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The Long and the Short and the Tall

72 %|Feb 28, 1961|War, Drama

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

Featured Crew

Willis Hall
Story
Wolf Mankowitz
Screenplay
Leslie Norman
Director
Erwin Hillier
Director of Photography
Michael Balcon
Producer

Cast

actor
Laurence Harvey
Pvt. 'Bammo' Bamforth
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Richard Todd
Sgt. 'Mitch' Mitchem
actor
Richard Harris
Cpl. Johnstone
actor
David McCallum
Pvt. Sammy Whitaker
actor
Ronald Fraser
L / Cpl. Macleish
actor
John Meillon
Pte. Smith
actor
John Rees
Pte. Evans