# The Camp on Blood Island
**The Camp on Blood Island** is a 1958 British war drama directed by Val Guest for Hammer Film Productions, set in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in Malaya at the end of World War II, where Allied prisoners conceal news of Japan's surrender from a commandant who has sworn to kill them all if Japan loses the war.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52494-THE-CAMP-ON-BLOOD-ISLAND) • [2](https://www.hammer-graveyard.org.uk/cinema-releases-1950s/the-camp-on-blood-island/) Publicized as Hammer's 50th film, it was a large box-office success and one of the studio's most controversial releases, drawing protests for its graphic depiction of Japanese atrocities so soon after the events it portrayed.[2](https://www.hammer-graveyard.org.uk/cinema-releases-1950s/the-camp-on-blood-island/) • [3](https://www.powerhousefilms.co.uk/products/the-camp-on-blood-island-bd)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director and writers | Val Guest; screenplay by Jon Manchip White and Val Guest from White's story[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52494-THE-CAMP-ON-BLOOD-ISLAND) |
| Production | Hammer Film Productions, produced by Anthony Hinds with executive producer Michael Carreras; co-financed and released by Columbia Pictures[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52494-THE-CAMP-ON-BLOOD-ISLAND) • [4](https://www.fanta-festival.it/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/06-Fanta-HAMMER-zatterin.pdf) |
| Format | Black and white, 81 to 82 minutes, in the Megascope widescreen process[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52494-THE-CAMP-ON-BLOOD-ISLAND) |
| Filming | 14 July to 11 September 1957, at Bray Studios in Berkshire with locations at Callow Hill Sandpit, Surrey, and Black Park, Berkshire[2](https://www.hammer-graveyard.org.uk/cinema-releases-1950s/the-camp-on-blood-island/) |
| UK release | 20 April 1958, with a British Board of Film Censors certificate "A"[2](https://www.hammer-graveyard.org.uk/cinema-releases-1950s/the-camp-on-blood-island/) |
| Principal cast | Andre Morell (Colonel Lambert), Carl Mohner ("Dutch", Piet Van Elst), Ronald Radd (Colonel Yamamitsu), Barbara Shelley (Kate), Walter Fitzgerald (Beattie), Marne Maitland (Captain Sakamura)[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52494-THE-CAMP-ON-BLOOD-ISLAND) |
| Reception | A major box-office hit that the Japanese government formally protested; critics accused it of sensationalizing prisoners' suffering[3](https://www.powerhousefilms.co.uk/products/the-camp-on-blood-island-bd) • [1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52494-THE-CAMP-ON-BLOOD-ISLAND) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
The story is set in 1945 in a Japanese prison camp on an island off the coast of Malaya, known as "Blood Island" for the inhumane treatment of its inmates. The film opens with a British prisoner, Lieutenant Peters, forced to dig his own grave before being machine-gunned into it while the other prisoners are made to watch.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52494-THE-CAMP-ON-BLOOD-ISLAND) • [5](https://files.core.ac.uk/download/pdf/19576241.pdf)
The camp is ruled by the sadistic commandant Colonel Yamamitsu, who has sworn to slaughter every prisoner in the men's camp and the neighboring women's camp if Japan loses the war. When Colonel Lambert, the senior British officer among the prisoners, learns through a secret communications system that the war is over and the Allies are victorious, the prisoners' task becomes keeping the truth from Yamamitsu long enough for liberating troops to arrive.[2](https://www.hammer-graveyard.org.uk/cinema-releases-1950s/the-camp-on-blood-island/) The Dutch prisoner Piet Van Elst, known as "Dutch", smashes the camp radio to prevent the commandant from learning of Japan's defeat, and he, Lambert, and the recently widowed Kate in the women's camp prepare to arm the prisoners for a revolt.[6](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051444/plotsummary/)
The film opens with a written assertion that varies slightly between accounts: "This is not just a story – it is based on the brutal truth".[2](https://www.hammer-graveyard.org.uk/cinema-releases-1950s/the-camp-on-blood-island/) A contemporary Variety review described the picture as based on a real life incident, while the New York Times review rejected that claim, calling it "a simple atrocity film, featuring a caricature of Japanese prison commanders that became passé with the Japanese surrender".[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52494-THE-CAMP-ON-BLOOD-ISLAND)
## Production
Hammer shot the film between 14 July and 11 September 1957. Studio work took place at Bray Studios, Down Place, Oakley Green, in [Berkshire](https://www.edgepedia.org/berkshire); the quarry where the prisoners labor was filmed at Callow Hill Sandpit, Virginia Water, in Surrey; and [Black Park](https://www.edgepedia.org/black-park) at Iver Heath, Berkshire, stood in for the Malayan jungle.[2](https://www.hammer-graveyard.org.uk/cinema-releases-1950s/the-camp-on-blood-island/) The American Film Institute catalog records the copyright as claimed by [Hammer Film Productions](https://www.edgepedia.org/hammer-film-productions) on 1 July 1957, and notes that the film was one of several Hammer productions made under a co-financing arrangement with Columbia.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52494-THE-CAMP-ON-BLOOD-ISLAND)
