The 1963 black and white British version of this story stands head and shoulders above this grossly inferior and unnecessary Hollywood remake. The lame excuse from producer Lewis Allen, one of the team behind the original, was to stop any cheap and nasty TV movie being made in the light of author William Golding being awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. Well, US TV couldn't have done any worse. Golding's allegorical story about the savagery that lies dormant in even the youngest minds - as manifest when a group of military school cadets survives a plane crash on a remote island, turns tribal and launches a life-threatening battle between good and evil - is further diluted by changing the boys' nationality to American and removing the British class system from the mixture. The mostly unknown and untried child actors are unsuccessful at carrying the dialogue with any conviction. A desperately sad venture from young British director Harry Hook, who earned plaudits for his sensitive debut, The Kitchen Toto.

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