Celebrated rugby player Frank Machin suffers a broken jaw during a match on Christmas Day. He is taken to the hospital, where he remembers on the operating table how he went from miner to acclaimed athlete: At the beginning he lives with the widow Hammond. Two competing team managers, Gerald Weaver and Charles Slomer, offer him contracts for their clubs. Frank takes advantage of this situation and gets the best out of it: He finally concludes a very profitable contract with Weaver. It is the beginning of a steep career. In his private life, however, he begins to take more and more interest in the widow with whom he lives ... This terrific film received the rating "Particularly Valuable" in Germany. The two leading actors were nominated for both the Oscar© and the Golden Globe, Richard Harris ( Mutiny on the Bounty , A Man They Called a Horse ) also won the acting award at the Cannes Film Festival for his performance. Lindsay Anderson ( Britannia Hospital ) chooses her own, realistic directing style, which is particularly beneficial to the film. The Encyclopedia of International Film judged: Through the unorthodox character drawing and the documentary authenticity of the milieu, an interesting study has been created and Reclam's film guide wrote: In detail [...] haunting, realistic sequences have been achieved here.