King Rat

Ben Mankiewicz introduces King Rat, 1965.

TCM's Saturday afternoon host Tiffany Vazquez introduces King Rat, 1965.

Director Bryan Forbes has established the miserable Changi P.O.W. camp in Singapore, 1945, where the author James Clavell was himself held, then introduces Lt. Grey (Tom Courtenay), Corporal King (George Segal), and weary Colonel Smedley-Taylor (John Mills), opening King Rat, 1965.

Jones (Gerald Sim) is losing it until jaded senior Brit officer Larkin (Denholm Elliott) arrives to preside, after the Japanese commandant (Dale Ishimoto) learns of an illicit radio in his WWII prison camp in Singapore, John Standing the guilty party, in Bryan Forbes' King Rat, 1965.

American Corporal King (George Segal, title character), the leading hustler at the Japanese P.O.W. camp in Singapore, has summoned talented Brit Marlowe (James Fox), whom he had not previously met, sidekick Max (Patrick O'Neal) attending, in Bryan Forbes' King Rat, 1965.