194 KING RAT
King Rat (1965)
Synopsis
King Rat is an American war film directed by Bryan Forbes, which he adapted from
James Clavell’s 1962 novel of the same title— which is, in turn, partly based on
Clavell’s own experiences as a prisoner of war (POW) at Changi Prison during the
Second World War. Starring George Segal in the title role and featuring James Fox,
John Mills, and Tom Courtenay, the film focuses on Cpl. King (aka “King Rat”), a
wheeler- dealer American POW who incurs the enmity of Marlowe (Fox), a British
officer.Background
During World War II James Clavell (1921–1994), a captain with the British Royal
Artillery, became a POW when Allied forces on the island of Java surrendered to
the Japa nese on 12 March 1942. Clavell spent the rest of the war— almost three
and a half brutal years of near- starvation—at Changi, a notorious Japa nese POW
camp on Singapore. In 1953 Clavell immigrated to Hollywood from England and
developed a successful career as a screenwriter but lingering war memories haunted
him. In a 12- week period during the long Writers’ Guild strike of 1960, Clavell
wrote King Rat, a long fictional saga loosely based on his Changi POW ordeal
15 years earlier. After many rejections and judicious cutting and revising, King Rat
was published in 1962 and became a critically acclaimed international bestseller.
Sol Schwartz, a vice president at Columbia Pictures, purchased the film rights five
months before King Rat was published, and British filmmaker Bryan Forbes was
hired to write an adaptation and to direct the film. Columbia considered Vince
Edwards, Steve McQueen, Frank Sinatra, Marlon Brando, Paul Newman, Tony Cur-
tis, and many others for the lead role of Cpl. King but ultimately signed newcomer
George Segal (Ship of Fools) in July 1964.Production
Before shooting could commence, producer James Woolf had to build a realistic
replica of the Changi POW camp and environs. Over a seven- week period in the
summer of 1964 some 200 carpenters, electricians, and other workers constructed
the concrete prison building (56 feet high and 60 feet wide), and 52 adjacent
thatched huts on a seven- acre site near Westlake Village in the San Fernando Valley,
about 37 miles west of Los Angeles. A half- million board feet of lumber was used, as
well as 45,000 square feet of Gunite (pneumatically sprayed concrete for the prison’s
walls), 4,000 gallons of paint, and six miles of barbed wire. The elaborate set cost
$375,000 ($2.9 million in 2017 dollars) to build. Attention to detail yielded superla-
tive results; James Clavell visited the set and was impressed at how much it looked
like the real camp at Changi. The filming of King Rat took place in the fall of 1964.Plot Summary
Conditions at the Changi POW camp in Singapore are exceedingly harsh. Tropi-
cal heat and humidity, overcrowding, disease, starvation, and brutal guards