Dirk Bogarde defends deserter Tom Courtenay in WWI. They're both brilliant.
There's a trial, involving a bad-tempered doctor, Leo McKern. Peter Copley is the colonel. Barry Foster for the defense, James Villiers.
Meanwhile Courtenay's platoon muck about with rats and get drunk.
I have to mention that Courtenay's 'cell' is some sort of storeroom with what looks like the end of a bed as the 'gate', so he could in theory have escaped pretty much any time.
Brilliantly blocked by Losey and shot in deep focus by Denys Coop. The music's from Larry Adler (not sure the harmonica is really right for this), with photos from the Imperial War Museum used meaningfully. Editor Reginald Mills gets a full screen title credit.
It's a bleak little film, written by Evan Jones, based on a play by John Wilson, itself based on the novel 'Return to the Wood' by WWII correspondent J.L. Hodson.
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