The Camp on Blood Island

Carl Möhner - Piet Van Elst
André Morell - Col. Lambert
Walter Fitzgerald - Beattie
Edward Underdown - Dawes
Phil Brown - Bellamy
Barbara Shelley - Kate
Michael Goodliffe - Anjou

The Camp on Blood Island dared to depict the kind of daily atrocities that were committed against British prisoners of war, portraying the Japanese as uncompromisingly brutal and arrogant. The sadistic Japanese commandant has threatened to kill all the Allied PoW’s if Japan surrenders, so the prisoners try desperately to keep that news from him when it occurs. Some escape for a nearby partisan HQ, while Col Lambert (Andre Morell) leads the prisoners, armed with homemade weapons, into a last frenzied battle. Allied relief planes find few survivors on either side.

The film featured some surprisingly brutal moments, and was accused of sordid sensationalism with some justice, but was a needed antidote to the gentlemanly behaviour prevalent in other British war films which usually aimed at a family audience and an avoidance of stirring up old rancour’s. The film was so successful that it led to a sequel, The Secret of Blood Island (1965).