This is an anti-Communist tale set in Poland around the end of WWII. The Russians were ruthlessly arresting and executing Polish nationals in order to destroy any sort of opposition party to counter the Russian-backed Communists. Many people today might not realize it, but this DID occur and many political prisoners were created during this time and many people simply disappeared.
This episode of "Telephone Time" stars the character actor Victor Jory as a Polish officer, Colonel Z. Stypulkowski and he finds himself a 'guest' of the Soviets in one of their prisons. He had been invited to meet with the Russian officials, but found himself taken prisoner instead. There, through a combination of starvation, sleep deprivation and psychological abuse, the regime hopes to break Stypulkowski--to make him an amenable pawn to the new order. All through which his jailers acted nice at first--and were all smiles despite the abuse. Can the Colonel hold out against all attempts to break his spirit?
Jory was a good choice for this role, as he had a naturally swarthy and tired look which heightened the realism of his character. Additionally, the show was tense, well made and worth seeing--and an interesting relic from the Cold War.