Review: Yesterday’s Enemy
Uncivilised actions in wartime in this WWII drama set in the Burmese jungle. Stanley Baker plays the unit captain who is now the senior officer since the real leader is currently badly wounded. In order to try and get an explanation for a top-secret document they find, Baker makes deadly threats towards the local civilians, which rubs members of the platoon the wrong way. These include resident religious figure Guy Rolfe and a liberal-minded war correspondent who is tagging along (Leo McKern). Phillip Ahn plays an equally uncompromising Japanese commander, whilst Baker’s men are played by the likes of Gordon Jackson, Richard Pasco, Geoffrey Bayldon (who is already dying when we meet him), and the usual crowd of Percy Herbert, Bryan Forbes (who also directed the excellent POW film “ King Rat” ), and David Lodge. One of Hammer Films’ finest ever endeavours, this 1959 Val Guest war drama ( “The Full Treatment” , “The Day the Earth Caught Fire” ) is one of the ...