Ronald Lewis was a handsome brylcreamed lunk who had a brief reign as a cinema leading man which ended with this film, one of the last of Hammer's Imperial adventures. The studio made a few of these, generally focusing on the savage practices of the locals (e.g. Terror of the Tongs, The Strangers of Bombay). This is more of a straightforward hero tale, with a racial slant, more along the lines of something like Zarak - footage from which is used liberally here.
Lewis plays a half caste British officer, which is a bit groovy even if it does mean it's time for the old boot polish. He returns from a mission without a fellow officer, who he informs is captured - when it emerges Lewis has been banging said officer's wife (who we meet bare backed gavin a bath - hey it is Hammer) he finds himself accused of cowardice and sentenced to ten years. He is busted out of prison and taken to a local ruler (Oliver Reed, also in boot polish) and starts fighting against his old mates.
This is full of confusing moments and incidents - Lewis is meant to be the hero, but we're actually never completely sure he is innocent; when he does meet the officer, he winds up shooting the guy (to "save him from torture" - but that could mean anything). We meet this nasty English officer who we think is going to be the main baddie, but then the commanding officer becomes the main baddie and this other guy gets forgotten. The evil officer gets to live at the end while Lewis dies. Lewis kills a few British officers escaping from prison but is reluctant to kill more. The only character with any sort of moral strength is Glyn Houston as a journalist. Maybe all this confusion this was intentional, an attempt to be complex - maybe it's just bad writing and handling. Lewis certainly isn't up the complexities of his role, playing it all with the one expression.
Oliver Reed has the time of his life as a cunning, insane ruler and Yvonne Romain is great fun as Reed's sexy, violent sister - who lusts/loves Lewis but is quite prepared to overrule him in the interests of her people. It's very colourful but looks cheap and stagey, and the action shot here doesn't incorporate well with the Zarak footage.
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