Anachronistic strict Regimental Sergeant Major Lauderdale (Sir Richard Attenborough), on a remote colonial African army caught in a local coup d'etat, must use his experience to defend those in his care.
Plot Synopsis:
------------------- Regimental Sergeant Major Lauderdale (Sir Richard Attenborough) is a by-the-book, strict disciplinarian, who seems like an anachronism in a sleepy peacetime African outpost of the modern British commonwealth. Ridiculed behind his back by his subordinate N.C.O.s, he must play host to a liberal women M.P. making a tour of the base. However, when an ambitious African officer, who happens to be a protegè of the M.P., initiates a coup d'etat against Captain Abraham (Earl Cameron), the lawful African commandant, the resourceful Sergeant Major uses all of his military training to save his men from a certain firing squad.
Written byWritten by: Gabe Taverney (duke1029@aol.com)

Mia Farrow, who filmed the pilot for Twentieth Century Fox's Peyton Place (1964) - the basis for her and the studio's iconic series and television's first prime-time soap opera - became a last minute replacement for Britt Ekland. The young Swedish actress had bailed on her commitment to co-star as Karen Eriksson in order to remain at the hospital bedside of her lover and and new husband, Peter Sellers, who'd infamously experienced a heart attack while in the throws of passion with her in Los Angeles, California, the night of April 5, 1964. Ekland's Swedish nationality was an obvious selling point on her playing a character who's last name is Eriksson, very Scandinavian sounding, while Farrow's features look far from Scandinavian. Sellers' recovery was slow, six months. Meanwhile, upon completion of filming this movie in England for Twentieth Century Fox, the studio signed Farrow to a contract for film and television and immediately put her to work on the small screen as ABC had ordered Peyton Place (1964) as a serialized half hour, uniquely designed for twice-a-week airings, beginning in September 1964.
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Mia Farrow replaced Britt Ekland at the last minute.
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Based on the 1962 novel "The Siege of Battersea" by Robert Holles.
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Jack Hawkins' cancer returned during filming and he was clearly losing his voice.
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Although Regimental Sergeant Major Lauderdale (Sir Richard Attenborough) demands that a royal portrait of the Queen of England was hung behind the bar of the mess, it remains unseen all throughout the movie. Probably because of the ending scene when Lauderdale angrily throws a glass of whiskey on it and breaks it. Showing the portrait of Elizabeth II would have been outrageous and liable of censorship.
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Britt Ekland had been cast as Karen Eriksson but pulled out three weeks into production. She had just married Peter Sellers who apparently was so jealous of her casting along John Leytont that he asked his actor friends David Lodge and Graham Stark who were also in the cast, to secretly spy on her. After being frequently quizzed on the telephone by Sellers about the shooting and who she acted with, Ekland left the Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, and joined Sellers in Los Angeles. 20th Century-Fox sued Ekland for $1.5 million; Sellers counter-sued for $4 million claiming the Fox suit caused him "mental distress and injury to his health".
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Despite what is posted above, the portrait of the Queen on horseback is seen several times throughout the movie above the bar in the Sergeants' mess.
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Opening credits: All people, events and places depicted in this film are entirely imaginary and any resemblance to any person, living or dead, or to any real events or places, is entirely coincidental.
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An army truck is seen with it's back tarpaulin tied down but when it's seen going through a village the back is open and Adrican soldiers can be seen inside.
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When the Sergeants gather in Mess dress early in the film Colour Sergeant PARKIN is shown wearing 3 stripes instead of the his correct rank of 3 stripes with a crown. After
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The personal weapon used by the British is the Sterling sub machine gun which replaced the Sten in the British Army in 1953. This weapon is held with the left hand on the barrel and never the magazine or housing. Holding the magazine
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At regimental dinners in the Sgts Mess, the Loyal Toast is always proposed by Mr Vice, the junior member of the mess, and not by the RSM.
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coup d'etat|colonialism|based on novel|mutiny|bofors gun|sergeant|captain|vulture|queen elizabeth ii|queen's birthday|professional soldier|politics|mess hall|member of parliament|insomnia|honor|harmonica|exile|british commonweath|british colonial|private|military police|lieutenant|corporal|colonel|based on book|

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