Nine Men (film)

Nine Men

UK release poster
Directed by Harry Watt
Produced by Michael Balcon
Written by Harry Watt (from short story by Gerald Kersh)
Starring Jack Lambert
Gordon Jackson
Frederick Piper
Music by John Greenwood
Cinematography Roy Kellino
Edited by Charles Crichton
Distributed by Ealing Studios
Release dates
  • 22 February 1943
Running time
 68 min.
Country United Kingdom
Language English

Nine Men is a 1943 British patriotic war film. The film is an Ealing Studios production, which marked the first fiction film assignment for celebrated documentary film director Harry Watt. In common with many Ealing productions of the time, the film used a largely unknown cast, only a few of whom were full-time professional actors. The film is known to be actor Grant Sutherland's last performance before retiring from acting to pursue a career in business. Before Sutherland featured in such films as Michael Powell's The Edge of the World and The Spy in Black.

Plot

Sergeant Jack Watson and the eight men under his command are travelling through the Libyan desert in an Allied convoy when their truck is destroyed by Italian forces, and they find themselves stranded as the convoy moves on without them. They take refuge in a semi-derelict desert fort, where they must hold out while being besieged by the Italians, with only a limited supply of ammunition and their own wits to help them survive.

Lacking a budget for large-scale battle scenes, Nine Men focuses tightly on psychological tension and the personal interactions between its nine protagonists.

Cast

Location filming

The film's exterior desert sequences were shot on location at Margam Sands, Glamorgan.

External links