In the musical "South Pacific", the character of Lt. Joseph Cable teaches French plantation owner Emile DeBeque that you've got to be taught to be prejudice. It doesn't come naturally. "It's got to be drummed in your dear little ear", he sings. What then makes a white man so filled with prejudice that he'll shoot another white man in cold blood just to keep the white race clean? Is that man psychotic or so filled with what he's been taught that he felt what he was doing was justified? That's the story here. Set in India during World War II, this film focuses on the hatred from an American Lieutenant (Keenan Wynn) who shoots a British NCO in cold blood, later we find out, because the man was in danger of "destroying the white race by mixing his blood with that of a black woman".
Attorney Robert Mitchum is assigned to the case, at first he thinks to be a prosecutor, but later he finds out to be the defense. Mitchum knows he is simply a puppet to prevent any issues between the British and American Governments for this murder, and that Wynn is sure to get the death penalty. He decides to do what he can to be more than just a mouthpiece sure to loose, and finds out in interviewing a few witnesses that Wynn showed signs of insanity. That becomes his goal: to save Wynn from hanging (and himself) by declaring that he is insane. The problem? Wynn is so sure of his justification of murder in preserving the race that he refuses to consider being called insane.
Mitchum is excellent as he prepares his case, but it is Wynn who wins the acting honors, at first only interested in rye bread over the wheat toast he's been given at breakfast, then apologizing to Mitchum so he can explain why he did what he did. That makes his character even more scary, because his justification not only of murder but his hatred of non-whites makes him exactly the type of enemy that the Allies were fighting the war for. Frances Nuyen is very pretty as the Chinese/French nurse Mitchum briefly becomes involved in, not quite the delicate doll she appears at first sight to be, but still very feminine and charming. Keep the room around you totally silent when Wynn explodes in the courtroom scene. Barry Sullivan and Trevor Howard also give outstanding performances, and Guy Hamilton's direction is tight, direct and basically flawless. Many movies of the 1960's were made to wake people up to the social issues which came out of World War II, the Korean War, and the upcoming Vietnam War. This is one not worth missing.
Attorney Robert Mitchum is assigned to the case, at first he thinks to be a prosecutor, but later he finds out to be the defense. Mitchum knows he is simply a puppet to prevent any issues between the British and American Governments for this murder, and that Wynn is sure to get the death penalty. He decides to do what he can to be more than just a mouthpiece sure to loose, and finds out in interviewing a few witnesses that Wynn showed signs of insanity. That becomes his goal: to save Wynn from hanging (and himself) by declaring that he is insane. The problem? Wynn is so sure of his justification of murder in preserving the race that he refuses to consider being called insane.
Mitchum is excellent as he prepares his case, but it is Wynn who wins the acting honors, at first only interested in rye bread over the wheat toast he's been given at breakfast, then apologizing to Mitchum so he can explain why he did what he did. That makes his character even more scary, because his justification not only of murder but his hatred of non-whites makes him exactly the type of enemy that the Allies were fighting the war for. Frances Nuyen is very pretty as the Chinese/French nurse Mitchum briefly becomes involved in, not quite the delicate doll she appears at first sight to be, but still very feminine and charming. Keep the room around you totally silent when Wynn explodes in the courtroom scene. Barry Sullivan and Trevor Howard also give outstanding performances, and Guy Hamilton's direction is tight, direct and basically flawless. Many movies of the 1960's were made to wake people up to the social issues which came out of World War II, the Korean War, and the upcoming Vietnam War. This is one not worth missing.