(1954) was partly shot in New Zealand and cast Hawkins in a rare romantic role. "My film wives to date usually stay home and knit, or else have conveniently died before the film starts," he said. It was followed by The Prisoner (1955), an unconventional drama, playing the shrewd interrogator in an authoritarian country who gets a respected priest (played by Alec Guinness) to discredit himself. None of these films was commercially successful but Hawkins was still voted the fifth biggest star at the British box office for 1954, and the most popular British one. "It's an enviable position, I know", said Hawkins. "But I have to be more careful now about the parts I choose, and it's hard not to offend people. Everyone thinks his own script is the best." He turned down the role of Colonel Carne in The Glorious Gloucesters for Warwick Films and Captain Cook for a project for the Rank organisation; neither movie was made. "I'm tired of playing decent fellows", he said in a 1954 interview, "with stiff upper lip and even stiffer morals. I'm going to kill them off before they kill me as an actor. And I want stories written for me, not rejects intended for other fellows... I just inherit them from other people. Often, I find they've left the name of the actor originally suggested for the role. Always the same old names ... Errol Flynn, Gregory Peck ... five or six others. Before the script reaches them, somebody remembers me – especially if it's one of those infernally nice characters." International star Hawkins got his wish when he received a Hollywood offer to play a pharaoh for Howard Hawks in Land of the Pharaohs (1955). He returned home to make an Ealing comedy, Touch and Go (1955), which was not particularly popular. He was more comfortably cast as a police officer in The Long Arm (1956) and a test pilot in The Man in the Sky (1957). He was an insurance investigator in Sidney Gilliat's Fortune Is a Woman (1957). Hawkins's career received a major boost when given the third lead in The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), supporting William Holden and Alec Guinness. This was a massive hit and highly acclaimed. He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1958. Hawkins played the lead role in a film for John Ford,