It has Ron Howard in his first credited acting role, Deborah Kerr, Yul Brynner, Jason Robards and Robert Morley.

At a small lakeside town close to the Austrian border, the passengers are removed from the bus by Major Surov, the local Soviet commander.

Speaking good English, which Surov claims to have learned in Canada, he uses the trapped passengers as a sounding board for his views, arguing that Russians are human too and questioning the imposition of Marxism by military force.

However, with Flemyng getting weaker from what is revealed as an untreated gunshot wound, Lady Ashmore bribes a fisherman to take the two of them to Austria, across the lake under cover of darkness.

Unable to euthanise the horse himself, revealing a compassionate side to his nature, Surov orders a sergeant to kill the stricken animal.

In the morning Surov orders the passengers to leave, minus the arrested Flemyng, driving to a quiet spot where they can walk into Austria.

The following prologue appears in the onscreen credits: "The action of this story takes place between Budapest, the capital of Hungary, and the Austro-Hungarian border, where the film was actually photographed.

[1] Stanley Kauffmann of The New Republic wrote- 'Cleariy Anatoie Litvak, the director, and George Tabori, the writer, were moved by the rebellion and wanted, as men and artists, to make a statement about it.