King Rat **** (1965, George Segal, Tom Courtenay, James Fox, John Mills, Denholm Elliott, James Donald) – Classic Movie Review 2422

George Segal makes the most of one his best opportunities as the unscrupulous wheeler-dealing American fast-talker Corporal King, in Bryan Forbes’s excellent, well-crafted 1965 film King Rat.

After Paul Newman and Steve McQueen turned the role down, an ideal George Segal makes the most of one his best opportunities as the unscrupulous wheeler-dealing American corporal King Rat, aka fast-talker Corporal King.

Writer-director Bryan Forbes’s 1965 adaptation of James Clavell’s World War Two Japanese prisoner-of-war camp yarn from his 1962 literary debut novel King Rat is a commendable, excellent piece of well-crafted work. It is set in Singapore’s Changi jail, where the ‘King’ uses bribery and theft to take de facto control of the camp from his senior officers.

Former actor Forbes ensures that there are strong performances too from the British acting contingent: Tom Courtenay as a British up-from-the-ranks officer, First Lieutenant Grey; James Fox as young soldier Peter Marlowe, a British Flight Lieutenant; John Mills as high-ranking officer Colonel George Smedley-Taylor; James Donald as Dr Kennedy; and Denholm Elliott as British Lieutenant Colonel Larkin.

Todd Armstrong, best known for playing Jason in the cult classic Jason and the Argonauts (1963), plays Tex, the American soldier who breeds the rats. After King Rat, his career declined to small supporting roles in films such as The Silencers (1966), Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round (1966) and A Time for Killing (1967).

The running time is perhaps a little over-extended at epic 134-minute length, producing a few slow patches, but mostly the film is exciting, ambitious and intelligent. It is great that the accent is on character conflict rather than heroics. There is also the huge advantage of outstanding black-and-white cinematography from Oscar-nominated Burnett Guffey and a distinguished score by John Barry.

John Mills said: ‘Everybody loved the picture but it was not a success. The only thing I can put it down to is that there was no glamorous girl.’ Indeed, there are no women in the film.

But James Clavell said: ‘My feeling is the film failed because Forbes took away the story thread and made it a composite of character studies.’

It was shot on location in California, where Columbia Pictures constructed a replica of Changi jail.

It was released by Columbia Pictures on October 27, 1965 (New York City).

In real life, Elliott was shot down and taken prisoner by the Nazis while serving in the RAF in World War Two.

The character of Peter Marlowe is based on James Clavell, and his novel is partly based on his experiences as a prisoner-of-war at Changi Prison in Singapore towards the end of the Second World War.

Burnett Guffey was nominated for an Academy Award for Cinematography, and Robert Emmet Smith and Frank Tuttle were nominated for Art Direction.

The cast are George Segal as Corporal King, Tom Courtenay as British First Lieutenant Grey, James Fox as British Flight Lieutenant Marlowe, a  Patrick O’Neal as American First Sergeant Max, Denholm Elliott as British Lieutenant Colonel Larkin, James Donald as Dr Kennedy, Todd Armstrong as American soldier Tex, John Mills as British Colonel Smedley-Taylor, Gerald Sim as British Lieutenant Jones, Colonel Leonard Rossiter as British Major McCoy, Joe Turkel as Dino, John Standing as British Captain Daven, John Merivale as Colonel Foster, Geoffrey Bayldon as Vexley, Alan Webb as British Colonel Brant, John Ronane as British Captain Hawkins, Sam Reese as American enlisted man Kurt, Dale Ishimoto as Japanese guard Yoshimo, Teru Shimada as Japanese general, Michael Lees as hospital staffer Stevens, Wright King as American man Brough, Hedley Mattingly as Dr Prudhomme, Hamilton Dyce as The British Padre, Edward Ashley as Prouty, John Warburton as The Commandant, Richard Dawson as Captain Weaver, and Mickey Simpson as American sergeant.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2422

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