This was a full decade before The Servant made a section of the cinema-going public aware of Robin Maugham as a novelist and although he was by no means the first writer to address the problem of long-serving servicemen adjusting to civilian life (arguably Hemingway was the first to do so in his 1925 short story 'Soldier's Home' and 20 years later Robert Sherwood's screenplay 'The Best Years Of Our Lives' explored the same theme) he made a half-decent fist of it. Jack Hawkins as Wolf Merton the ex-tank commander virtually phones it in and the movie, helmed by Guy Hamilton, is rich in supporting actors like Edward Chapman, George Cole, Duncan Lamont with Michael Medwin as Ginger (Maugham's novel was entitled 'Line On Ginger', much more evocative than the insipid The Intruder) Edwards possibly hoping the film would kick-start a more successful career than it in fact did.
Review of The Intruder
