One thing stops this film from being just another surprise witness courtroom thriller. For here, the last-minute surprise is provided by the masterly Trevor Howard. The climax is the last and best of the three scenes in which Howard appears. As he gives his vital evidence, chewing on every word, as if the rather ordinary script were something to be relished, one views the story subjectively for the first time, at last with the characters, rather than merely watching what is going on. And it takes a master actor to achieve that. Robert Mitchum goes through his sleepy paces willingly enough as the defending officer in an army court martial in India in 1944. He has to prove the defendant (an effectively ranting performance by Keenan Wynn) insane, if he is not to hang for the murder of a British soldier. In support, Alexander Knox and Sam Wanamaker are excellent as two doctors unwilling to give evidence.

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