A Town Like Alice (1956)

Director:

Jack Lee

Writers:

Nevil Shute (novel)
W.P. Lipscomb (screenplay) ...
(more)

Release Date:

28 June 1956 (West Germany)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Romance | War

Plot:

In 1941, The advancing Japanese army captures a lot of British territory very quickly. The men are sent off to labor camps...

Plot Keywords:

Japanese | Australia | Japanese Army | 1940s | Australian Outback

Awards:

Won 2 BAFTA Film Awards. Another 4 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Thur. June 7

12:15 PM

TCM

Cast

Virginia McKenna	...	Jean Paget
Peter Finch	...	Joe Harman
Kenji Takaki	...	Japanese Sergeant (as Takagi)
Tran Van Khe	...	Captain Sugaya
Jean Anderson	...	Miss Horsefall
Marie Lohr	...	Mrs. Dudley Frost (as Marie Löhr)
Maureen Swanson	...	Ellen
Renee Houston	...	Ebbey
Nora Nicholson	...	Mrs. Frith
Eileen Moore	...	Mrs. Holland
John Fabian	...	Mr. Holland
Vincent Ball	...	Ben
Tim Turner	...	British Sergeant
Vu Ngoc Tuan	...	Captain Yanata
Munesato Yamada	...	Captain Takata
Nakanishi	...	Captain Nishi
Ikeda	...	Kempetei Sergeant
Otokichi Ikeda	...	Kempetei Sergeant (as Ikeda)
Geoffrey Keen	...	Solicitor
June Shaw	...	Mrs. Graham
Armine Sandford	...	Mrs. Carstairs
Mary Allen	...	Mrs. Anderson
Virginia Clay	...	Mrs. Knowles
Bay White	...	Mrs. Davies
Philippa Morgan	...	Mrs. Lindsay
Dorothy Moss	...	Mrs. O'Brien
Gwenda Ewen	...	Mrs. Rhodes
Josephine Miller	...	Daphne Adams
Edwina Carroll	...	Fatima
Sanny Bin Hussan	...	Mat Amin
Charles Marshall	...	Well Digger
Jane White	...	Brenda
Cameron Moore	...	Freddie
Margaret Eaden	...	Jane
Dominic Lieven	...	Michael Rhodes
Peter John	...	Timothy
Meg Buckenham	...	Mary Graham
Geoffrey Hawkins	...	Robin
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Sam Kydd	...	Australian Driver (uncredited)
Peter Madden	...	Aussie POW (uncredited)
Russell Napier	...	Jack Burns (uncredited)

Directed by
Jack Lee

Writing credits
Nevil Shute		(novel)
W.P. Lipscomb		(screenplay) and
Richard Mason		(screenplay)

Produced by
Joseph Janni	....	producer
Earl St. John	....	executive producer

Original Music by
Matyas Seiber

Cinematography by
Geoffrey Unsworth		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Sidney Hayers

Art Direction by
Alex Vetchinsky

Makeup Department
George Blackler	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Jack Hanbury	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
David W. Orton	....	assistant director (as David Orton)

Sound Department
Geoffrey Daniels	....	sound recordist
Archie Ludski	....	sound editor (as A. Ludski)
Gordon K. McCallum	....	sound recordist
Harry Miller	....	sound editor
John Brommage	....	boom operator (uncredited)

Special Effects by
Bryan Langley	....	special effects (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Jack Atcheler	....	camera operator

Music Department
Matyas Seiber	....	conductor

Other crew
Arthur Alcott	....	production controller: Pinewood Studios, London, England
Joan Davis	....	continuity

Production Companies

• Rank Organisation, The (presents) (as The Rank Organisation)
• Vic Films Productions (as A Vic Film Production)

Distributors

• J. Arthur Rank Film Distributors (1956) (UK) (theatrical) (released by)
• Rank Film Distributors of America (1958) (USA) (theatrical)
• J. Arthur Rank Film (1956) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• Pickwick Video (1990) (UK) (video)
• Rank Video Library (1986) (UK) (video)
• VCI Entertainment (2012) (USA) (DVD)

Other Companies

• B&D Film  logo

Also Known As:

Runtime:

117 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

UK:PG (video rating) | UK:A (original rating) (passed with cuts) | UK:PG (tv rating) | West Germany:12 | Australia:G | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Australia

Company:

Rank Organisation, The

Trivia:

According to the book 'The Golden Gong - Fifty years of the Rank Organisation, its films and its stars' by Quentin Falk, "While at premiere of a Disney film, 'Robin Hood' [See: The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (1952)], he [Earl St. John] was particularly impressed by the young man who played the Sheriff of Nottingham. The name on the programme was that of Peter Finch. St John bumped into Finch on the stairs of the theatre and invited him to come and talk business at Pinewood. Next day he gave Finch what would be a pivotal role in his burgeoning career: the Australian soldier, Joe, in 'A Town Like Alice'."

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: The Japanese Soldiers are armed with British SMLE (Short, Magazine Lee-Enfield) No. 1 MK III rifles not Arisaka Rifles Type 38 or 99 which is what they would have been issued.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The 100 Greatest War Films (2005) (TV)

Japanese Chivalry

The Rank Organisation went whole hog in producing A Town Like Alice with location shooting in Malaya, Australia, and the United Kingdom. The results were well worth the effort and the film was a big boost to the careers of Peter Finch and Virginia McKenna. In fact as Finch was becoming more and more an international star he would get fewer roles like this one, playing a native Australian.

I was expecting when deciding to view this film that it would be similar in nature to the American film Three Came Home that starred Claudette Colbert as a woman prisoner of the Japanese in World War II. The woman prisoners were segregated, but quickly housed and fended for themselves as best they could, but in a static setting.

When the male prisoners are separated from the females after the fall of Malaya, these woman are put under guard and just sent around like vagabonds with their children if they had them. Why they were selected for this rather special brand of torture we can speculate on end, but whatever the Japanese idea of chivalry was to the women, they couldn't just outright kill them. In fact none are during this film.

The film is seen through McKenna's eyes, she's working as a secretary in Kuala Lampur when the Japanese takeover. She takes over too as guardian of her boss's kids after their mother dies early on in the strange odyssey. Peter Finch plays an Australian soldier who with his mates they constantly run into and who offers them help when he can sneak food and medicine from the Japanese. He pays a heavy price for doing this when he's caught.

When he was killed by Irish Terrorists in 1979, it was learned that Lord Mountbatten had specifically requested that at his funeral no representation from the Japanese was to be permitted. As Supreme Commander of that theater Mountbatten remembered all the horror stories he heard from people survived Japanese internment, even the strange internment where apparently the whole country was their jail.

How McKenna and those that remained survived is quite a story, let's say it involved breaking a lot of cultural barriers to do it. One of the women who did it her own way was Maureen Swanson who after McKenna refuses his proposition, she takes up with a Japanese captain. Swanson is another you'll remember from A Town Like Alice.

Alice refers to Alice Springs in Northern Territory where Finch reminisces he'd like to return. It sounds like heaven, looks pretty good too after the years in Malaya. The film is a really good war film from the not often heard from point of view of woman prisoners.