Director Jack Lee's documentary background is evident in this earnest adaptation of Nevil Shute's celebrated wartime novel about the hardships faced by a group of women route-marched across Malaya by the invading Japanese. While he has little difficulty setting his scene, he struggles to prevent some episodes in the rather underwhelming script from lapsing into overwrought melodrama. The cast members keep their heads above water, with Takagi (as a sympathetic guard), Jean Anderson - later one of the stars of the BBC TV PoW drama Tenko - and Renee Houston offering stout support to Virginia McKenna, whose romantic interludes with Peter Finch provide some charming relief from the trials of the trek.

In 1941 Malaysia, the advancing Japanese army captures a lot of British territory very quickly. The men are sent off to labor camps, but they have no plan on what to do with the women and children of the British.