Cut off by the Japanese advance into Burma during World War II, a tough but respected officer, Captain Langford (Stanley Baker), and his exhausted British troops take over an enemy-held jungle village.
Despite the protests of an elderly padre (Guy Rolfe) and cynical outspoken war correspondent Max Anderson (Leo McKern), Langford orders Sergeant McKenzie (Gordon Jackson) to shoot two innocent villagers, thereby “persuading” a Japanese informer to surrender vital information.
When the Japanese recapture the village, their commander (Philip Ahn) uses Langford’s own desperate war-born tactics in a similar effort to extract information from the British, executing two non-combatants, the padre and journalist Max Anderson.
Filmed entirely in the studio over the period of five weeks, the film – one of Hammer‘s forays away from the horror genre (adapted from a 1958 BBC television play of the same name) – was nominated for four BAFTA awards.
Captain Langford
Stanley Baker Padre
Guy Rolfe Max Anderson
Leo McKern Sgt. Ian McKenzie
Gordon Jackson Doctor
David Oxley 2nd Lt. Hastings
Richard Pasco Yamazaki
Philip Ahn Dawson
Bryan Forbes Informer
Wolfe Morris Perkins
David Lodge Wilson
Percy Herbert Brigadier
Russell Waters Turner
Barry Lowe Simpson
Timothy Bateson Suni
Edwina Carroll Elliott
Donald Churchill Bendish
Alan Keith Patrick
Arthur Lovegrove Brown
Barry Steele Davies
Howard Williams
Director
Val Guest
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