The crew included the cinematographer Jack Asher, editor Bill Lenny, art director John Stoll, and composer Gerard Schurmann.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52494-THE-CAMP-ON-BLOOD-ISLAND) • [4](https://www.fanta-festival.it/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/06-Fanta-HAMMER-zatterin.pdf) Guest, who also co-wrote the screenplay, described himself as making a protest against wartime inhumanities, saying he would "always feel a great bitterness towards the unprincipled, unnatural and barbarous members of the warring nations".[5](https://files.core.ac.uk/download/pdf/19576241.pdf)
## Reception and controversy
The film's graphic content made it controversial from the start. At the world premiere, former prisoners of war were honored guests, and the program carried a foreword by Lord Russell of Liverpool with explicit details of Japanese brutalities.[5](https://files.core.ac.uk/download/pdf/19576241.pdf) In November 1958 the Japanese government sent a letter to Columbia protesting the film's depiction of Japanese officers, and a protest by Japanese-American groups in Los Angeles sought to keep the film out of the United States.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52494-THE-CAMP-ON-BLOOD-ISLAND) • [7](https://pacificcitizen.org/wp-content/uploads/archives-menu/Vol.047_%2320_Nov_14_1958.pdf)
Criticism focused on the film's balance. An analysis cited in a study of British World War Two films found that about 90 percent of screen time concerned Japanese atrocities, with British retaliation occupying only the last ten minutes.[5](https://files.core.ac.uk/download/pdf/19576241.pdf) Contemporary and later commentators also objected to the casting of white British actors as the Japanese characters.[8](https://www.britishpictures.com/arch_c.html) Despite the criticism, the film was a huge box-office hit.[3](https://www.powerhousefilms.co.uk/products/the-camp-on-blood-island-bd) A retrospective assessment in the trade press described it as a melodrama in which the prisoners, knowing their commandant will murder them all when he learns of his country's defeat, succeed in arranging themselves for battle.[9](https://device.report/m/5ee55df57166d4721648bd00cc98b8c8540d4f7a524f6278de9bb0e250161937.pdf)
## Place in Hammer's output
The film stands apart from the gothic horror pictures with which Hammer later became most closely associated, and it was successful enough to warrant a sequel.[10](https://blueprintreview.co.uk/2018/09/hammer-volume-three-blood-terror/) • [11](https://amauteurish.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/kk-2024-01-chaotic-waters-well-tempered-specters1.pdf) It was the first film to carry a "Blood Island" title, a name later adopted by a separate series of Filipino-American productions beginning with *Terror Is a Man* (1959), which was retitled *Creature from Blood Island* for its American release to capitalize on the Hammer film's commercial success.[11](https://amauteurish.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/kk-2024-01-chaotic-waters-well-tempered-specters1.pdf)
The film was little seen on British television after 1979, but it returned to circulation through home video, including a 2018 Blu-ray release from Powerhouse Films' Indicator line with a remaster, an audio commentary with [Barbara Shelley](https://www.edgepedia.org/barbara-shelley), and a documentary on the film's making.[10](https://blueprintreview.co.uk/2018/09/hammer-volume-three-blood-terror/) • [3](https://www.powerhousefilms.co.uk/products/the-camp-on-blood-island-bd)
## References
1. [The Camp on Blood Island (1958), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52494-THE-CAMP-ON-BLOOD-ISLAND)
2. [The Camp on Blood Island, The Hammer Graveyard](https://www.hammer-graveyard.org.uk/cinema-releases-1950s/the-camp-on-blood-island/)
3. [The Camp on Blood Island Blu-ray, Powerhouse Films (Indicator)](https://www.powerhousefilms.co.uk/products/the-camp-on-blood-island-bd)
4. [Hammer filmography entry for The Camp on Blood Island, Fantafestival catalog (Giorgio Monicelli)](https://www.fanta-festival.it/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/06-Fanta-HAMMER-zatterin.pdf)
5. [British World War Two Films 1945-65 (thesis, University of Central Lancashire)](https://files.core.ac.uk/download/pdf/19576241.pdf)
6. [The Camp on Blood Island (1958) plot summary, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051444/plotsummary/)
7. [Pacific Citizen, Vol. 47 No. 20, 14 November 1958](https://pacificcitizen.org/wp-content/uploads/archives-menu/Vol.047_%2320_Nov_14_1958.pdf)
8. [British Films of the 30s, 40s and 50s, archive entry for The Camp on Blood Island](https://www.britishpictures.com/arch_c.html)
9. [Boxoffice Barometer film listings (1960)](https://device.report/m/5ee55df57166d4721648bd00cc98b8c8540d4f7a524f6278de9bb0e250161937.pdf)
10. [Hammer Volume Three: Blood & Terror, Blueprint: Review](https://blueprintreview.co.uk/2018/09/hammer-volume-three-blood-terror/)
11. [Chaotic Waters, Well-Tempered Specters (academic essay on Blood Island films)](https://amauteurish.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/kk-2024-01-chaotic-waters-well-tempered-specters1.pdf)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › War and historical films (individual works) › War action and adventure › War action films released through 1999 › Released 1934 to 1962*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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