The yellow hell

Movie
German title	The yellow hell
Original title	The Camp on Blood Island
Country of production	Great Britain
original language	English
Publishing year	1958
length	77 minutes
Age rating	FSK 16
Rod
Director	Val Guest
script	Jon Manchip White , ; Val Guest
production	Anthony Hinds
music	Gerard Schurmann
camera	Jack Asher
cut	Bill Lenny
occupation
	André Morell : Colonel Lambert; Carl Möhner : Van Elst; Walter Fitzgerald : Beattie; Michael Goodliffe : Father Anjou; Edward Underdown : Major Dawes; Phil Brown : Lieutenant Bellamy; Barbara Shelley : Kate Keiller; Ronald Radd : Commander; Geoffrey Bayldon : Foster; Michael Gwynn : Tom Shields; Lee Montague : Japanese officer;

The Yellow Hell (alternatively also The Yellow Hell from the Kwai , original title: The Camp on Blood Island ) is a British war film from 1958, which Val Guest directed for Hammer Films . An intertitle in the original version indicates that the film is based on a true story.

action

The war in the Pacific is drawing to a close. The Japanese commander of a prisoner-of-war camp on Blood Island threatens to murder all prisoners if Japan surrenders. In fact, the empire capitulates, but the news does not reach the commanding officer. The prisoners learned of the end of the war from secret sources. Now they have to prevent the commandant from finding out about the surrender. Colonel Lambert, a kind of leader of the prisoners, wants to sabotage the communication facilities of the camp.

The authoritarian Lambert is not accepted by all prisoners. Opponents of his almost dictatorial leadership style include the diplomat Beattie, the Dutchman van Elst and the priest Anjou. Again and again they force Lambert to justify his sometimes illogical and questionable decisions. Despite all the quarrels, everyone realizes that there is a traitor in the camp.

Van Elst is supposed to carry out the sabotage order, while Anjou is responsible for forwarding messages through codes. When news of the surrender finally reaches the commanding officer, the prisoners rise up against their guards. A bloody fight ensues. When the Allies reach the island, they find only a few surviving prisoners and Japanese.

background

The Yellow Hell is one of Hammer Films ' productions sponsored by Columbia Pictures . The Daily Variety stated in its November 1958 issue that the Japanese government had sent a letter to Columbia Pictures criticizing the portrayal of the Japanese officers.

The film premiered in London on April 15, 1958. In Germany it was released in cinemas on February 27, 1959. 1964 Hammer Films produced with The Secret of Blood Island ( The Secret of Blood Iceland ) a sequel. Barbara Shelley also played here.

Reviews

For the lexicon of international films , The Yellow Hell was "a war film that is impressively realistically staged from the outside, but whose internal conflicts are treated too briefly". Variety complained that the film had more holes in it than a fishing net. The dialogues and the situations were conceived under the premise that all Japanese are rats.

Web links

The yellow Hell in the Internet Movie Database (English)
The yellow Hell on Turner Classic Movies (English)

Individual evidence

[1] See Notes on tcm.com

[2] The yellow hell. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed May 28, 2019 .

[3] See The Camp on Blood Island . In: Variety , 1958.