"The Bamboo Prison" - (1954)

 

                                          

This film was actually banned in a number of cities after the Korean War. It came out just about a year and a half after the Armistice was signed at Panmunjom.

Robert Francis, the young actor who played the Juinor officer in the 1954 film "The Caine Mutiny"  plays a young POW who gives into Korean brainwashing and receives special privileges. But he is not what he seems. He is working with another POW played by Brian Keith to find information that can be used by the United Nations to prosecute the North Koreans for War Crimes and end the war. They were sucessful in doing so.

E.G. Marshall plays a Priest, but he is also not what he seems to be. He is actually an Intelligence  Agent placed by the Russians in the camp. Richard Loo and Keye Luke play two of the North Koreans. And a young Aaron Spelling plays a role as a POW named Skinny. Of course he went on to higher things producing hit TV shows, so it is interesting to see him act.

I won't go too far into the film's plot as it would serve as a spoiler. Suffice to say that this film is a very important link in understanding the complexities of the War, which never resulted in a treaty. As in most wars, there are no real winners.

In reality, several of the POW's who served the North Koreans were offered amnesty to return home but remained in North Korea making propaganda films for the Communists. We will never know whether any of those men sacrificed going home to remain as American agents as all information on that subject is still "Classified."

Interesting note about Robert Francis, who made two films in 1954; "The Caine Mutiny" and "The Bamboo Prison." The following year he played in two other films before dying in a private plane crash in California. He was only 25 years old. We will never really know far he would have gone in making films, but judging by his first two, he would have made quite a mark. At a time when Marlon Brando and James Dean were playing the anti-hero roles, Robert Francis was playing clean cut "boy next door" roles.

This film is one of only 3 films made regarding the subject of brainwashing and abuse of American prisoners of war during the Korean War were dramatized in "P.O.W." in 1953 and also "Prisoner of War", starring Ronald Reagan in 1954. I don't  count "The Manchurian Candidate" starring Frank Sinatra, as that was made in 1962.

Still, that film stands as a very realistic portrayal of the Mind Control used by the Communists during the war to create "sleeper agents" living in the United States, although it takes place after the war had been over almost 10 years.