Arthur Laurents was once a radio playwright which might explain why this adaptation of his play works so well – it doesn’t have many actors in each scene so is easy to follow who is who, and the jungle fighting stuff works brilliantly: gunshots, screams of a friend being tortured by the Japanese off in the instance. It’s a solid melodrama - some of it’s devices now seem dated due to being used on a lot of soap operas (eg a shrink inspiring a Jewish man with psychological paraplegia to stand up by calling him anti-Semitic names) but it’s still effective. And it’s underpinned by serious issues – not just anti-Semitism but the fact one of the soldiers loses an arm at the end. Intensely acted by the cast – no famous names but apparently they played the role on Broadway.
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