The Bamboo Prison (1954) User Reviews

Lukewarm Drama Pales In Comparison To Its Predecessor

[atlasmb · 6/10 · 26 July 2016]

When the WWII drama "Stalag 17" came out in 1953, it had the benefit of the talents of Billy Wilder as director and writer. It was also co-written by Edwin Blum, whose talents I had never noticed before.

But in 1954, "The Bamboo Prison" was released, also co-written by Edwin Blum. The film, like "Stalag 17", takes place in a POW camp. Though it's a Korean War camp, the similarities between the two scripts are noticeable, e.g. the main character (Sgt. John Rand played by Robert Francis) is hated by his fellow prisoners because he carves out a profitable and semi-comfortable life for himself while in captivity.

But director Lewis Seiler is no Billy Wilder, Robert Francis is no William Holden, and "The Bamboo Prison" is certainly no "Stalag 17". Francis, who only appeared in four films before perishing in a crash of the plane he was piloting, tries to bring a weighty seriousness to his role, but struggles to carry the lead. His Sgt. Rand cooperates with the Communists and spouts anti-capitalist rhetoric that might have been polarizing in its day (right after the Korean conflict ended), but is often voiced by the political left in America today. Likewise the calculated black rights sentiments voiced by the Communists.

The comedy elements feel forced and much less successful than in "Stalag 17". The opening scenes of a 40-day Bataan Death March-like struggle by the new prisoners feel tacked on and ineffective. In he end, there is little to recommend this shallow POW story.

Above Average Korean War Flick

[jsinton2007 · 6/10 · 25 June 2010]

The Korean war is known at the "forgotten war" for good reason: People wanted to forget it ever happened. It wasn't popular and it had a less than satisfactory conclusion. As a result, there was not many films on the subject. On the 60th anniversary of the Korean war, TCM showed nearly 24 hours of films on the subject, and this was one of them.

"The Bamboo Prison" is a reasonable attempt to portray the horrors of PoW life for United Nations soldiers in a Chinese prison. Starring Robert Francis as a PoW turned collaborator on a secret mission, this film is filled with all the usual trappings of the anti communist hysteria. The cast is pretty well rounded out with Brian Keith as a fellow PoW, E.G. Marshall as a counterfeit priest, Murray Matheson as the Russian adviser, Diane Foster as his ballerina/communist traitor wife, and Richard Loo as the camp commandant. A young Aaron Spelling plays an uncredited role.

This film makes good fodder for the war film buff or the political historian, but not to be considered a cinematic masterpiece. Surely not a "Stalag 17" or "King Rat".

One of the Better POW films - The Bamboo Prison

[arthur_tafero · 7/10 · 8 November 2021]

This is an underrated POW film about the Korean War. There is a great deal of political content, as well as spy vs spy content, most of which is very entertaining. Of course, I did not understand this film very well when I first it over 65 years ago as a child, but I certainly fully understand it now. The film has a few surprises that I will not give away, and is highly watchable. Recommended.

I Was a Prisoner in Korea

[richardchatten · 6/10 · 9 May 2022]

Films about the Korean War show that it was far more a conflict of competing ideologies than of competing nations, hence the frequent stress on prisoners' vulnerability to brainwashing. As in 'Stalag 17' - by the same author - rest assured (SPOILER COMING) that when a prisoner seems to be selling out it's always just a ruse.

The Bamboo Prison

[CinemaSerf · 6/10 · 2 April 2023]

