack Dearlove
    Cyril Kent
    Anthony Lang
    Charles Rayford
    John Tatham
    Howard Williams

    Director
    Val Guest

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