Nine Men (DVD)

Gritty, violent and exciting, Nine Men dramatises the actions of a section of British troops in crisis during the North African War, cut off behind enemy lines in the Western Desert. Driven by a sandstorm to seek refuge in a tomb, they resist being besieged by Italian troops. The film's tense atmosphere highlights the imminent danger of the plot and is counterbalanced by good humour and comradeship amongst the troops which star, among others, Jack Lambert (The Captive Heart, Hue and Cry), as Sergeant Jack Watson, and Gordon Jackson (Yesterday's Enemy) as Young'un. Written and directed by Harry Watt, who had worked in the 1930s with the GPO, then Crown Film Unit on such celebrated documentary films as Night Mail (1936) and Target For Tonight (1941), Nine Men was Watt's first Ealing feature film before going on to direct such classics as Where No Vultures Fly and The Siege of Pinchgut.