Intramuros (1964)

movie

(137)

Country: Philippines, USA
Genres: Drama, War
Release: 1965-11-17
Director: Gerardo de Leon , Eddie Romero
Writers: Ferde Grofé Jr. , Cesar Amigo , Eddie Romero
Language: English | Filipino | Tagalog
Stars: Jock Mahoney , Fernando Poe Jr. , Michael Parsons , Oscar Roncal , Paul Edwards Jr. , Ely Ramos Jr. , Fred Galang , Vance Skarstedt , Cecilia Lopez , Arsenio Alonzo
Runtime: 88 min
Awards: N/A
AKA: La muralla del infierno (Mexico) , Muralhas do Inferno (Brazil) , Helvetin muurit (Finland) , The Walls of Hell , Ora X: commandos invisibili (Italy) , Las murallas del infierno (Spain) , Der Hölle ausgeliefert , Intramuros (Philippines) , Τα τείχη της Κολάσεως (Greece) , Intramuros , The Walls of Hell (United Kingdom) , Helvedes mure (Denmark) , Ta teihi tis Kolaseos (Greece) , Blod över Filippinerna (Sweden)
Plot: This gritty, atmospheric war movie dramatizes a chapter of World War II history in which 10,000 Japanese soldiers, fearing execution if they surrendered, disobeyed their own superiors' orders and barricaded themselves in Manila's Intramuros section along with a thousand or so unfortunate civilians. The walled city-within-the-city was built by Spanish colonialists from 1590 onward. Leading Allied forces trying to wear the trapped Axis troops' resistance down is Jock Mahoney as a gruff American officer carrying a big load of guilt from a prior operation gone wrong. Shot in impressive chiaroscuro-lit black-and-white on location, this was a fairly rare U.S. coproduction at the time, though the Philippines would shortly become a hub for English- language exploitation movies (with co-directors Eddie Romero and Gerardo de Leon among the busiest creators of features designed for both local and overseas audiences). WALLS OF HELL must have been a bittersweet project for de Leon: during WW2 he was forced to make propaganda films by Japanese occupiers even as he secretly worked against them in the underground resistance. - Dennis Harvey
IMDB:tt0058235