The Long and the Short and the Tall

Willis Hall's play, about a British patrol in Burma intent on killing an innocent Japanese prisoner in hysterical retribution for atrocities committed against British soldiers, was a hit at the Royal Court Theatre as directed by Lindsay Anderson, with Peter O'Toole in the key role of the doubter. Michael Balcon, when he produced the film, replaced Anderson with Leslie Norman, an Ealing veteran, and junked O'Toole in favour of Laurence Harvey. The result was suitably meretricious.