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Overrated

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Blistering performances.

In the aftermath of the Korean War, the period in which this filmed play takes place, a lot of our soldiers "went over" to the communist enemy. Too many. It generated a great deal of interest in what was called brainwashing. Was it some mystical process that perverted our sense of what was good and bad? The academic psychologists were called in and they didn't find anything extraordinary. The prisoners were already in a one-down position and used to obeying authority figures. It wasn't the Inquisition. Reward and punishment were used but the punishment, while typically brutal, wasn't extravagant or particularly painful. One effective technique was simply tying the captive's hands behind his back so that someone else had to feed him or unfasten his trousers when he needed to use the bathroom. We ripped off at least one technique -- the good cop/ bad cop routine.I don't know why I got into that, because we see nothing of it in the movie. It's just that the perceived number of converts was dismayingly high and was a matter of some concern at the time, as reflected in the movies -- "The Rack," "The Manchurian Candidate," and some others I forget. An Army major, Richard Basehart, is undergoing interrogation by an investigator, Richard Widmark, whose duty is to see if a Court Martial for treason should be recommended. There is plenty of evidence against Basehart -- signed confessions, recorded propaganda broadcasts, and the testimony of more than a dozen of his fellow POWs. On top of that, Basehart admits his guilt freely. But there are enough minor discrepancies and contradictions in the record that Widmark is hesitant to proceed with a trial until all the facts are in.It was directed in a more or less pedestrian manner by Karl Malden. But he didn't have that much to work with. It's a weak play. Arguments and intrigue and command pressure add up without much in the way of increment until the final explosion of sobs and speeches wracked with guilt and self justification. Malden allows some over acting. Rip Torn in an important role isn't especially convincing as a guilt-ridden murderer. He could be splendid as a tobacco-chewing red-necked sheriff when he was a little older. Martin Balsam does his best -- which is pretty good -- in the stereotyped role of the impudent and outspoken Master Sergeant. The musical score is by Frank Steiner, who must have listened repeatedly to Bernard Herrmann's score for "Citizen Kane." Aside from the salaries for Widmark and some of the secondary leads, it must not have cost much to produce. There are few shots on location, but then that's the nature of plays.

***SPOILERS*** Shocking drama of what went on in the North Korean POW camps and how it turned men into mindless and obedient zombies in them being brainwashed by the North Koreans and their Red Chinese allies.The case in point in the movie is that of the almost brain-dead in him not caring about what he's facing Maj. William Cargill, Richard Basehart. The Major has been charged with high treason in cooperating with his North Korean captors back in 1951 when he was imprisoned by them as a POW. It was then that Maj. Cargill made false claims in both writing as well as broadcasts on Radio Pyongyang claiming that the US and UN were using germ bombs or bacteriological warfare against the helpless North Korean civilians as well as soldiers!With US Army Col. William Edwards, Richard Widmark, handing his case he gets no help from Maj. Cargill in him trying to defend himself even if convicted of his crimes he may well end up facing a firing squad. Knowing that something just isn't right with this puzzling case Col. Edwards digs deep down into what's behind Maj. Cargill's strange behavior by interviewing the men, his fellow POWS, who were in the North Korean POW camp with him. It's when Col. Edwards comes to interviewing Let. Miller, Rip Torn, that he strikes a nerve in what exactly is behind Maj. Cargill's noncooperation with him in not wanting any defense provided by him or the US Military. Something went on in that prison camp between both the captured US POWS and their North Korean captors headed by the smiling and sinister North Korean Col. Kim, Khigh Dhiegh, that went beyond anything in the mistreating of prisoner of war! Something so mind boggling and evil that it turned Maj. Cargill into something that he never would have dreamed of being! Even with a gun pointed to his skull! A traitor to his country!***SPOILERS*** Even though it's old hat now back then in the early 1950's brainwashing was something that most Americans never heard of or even contemplated. It was those brainwashing tactics, far more then torture, conducted by the North Koreans and Red Chinese on US and UN troops captured by them that drove men like Maj. Cargill to grudgingly cooperate with them. In Maj. Cargill case it was for the safety and lives of his men not his own that made him do it! And in the end it was that shocking revelation that had Col. Edwards who was to prosecute Maj. Cargill for treason to completely change him mind! Col. Edwards against the the advice of his superior Let. Gen. Connors, Carl Berton Reid, who's own son Capt. Joe Connors, Yale Wexler, was one of those in the prison camp along with Maj. Cargill, and who died there, decided to defend not prosecute Maj. Cargill even if it ends up costing him his career in the US Army!P.S The movie "Time Limit" was the only movie ever directed by actor Karl Malden who also had a cameo part in it as one of the POWS in the North Korean prison camp.

Karl Malden directed this story about a POW in North Korea and Col. William Edwards, (Richard Widmark) is assigned to the investigation of sixteen POW soldiers. Major Harry Cargill, (Richard Basehart) is accused of being brainwashed and the fact that he broke down and gave out important secret material. June Lockhart, (Mrs. Cargil) gave an outstanding supporting role as the wife to Harry Cargill. William Edwards had a hard time trying to get the truth about what really went on in this POW camp and Edwards acted like he wanted to be accused of this crime and even admitted to the treason against the United States. Do not recommend viewing this film, it is rather boring and seems to repeat itself over and over again.

Richard Widmark exudes concern and empathy as an army colonel investigating the circumstances behind a charge of treason. The film also contains effective performances by Richard Basehart, as the accused traitor, a major who shares a secret he is unwilling to reveal, and a young Rip Torn as a lieutenant who is also willing to keep the secret even though he knows it will lead to a miscarriage of justice. The film is based on a play, and Karl Malden, in his only directing assignment, tries hard to open it up, but most of the scenes take place in Widmark's office, and there are way too many point of view shots of one person talking while another listens. Malden does make effective use of a few flashbacks to a frigid P.O.W. barracks in North Korea, and there are some interesting shots of the military base at Governors Island in New York City, but the film suffers somewhat from staginess. Piercing, discordant, almost alarmingly loud music by Fred Steiner punctuates scenes in the P.O.W. camps, where a complex mixture of motives lead to actions that have devastating consequences.