THE STEEL BAYONET is a Hammer war film made in 1957, cashing in on a craze for similarly-plotted movies made during the 1950s. Once again the film has a North African setting, with the battle of Tunisia serving as the real-life backdrop for the events portrayed. The heroes are a bunch of tired British soldiers tasked with holding a ruined outpost from a Nazi advance. The movie was shot on Salisbury Plain which does a decent job of standing in for a more exotic location. It's generally a slow burner, with a number of suspense set-pieces thrown into the mix, and the format works rather well. The cast is small but studded with familiar British character actors, from the big leads (the reliably down-to-earth Leo Genn and the prim-and-proper Michael Medwin) to the underrated bit-part stars like Michaels Ripper and Balfour. Hammer producer Michael Carreras wasn't known for being one of the studio's best directors, but he handles the material well here, and things end on a rousing, extended battle sequence which is undoubtedly worth the wait.
Review of The Steel Bayonet