Brian Keith is adequate here as the all-American "Brady" who is taken to a POW camp during the Korean War. It's there that encounters the ostensibly collaborative "Rand" (Robert Francis) who has befriended "Tanya" (Dianne Foster) who is, herself, married to another whose loyalties are distinctly questionable. Pretty quickly we learn that nobody is quite who they seem and with a backdrop of severe torture, manipulation and fear we find that each of the Americans now suspect the other and are constantly trying to vie for the upper hand - all under the outwardly benign gaze of "Fr. Dolan" (EG Marshall) who has, himself, been imprisoned by the communists. It's actually quite a simple story designed to highlight the atrocities carried out against the Allies by the commies despite the provisions of the Geneva Convention. It has plenty of plausibility issues, though. None of the prisoners look especially emaciated - clean shaven with Colgate smiles; the casting is pretty weak and the dialogue does little to develop the sense of peril that the imagery lays before us. There isn't much chemistry on display, either, and I found the on/off romance stuff just clogged up what could have been quite an intriguing fifth-column, who-to-trust affair. Essentially this is a piece of propaganda and though doubtless routed in aspects of truth, to some degree, it is just a bit too much of a blunt instrument for me.

Korean War POW Flick that Did Not Age Gracefully

[tigerized · 3/10 · 19 April 2015]

The Bamboo Prison was made just about the time I was conceived, but it's taken 60+ years for me to finally get around to seeing it. Unfortunately, the plot and script both seem to poke around aimlessly, searching for a hot button to engage the audience. Finally, it serves up Communism as the failed ideology that it is, but underscores this point with tedious dialogue and little else. (I used to love action filled war movies as a child, but this one would have had me begging to go play in the dirt in no time at all.) You might think that the combined talents of E. G. Marshall, Brian Keith, and Robert Francis would save this one, but their acting skill are no match for the clumsy cinematic execution of The Bamboo Prison. It's obvious that this film was produced with little regard to set dressing, make up, or special effects.

The prison camp set looks like left over buildings from Stalag 17 with some bamboo added here and there, the prisoners all appear very well fed and clothed, and the bombing raid depends on some stock footage of a Boeing dropping bombs which all happen to land in exactly the same area. Gun shots at a fleeing prisoner all land in a very straight line, evenly spaced, indicating little effort was spent planting the charges in the dirt for the impact effect.

While not exactly terrible, this film is probably best viewed while sorting your sock drawer, clipping your nails, or as a cure for insomnia. I was hoping to see acting by the principals on par with some of their other films (Robert Francis - Caine Mutiny, E.G. Marshall - !2 Angry Men, or even Brian Keith in the Parent Trap), but this was not to be. Still, I'm happy to have watched the film so I can avoid it in the future. Your mileage may vary.

Bad Prison Film, Bad War Film, Bad History

[educated_indio · 2/10 · 9 June 2022]

Nothing to recommend in this, not a thing believable about it.

The prisoners come in from a death march where over half of them supposedly died...and don't even appear tired. They're even clean shaven.

North Korean soldiers played by Chinese American actors with Chinese accents. Seemingly the film makers didn't notice or thought the audience wouldn't know the difference.

Having prisoners constantly joking makes it seem like the prison isn't bad at all. Unlike Stalag 17 where the abuse was executing escapees but not starvation.

The brainwashing is shown as just giving lectures about Marxism. And having a Black prisoner defend racism in America is bizarre and not believable. IRL many of those who defected were Black GIs fed up with Jim Crow.

The romance is hokey and unbelievable and so is an American newspaper man defector in the camp wearing an expensive suit.

At best a curiosity to see Brian Keith and Henry Morgan in early roles.

A really great, based on historical fact movie.

[ccunning-73587 · 9/10 · 20 October 2019]

A really great, based on historical fact movie. The setting in a north korean prisoner of war (POW) camp. While it does not even begin to depict the horrendously brutal and sadistic treatment of our POWs, it does show a little. 1/3 of all American POWs in the 'conflict' died in captivity, most due to abuse and neglect. This movie centers around the cat and mouse game of intelligence, counter-intelligence/spy, counter spy/agents, double agents activity. Well worth the time to watch this movie about the horrors of 'progressive communism'.

Cold War Relic

[bkoganbing · 3/10 · 25 June 2012]

It is certainly interesting to see The Bamboo Prison from a 62 year old perspective from the start of the Korean War. I doubt this film would ever be made today. Hogan's Heroes gives this film a run for verisimilitude.

