Der Gefangene der Teufelsinsel

The celebrated Dreyfus affair of turn-of-the-20th-century France gets the British TV treatment courtesy of one of its past masters, Ken Russell (thankfully restrained), and starring a famous (and alleged) relative of the man himself, American actor Richard Dreyfuss (albeit playing a different role)! Although in the past there had been more prestigious film versions of the case – most notably THE LIFE OF EMILE ZOLA (1937) which even earned the Best Picture Oscar of that year – the starry cast roped in for this modest production delivers the goods nevertheless and keeps one watching: apart from the afore-mentioned Dreyfuss, we also get Russell regular Oliver Reed, Peter Firth, Jeremy Kemp, Brian Blessed, Peter Vaughan and even iconoclastic film-maker Lindsay Anderson making one of his infrequent appearances as an actor and being entrusted with the important role of the Minister of War! Oddly enough, despite the on screen title of the film being PRISONERS OF HONOR, every online reference to it (including the IMDb) seems to drop the final 's' and turn it into singular!