Review: A Hill in Korea/Hell in Korea

British troops during the Korean War are not only faced with facing off against the advancing Chinese, but squabbles among their own. The chief concern is Pvt. Ronald Lewis, who may or may not be a coward, and whom Cpl. Stanley Baker may or may not be calling a coward directly to his possibly cowardly or non-cowardly face at every given opportunity. George Baker plays their Lieutenant, with the other troops played by the likes of Percy Herbert, Harry Andrews (as Baker’s right-hand man), Victor Maddern, Robert Brown, and more briefly young Robert Shaw and Sir Michael Caine (a real-life Korean War veteran) in a virtual walk-on. Stephen Boyd gets very little to do except bleed as an ill-fated Private.

A gritty, quite action-packed war film from 1956 directed by Julian Amyes (a veteran of British TV). The action is good, the company mostly also good. It’s nothing new, but certainly passes the time entertainingly enough, with B&W seemingly giving things a bit of grit and pseudo-realism.

Of the cast, it’s supporting players Stanley Baker, Harry Andrews, and Robert Shaw who come off best, though only Andrews gets any significant screen time. Baker, an often brilliant actor is immediately impressive as a belligerent sort. Andrews…is immediately Andrews, albeit younger and less forceful than in say “The Hill”, where he was absolutely ferocious. Still, he manages to constantly steal scenes. George Baker gets a more prominent role and is quite good, but your attention is drawn towards the more charismatic members of the cast around him. Percy Herbert and Victor Maddern have great potato faces that help them stand out. Seriously, poor Herbert has a mug that looks like it’s been on the losing end of a lot of fist-fights. Even character actor Robert Brown, who made for a rather dull ‘M’ in most of Roger Moore’s 007 films, does quite good work here. I’m not sure we really needed a white actor in boot polish to play a Korean given Koreans aren’t black, but I generally let that sort of thing slide since there’s little point in belly-aching about it in 2019. More annoying to me was Stephen Boyd getting prominent billing for a miniscule – and not very interesting – role. Sir Michael Caine walks on after about an hour to say one line, so if you’re a Caine completist (Geez, the 70s and 80s must’ve been a bugger for you at times) you might want to check this one out. As for our lead Ronald Lewis (who looks quite a bit like Shaw, making things a bit confusing in the dark early on), I think his character is more interesting than his actual performance.

Gritty war film with a rock-solid cast of familiar faces, and for once the soldiers aren’t expert shots. They’re largely a tough lot but have not got the experience yet, and it makes for quite tense viewing. Nothing earth-shattering but a must for fans of these British war films of the 50s & 60s. I would’ve liked more Stanley Baker and Robert Shaw, however. Based on a Max Catto novel, the screenplay is by Ian Dalrymple (“Q Planes”, “The Citadel”), Anthony Squire (also a director and 2^nd unit director), and Ronald Spencer (mostly a director and assistant director, this was his only notable screenwriting gig).

Rating: B-