By 1954 tales of the horrors and depredations that Allied prisoners endured were well known and widely circulated in America. But this was the midst of the Cold War and films about the ruthless Red Menace were pretty popular that year. But this one really stands out. It's even got a little romance in it if you can believe.

Robert Francis plays a 'progressive' which means here a prisoner who's seen the light and is now a thoroughgoing Das Kapital believing Marxist converted through reading the 'truth' about Communism in the POW camp. He's in charge of a barracks full of reactionaries meaning the prisoners who resist indoctrination and one of his rewards is decent food and a cot to sleep on.

Brian Keith is one of the other prisoners who is an agent filtered in from the allied side to get information on POW treatment as the peace talks go endlessly on at Panmunjom. How he gets it out is for you to see the film for.

There are some Russians here as well, supervising in the near distance, Commissar Murray Matheson and his wife, former Ballerina Dianne Foster who admits she married him to advance in the Soviet society. Girl's got to do what a girl's got to do. She takes a look at the hunky Francis and she and Francis are kanoodling hot and heavy. Of course he's got his own agenda as does she, but talk about prisoner perks. William Holden didn't have it that good with the Russian women prisoners in Stalag 17.

These Communists just like the Nazis in Stalag 17 have an informer among the prisoners. But when you see who it is, the reaction of the movie-going public in 1954 was, is there nothing these dirty Reds won't stoop to?

Of course the depredations and horrors in Korean POW camps were quite real. North Korea sad to say has had time stand still and they've made the slogan for Korea as the Hermit Kingdom quite real. Like Prussia it's a state supporting an army. This film however is laughable in its Cold War mindset, a relic of bygone and begone years.

Lemme out!

[JohnSeal · 4/10 · 25 June 2010]

This thoroughly mediocre Korean War drama features Robert Francis as an American prisoner of war supposedly collaborating with his North Korean captors in an effort to help convince other Americans that Marx and Engels are the bees knees. The Bamboo Prison is burdened by endless talk about dirty commies and their filthy ideology, and isn't helped by a mediocre cast. Amusingly, the prison camp is described as 'the black hole of Calcutta' by a new POW when we can clearly see that it really doesn't look all that bad at all. By the time this dull screed plods its way towards the final reel, you'll be screaming for relief...or release. Even E. G. Marshall (here playing a pink priest) can't save this one.

Double cross all around with spies galore all spying on each other

[clanciai · 8/10 · 4 February 2024]

The main asset of this muddled espionage business in a Chinese prison camp during the Korean War is the great good humour among the prisoners, who are amazingly cheerful all the way although that life in Chinese war prison camps must have been worse than hell, but they make it a sparkling entertainment by all their innovations, pranks, jokes and shows, giving almost the impression that it must have been a jolly ride to happen to be imprisoned there in such good company. Of course, the grimness and cruelty is also there, those Chinese guards and officers are not to be trifled with, they can't appreciate jokes, and when they find out they are having their legs pulled they start shooting. One of the best scenes is the great fight among the prisoners towards the end which plunges the whole camp into chaos, just to enable the escape of one prisoner, but that is really jolly good fun. The intrigue is interesting, the unexpected love affair offers some change to the greyness of prison life, and all the actors are convincing enough, especially the prisoners.

Worth forgotten film. A gem but not a jewel.

[searchanddestroy-1 · 2 May 2024]

I guess this is not MANDCHOURIAN CANDIDATE nor PRISONER OF WAR, back in 1954 and starring Ronnie Reagan, both pictures evoking prisoners of war in Korea. This one is just a tremendous time waster, a testimony of its time and period: the Cold War one. It is worth watching for the Leo Gordon's presence, for instance. Not a bad film and rather rare one too. Lewis Seiler gave us all kinds of films and topics, except science fiction. But I agree he lacked a bit of ambition to be as good as Don Siegel or Henry Hathaway. So, if you crave for Cold war, anto communist movies, this one is for you. Just a rare little gem, but not a jewel.