The Virgin Soldiers

Set in 1950 during the Malayan Emergency, The Virgin Soldiers (1969) is part service comedy, part serious look at the end of the British Empire, as seen through the eyes of more or less innocent recruits to the National Service. Brilliantly navigating the shifting tone are the divine Lynn Redgrave, Hywel Bennett, Nigel Davenport, Nigel Patrick, Rachel Kempson, and Jack Shepherd; directed by John Dexter, the film was shot on location in Singapore and Malaya by one of the great British cinematographers of the 1960s, Kenneth Higgins (Georgy Girl, Darling).