The Long and the Short and the Tall (1962)

  • NR
  • 03/14/1962 (US)
  • War, Comedy, Drama
  • 1h 50m

Raw emotions bared !

Overview

Based on a play by Willis Hall. A troop of British soldiers are out in the jungle to record jungle noises and troop noises in the jungle so that the recordings can be played back by other troops to divert the enemy to their whereabouts. As they progress to what they think is closer to the base camp they find themselves farther and farther from radio range until the only channel they can get clearly is that of a Japanese broadcast. They now realize they are probably only 10 to 15 miles from a Japanese camp! The tension is added to by rowdy and openly admitted "non-hero" Private Bamforth who has nothing good to say about anyone and especially Corporal Johnstone (who holds an equal dislike for Bamforth). When a Japanese soldier is taken as their prisoner, the true colours of each man comes to the surface

Willis Hall

Story

Leslie Norman

Director

Wolf Mankowitz

Screenplay

Cast

Laurence Harvey's headshot

Laurence Harvey

Pvt. 'Bammo' Bamforth
Richard Todd's headshot

Richard Todd

Sgt. 'Mitch' Mitchem
Richard Harris's headshot

Richard Harris

Cpl. Johnstone
David McCallum's headshot

David McCallum

Pvt. Sammy Whitaker
Ronald Fraser's headshot

Ronald Fraser

L / Cpl. Macleish
John Meillon's headshot

John Meillon

Pte. Smith
John Rees's headshot

John Rees

Pte. Evans
Kenji Takaki's headshot

Kenji Takaki

Tojo

Recommendations