An Indecent Obsession

A hospital drama with a difference: it's World War II, the Far East, and the Japs have just surrendered. The inmates of Ward X, a wing for psychiatric and problem patients, have their routines shattered by the arrival of a new, mysterious patient. Lust, homophobia, violent death, cowardice and an exotic location should make for the sort of soap you can get your teeth into; but apart from a few reasonable impressions of mild insanity, the performances are never good enough to make you believe what's happening on screen. The confrontations fizzle out, the flashbacks are incredibly heavy-handed, and the sexual intrigue is...well, limp. Colleen McCullough's source novel provides a decent enough formula, but the film-makers manage to reduce it to housewives' afternoon TV-slot tedium.