In 1942, Australia was putting up a tough defense against the Japanese in New Guinea. The American troops pouring into Australia were green recruits whose cocky attitudes did not sit well with the war-weary locals. The inherent tension in this situation was heightened when a series of
women were strangled by an American GI. While Australian police and American MPs raced to find the murderer, General Douglas MacArthur saw to it that, when caught, the culprit would be tried under an Army court martial and then hanged. It was clear when the killer was finally caught that he was
insane, but the Army would hear none of such a defense.
This is the factual base for this occasionally annoying, but generally fascinating, Australian production. Most of the film details the murders, with Eddie Leonski (Reb Brown) a chilling, childlike killer. Major Danneberg (James Coburn) works first to catch the killer and then to assist in his
defense. A crawl at the end of the film explains that the postwar examination of the case led to the creation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice to protect American servicemen from having their constitutional rights denied. Coburn is good in his first decent part in recent memory, and Brown
is more than effective. The picture of wartime Australia is fascinating; and the subject, the corruption of justice for political ends, has timeless significance. leave a comment
