Here is a film or TV still that I am trying to identify that was unlabeled in a book. The book was published in 1965, so the film/TV episode must definitely predate that. A Japanese soldier is in a room full of bound prisoners (They appear to be Filipino). He is overseeing the caning of one of them by a man that resembles actor Milton Reid, but I don’t think it’s him. I viewed the film The Camp on Blood Island in which he plays a Japanese executioner, and there is no such scene in it.
It may be from a Filipino film. There are several good candidates beginning with Outrages of the Orient (1948) (akas Sunset over Corregidor and Atrocities of Manila) and Beasts of the East (1948) Both of these films were re-edited and imported into the US in 1953. Then in 1959, they were re-edited and combined into a single, somewhat incomprehensible film titled Atrocities of the Orient. The former two films are available on a single DVD or download from Something Weird Video, however when I downloaded the films, I was disappointed to discover that Outrages just ended abruptly at 56 minutes without showing the end of the film. (Beasts of the East only ran 62 min., but at least it had a beginning and ending.) I did not see the scene depicted in the still in either of these movies. I have not seen the combo film, Atrocities of the Orient which is available from Amazon.com, but I doubt if the scene would be in that film, unless scenes were added.
I am aware of two more Filipino films that could be good candidates: Fort Santiago (1946) (aka Atrocities of Fort Santiago) and Blood of Bataan (1951). Unfortunately, I don’t think either of these films are available on DVD or download, unless some collector has a bootleg copy.
Trivia: While researching this still, I learned that children’s book author Dr. Seuss wrote the screenplay for an Academy Award winning documentary called Design for Death (1947) which consisted of clips from confiscated Japanese films from WWII.
Not sure but…. Maybe it’s Men Behind the Sun? It’s a Chinese film about Unit 731 in WW2 Japan
The picture appeared in a book that was published in 1965 and unfortunately, according to the IMDb, “Men Behind the Sun” was not released until 1988.
For unknown reasons, over the years the link to the picture seems to have disappeared. I am providing the link again in case anyone is still interested. (Comment if it doesn’t work.)
http://bcotd.com/Sadism_in_the_Movies_stills_identification_project/Sadism%20in%20the%20Movies,%20p379.jpg
(The photo that the link brings up is safe for work, but there are other pages on this website that are not, and so the entire site may be blocked by some firewalls.)
I now believe even more strongly that it is a Filipino film from the late 1940s-early 1950s since the man playing the Japanese officer resembles Filipino actor Cris de Vera. However, I don’t know which film it is out of those candidates that I listed in my original post.