Prisoner of War

Plot

The horrors suffered by American prisoners of war at the hands of the North Koreans during the Korean war provide the basis of this drama. Allegedly based on the true stories of those who survived the tortures, it centers on an intelligence officer (Ronald Reagan) who is sent into a POW camp to investigate conditions. When he learns that inmates are routinely tortured and brainwashed, he allows himself to undergo the same. He fools the enemy into believing that he has successfully been indoctrinated into Communist philosophies as does another soldier. Meanwhile, another soldier affects a more direct means of combatting the enemy. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Review

MGM's effort at addressing the situation of American prisoners-of-war during the Korean War is well-meaning, but hopelessly ham-fisted and cliche-ridden. Then again, from the looks of it, this movie didn't have a lot of ambition going in, in terms of subtlety or complexity, and was probably precisely what the makers from the producer on down wanted and expected. This is evident in the casting of a somewhat long-of-tooth Ronald Reagan (using his nice-guy/ordinary Joe appeal -- that same attribute he used to promote General Electric and sell 20 Mule Team Borax and his presidency -- to the hilt) as an intelligence officer who infiltrates a Communist POW camp to investigate reports of brain-washing; and with the presence of Andrew Marton, a B-picture specialist and second-unit expert, as director -- given that Marton's strongest talent as a director seemed to lay in moving actors around in front of a camera, or moving cameras to places that primary directors didn't have the time to worry about, he would have been unlikely choice to helm a film in which much acting finesse was required or expected. Equally dubious is the hackneyed script, which telegraphs its every move long minutes (and even an hour) ahead of any significant action, and the flat handling doesn't help raise interest. Some of the actors try hard, with Dewey Martin and, especially, Steve Forrest, attempting to flex some acting muscles, Martin despite his severely limited range as a performer. Forrest is actually very good in these surroundings, in what seems for most of the picture like a one-note role, as the most openly defiant of the American prisoners, who is seemingly broken by one calculated act of cruelty (which is no surprise when it comes, in this script) -- the one part of the script that does work, however, is his transformation by that action, but the depicted consequences are too mild for these surroundings and this setting. But the other cast members, especially Oscar Homolka as the main Soviet "advisor" to the warders, and John Lupton in a brief appearances as an American pilot being tortured, are mostly in a hopeless struggle with their lines and the script. The best work in the picture is done by Paul Stewart as a doctor/prisoner, who also has the best lines, and, alas, because of his particular role in the action, can't be on-screen very long. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

Cast

• Ronald Reagan - Web Sloane
• Dewey Martin - Jesse Treadman
• Steve Forrest - Cpl. Joseph Robert Stanton
• Oscar Homolka - Col. Nikita I. Biroshilov
• Robert Horton - Francis Aloysius Belney

Paul Stewart - Capt. Jack Hodges; Stephen Bekassy - Lt. Georgi M. Robovnik; Leonard Strong - Col. Kim Doo Yi; Darryl Hickman - Merton Tollivar; Weaver Levy - Red Guard; Rollin Moriyama - Capt. Lang Hyun Choi; Ike Jones - Benjamin Julesberg; Clarence Lung - MVD Officer; Jerry Paris - Axel Horstrom; John Lupton - Lt. Peter Reilly; Ralph Ahn - Red Guard; Otis Greene - David Carey; Peter Hansen - Capt. Fred Osborne; Lewis Martin - General; Lalo Rios - Sachez Rivero; Leon Tyler - Jacob Allen Lorfield; Stuart Whitman - Captain; Robert Ellis - Alan H. Rolfe; Edo Mita - Red Doctor; Henry Morgan - Maj. O.D. Halle

Credit

Malcolm Brown - Art Director, Cedric Gibbons - Art Director, Andrew Marton - Director, James Newcom - Editor, Jeff Alexander - Composer (Music Score), Robert Planck - Cinematographer, Henry Berman - Producer, Alan Rivkin - Screenwriter

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