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1964 anti-war film directed by Joseph Losey
King and Country
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJoseph Losey
Screenplay byEvan Jones
Based on
Produced byJoseph Losey
Norman Priggen
StarringDirk Bogarde
Tom Courtenay
Leo McKern
Barry Foster
CinematographyDenys Coop
Edited byReginald Mills
Music byLarry Adler
Production
company
B.H.E. Productions Ltd.[1]
Distributed byWarner-Pathé (UK)
Release dates
  • 5 September 1964 (1964-09-05) (Venice)
  • 3 December 1964 (1964-12-03) (UK)
Running time
88 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget£85,785[2][3][4]
Box office£117,358[5]

King and Country is a 1964 British anti-war film directed and produced by Joseph Losey, and starring Dirk Bogarde, Tom Courtenay and Leo McKern.[6] It was adapted by Evan Jones from John Wilson's 1964 stage play Hamp,[7] in turn based on a segment of the James Lansdale Hodson's 1955 autobiographical novel Return to the Wood.[8][9] Set during on the Western Front during the First World War, it centres on the court martial of an army private (Courtenay) accused of desertion.

At the 25th Venice International Film Festival, the film was nominated for the Golden Lion, while Courtenay won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor. The film was released in the United Kingdom on 3 December 1964, to positive reviews. It was nominated for four BAFTA Awards, including Outstanding British Film and Best British Actor for Courtenay.

Plot

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During the First World War in 1917, in the British trenches at Passchendaele, Private Arthur Hamp is accused of desertion. He is to be defended at his trial by Captain Hargreaves. Hamp had been a volunteer at the outbreak of the war and was the sole survivor of his company, but then decided to "go for a walk"; he had contemplated walking to his home in London but after more than 24 hours on the road, he is picked up by the Military Police and sent back to his unit to face court-martial for desertion.

Hargreaves is initially impatient with the simple-minded Hamp, but comes to identify with his plight. Following testimony from an unsympathetic doctor (whose solution to all ailments is to prescribe laxatives), Hargreaves is unable to persuade the court to consider the possibility that Hamp may have been suffering from shell shock. He is found guilty, but the court's recommendation for mercy is overruled by higher command, who wish to make an example of Hamp to bolster morale in his division. He is shot by firing squad, but as he is not killed outright Hargreaves has to finish him off with a revolver. His family are informed that he has been killed in action.[10][11]

Cast

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Production

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Background

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King and Country is based on an actual incident during World War I written by James Lansdale Hodson, a defence attorney in the court-martial of army deserter Private Arthur Hemp.[12]

The novel had been filmed for Australian TV in 1962 as The Case of Private Hamp, starring Edward Hepple and Ric Hutton.

Filming

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Filming took place over 18 days at Shepperton Studios, between May and June 1964. The opening sequence was shot at the Royal Artillery Memorial in Hyde Park.

This was the third of five collaborations between Dirk Bogarde and Joseph Losey.

Themes

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The film is set during a global conflict in which 750,000 British soldiers alone perished. Tens-of-thousands of allegations against military personnel for misbehavior were issued, 3,000 of which ended in sentences of death; of these, over 300 were carried out.[13]

A personal drama in which no combat appears, King and Country is an examination of how injustice is rationalized by a class-conscious officer corps and acted upon in the interests of military discipline and morale.[14][15]

The thematic climax of the film occurs when the officer who defended the soldier administers the coup de grâce when the demoralized members of the firing squad fail to kill the deserter. Joseph Losey, in an interview with Michel Ciment remarked:

The picture is the personal relationship between that officer and that poor private deserter…So when that pistol, that coup-de-grace, has to be fired at the end, in a sense that officer is ending his own life as well as the boy’s.[16]

Film historians James Palmer and Michael Riley note that King and Country “indicts in the most forceful terms the false values that betrayed both men…”[17][18]

Release and reception

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The New York Times called it "an impressive achievement," noting "As usual, Mr. Losey has drawn the best from his actors," and concluding that "Some of its scenes are so strong they shock. Those who can take it will find it a shattering experience."[19]

The film was re-released by American International Pictures (AIP) in 1966 and developed a cult following. However in 1973, Losey said that records had the film recording a loss.[3]

Dirk Bogarde considered this film to be his personal favorite that he worked on.[citation needed]

Awards and nominations

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Ceremony Category Nominee Result Ref.
25th Venice International Film Festival Golden Lion Joseph Losey Nominated [20]
Best Actor Tom Courtenay Won
18th British Academy Film Awards Outstanding British Film N/a Nominated [21]
Best British Actor Tom Courtenay Nominated
Best British Cinematography (Black-and-White) Denys Coop Nominated
Best British Art Direction (Black-and-White) Richard Macdonald Nominated
21st Nastro d'Argento Awards Best Foreign Director Joseph Losey Nominated
1976 Sant Jordi Awards Best Actor in Foreign Film Dirk Bogarde Won

Footnotes

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  1. ↑ "King and Country". BFI Collections Search. Retrieved 29 June 2026.
  2. ↑ Chapman, J. (2022). The Money Behind the Screen: A History of British Film Finance, 1945-1985. Edinburgh University Press p 360
  3. 1 2 Losey on 'broken promises' Barker, Dennis. The Guardian 1 Aug 1973: 6.
  4. ↑ Caute, David (1994). Joseph Losey. Oxford University Press. p. 144. ISBN 978-0-19-506410-0.
  5. ↑ Caute p 146
  6. ↑ "King & Country (1964)". BFI. Archived from the original on 1 April 2016.
  7. ↑ "Hamp | Samuel French". www.samuelfrench.co.uk.
  8. ↑ Gifford, Denis (1 April 2016). British Film Catalogue: Two Volume Set - The Fiction Film/The Non-Fiction Film. Routledge. ISBN 9781317740636 – via Google Books.
  9. ↑ Palmer and Riley, 1993 p. 161: Filmography
    Hirsch, 1980 p. 238: Filmography
  10. ↑ Palmer and Riley, 1993 p. 18: Plot summary
  11. ↑ Hirsch, 1980 p. 176
  12. ↑ Palmer and Riley, 1993 p. 16-17
  13. ↑ Palmer and Riley, 1993 p. 17
  14. ↑ Palmer and Riley, 1993 p. 18: “Without any combat scenes…” And “morale.”
  15. ↑ Hirsch, 1980 p. 176: “...a powerful drama of personal conflict…”
  16. ↑ Palmer and Riley, 1993 p. 16
  17. ↑ Palmer and Riley, 1993 p. 41
  18. ↑ Callahan, 2003: “King and Country (1964) is a small, conventional war story diminished by comparison to Stanley Kubrick’s more developed Paths of Glory (1957).”
  19. ↑ Archer, Eugene (24 September 1964). "Attack on War Seen at Philharmonic Hall:Tom Courtenay Excels in Role of Private". The New York Times – via NYTimes.com.
  20. ↑ "King and Country **** (1964, Dirk Bogarde, Tom Courtenay, Leo McKern, Barry Foster) – Classic Movie Review 2532". 28 May 2015.
  21. ↑ "Film in 1965 | BAFTA Awards". awards.bafta.org.

Sources

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See also

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