Nine Men (film)
| Nine Men | |
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UK release poster
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| Directed by | Harry Watt |
| Produced by | Michael Balcon |
| Written by | Harry Watt (from short story by Gerald Kersh) |
| Starring |
Jack Lambert Gordon Jackson Frederick Piper |
| Music by | John Greenwood |
| Cinematography | Roy Kellino |
| Edited by | Charles Crichton |
| Distributed by | Ealing Studios |
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Release date
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Running time
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68 min. |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
Nine Men is a 1943 British patriotic war film, set in the North African Campaign during the Second World War.
The film is an Ealing Studios production, which marked the first fiction film assignment for celebrated documentary film director Harry Watt, who had previously worked at the Crown Film Unit. With a budget of only £20,000 the film's exterior desert sequences were shot at Margam Sands, Glamorgan.
In a barrack room at a Battle Training Ground in England, a platoon of conscripts are complaining about blisters and are impatient to get into action with the enemy. Sergeant Jack Watson tells them that they need a little bit ("un petit peu") extra to be successful in combat, which he illustrates with a story from his previous experience in the Western Desert Campaign.
Lieutenant Crawford, Sergeant Watson and the seven men under their command are travelling through the Libyan desert in an Allied convoy, when their lorry becomes stuck in the sand and the convoy moves on without them. As they work to free themselves, they are attacked by German aircraft, injuring Crawford and Johnson and setting fire to the lorry. Setting off on foot and carrying the wounded, they struggle through a sandstorm until they come across a derelict hut. Lieutenant Crawford orders them to hold out there until help arrives, but then dies. They are besieged by Italian troops, with only a limited supply of ammunition and their own wits to help them survive. By various ruses and skillful use of their weapons, they are able to hold out until the Italians make a final assault; the British soldiers use the last of their bullets and finally resort to a bayonet charge, just as reinforcements arrive supported by tanks, forcing the Italians to surrender.
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