Stanley Baker Takes Command in Yesterday's Enemy

Stanley Baker as Captain Langford.Set during the Burma Campaign of World War II, Yesterday’s Enemy (1959) follows a small, exhausted remnant of a British Army brigade struggling to escape through the jungle after being cut off by advancing Japanese forces. Led by the hard-edged Captain Alan Langford (Stanley Baker), the group stumbles upon a village held by the Japanese and seizes control after a brief skirmish.Langford takes possession of a Japanese's general's map, but cannot decipher its meaning. As the situation grows desperate, Langford makes a morally fraught decision: he orders the execution of two innocent villagers to coerce a suspected informer into revealing crucial intelligence. His actions spark outrage from his unit's chaplain and a war correspondent traveling with them.Langford defends his decision by pointing out the hypocrisy of war: It's easier to accept bombs killing thousands of innocent people than it is to watch two people die by a firing squad. Langford then…