Malaya (1949)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Richard Thorpe

Writers:

Manchester Boddy (story)
Frank Fenton (writer)

Release Date:

24 April 1950 (Sweden)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama

Plot:

Newspaperman Royer convinces government officials of a plan to obtain rubber by stealing it out from under the Japanese...

Plot Keywords:

WWII

Cast

Spencer Tracy	...	Carnaghan
James Stewart	...	John Royer
Valentina Cortese	...	Luana (as Valentina Cortesa)
Sydney Greenstreet	...	The Dutchman
John Hodiak	...	Kellar
Lionel Barrymore	...	John Manchester
Gilbert Roland	...	Romano
Roland Winters	...	Bruno Gruber
Richard Loo	...	Col. Tomura
Ian MacDonald	...	Carlos Tassuma
Tom Helmore	...	Matisson
Lester Matthews	...	Matisson (scenes deleted)

Also Known As:

East of the Rising Sun (UK)
Operation Malaya (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

98 min | 95 min (TCM print)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | USA:Approved (PCA #13788)

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden - 301 N. Baldwin Avenue, Arcadia, California, USA

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

Sydney Greenstreet's final film.

Goofs:

Errors in geography: One scene features wild chimpanzees. Chimps are natives of Africa, not Malaya.

Quotes:

John Royer: Carnaghan, this is Kellar, a government agent. Anything you say he knows already.

Movie Connections:

Edited from They Were Expendable (1945)

The Great Rubber Shortage

Malaya may seem a fantastic tale, but the story actually has quite a bit of truth to it. When World War II broke out the Japanese quickly conquered most of the rubber producing areas of the world. The modern mechanized army does run on rubber and both the USA and Germany developed types of synthetic rubber to be used.

My mother told me during World War II there were all kinds of drives for recyclable material and among the most valuable was rubber. People contributed all kinds of old tires for the war effort.

Lionel Barrymore plays the real life Manchester Boddy who was publisher of the Los Angeles Daily News who was the prime mover in the scheme you see portrayed here in Malaya. Though this story is fictional, the need for rubber in the USA was critical at the time and there was in fact a rubber smuggling operation going on.

Spencer Tracy before he came to MGM played just the kind of two fisted action heroes at Fox which was his original studio. He expressed an interest in doing this kind of film for old time sake and got cast in it. He really isn't poaching on Humphrey Bogart's territory these were the kind of roles he originally did in film while Bogey was playing hoods over at Warner Brothers.

Because the script called for a buddy team of heroes, James Stewart was approached and he even conceded top billing to Tracy. According to the Films of James Stewart, he admired Tracy as an actor so much that he was grateful just for the opportunity to work with him again. In fact Stewart's first film role was in Murder Man, a film that starred Spencer Tracy back in 1935.

With the two of these big stars in the leads, MGM was able to recruit a really outstanding group of players like John Hodiak, Valentina Cortese, Roland Winters, Richard Loo, the aforementioned Lionel Barrymore and my two favorites Gilbert Roland and Sydney Greenstreet.

Roland was shortchanged though. Watching Malaya I could tell his role as Tracy's adventurous friend was left on the cutting room floor. But even a little Gilbert Roland is always a pleasure to watch.

This was Sydney Greenstreet's last film and in it he essentially reprises the part of Ferrari in Casablanca. He's got the best lines in the film and his scenes with his cockatoo are classic. As he says, he's just a saloon keeper with an access to gossip. Which gets put to very good use.

Stewart the idealist, Tracy the cynical realist. Too bad they didn't work together more.