A Town Like Alice (1956) User Reviews

World War Two experience from a different perspective...

[RJBurke1942 · 7/10 · 8 October 2006]

Soon after the end of real hostilities in 1945, Hollywood produced the first of many subsequent films from the perspective of prisoners of war held by the Japanese: that film was Three Came Home (1950) with Claudette Colbert. I recall seeing that one a long time ago and recall the dark nature of that narrative (I have yet to submit a review here, but I will, in time).

A Town Like Alice is a different kettle of fish, so to speak: instead of a single family, it's a mix of various women and children caught up in the retreat to Singapore in 1941, and follows their seemingly unending trek across Malaya, from camp to camp, seeking admission and a final resting place to wait out the war.

The black and white photography is superb as the downtrodden party weaves its way through swamp, dirt roads, wet and dry season, very little food or water, malaria, dysentery and all other manner of tropical diseases. Little wonder that, as they walk, they also die, one at a time, from malnutrition and sickness, and all the while, their guard, an old-timer, gradually comes to admire their perseverance just as the women come to respect the old man's quiet determination to keep helping them to survive. That's the main story.

The big sub-plot is how Jean Paget (Virginia McKenna) meets Joe Harmon (Peter Finch), also a prisoner of war, and how they both come to fall in love – on the run, if you know what I mean: they keep meeting (he is pressed into service as a driver for the Japanese) at different parts of Malaya as the women keep wandering around, looking for a place to stay. So, there is a bit of comedy from the irrepressible Aussie soldiers, mixed with moments of real tension as the two lovers try to keep a relationship going under such conditions. And, it's during one of those meetings that Jean learns that Joe comes from Alice Springs.

Never boring, and with stand-out scenes, such as one of the little boys running in between the advancing Japanese soldiers with his toy gun, shouting "bang, bang" (reminiscent of Brandon de Wilde in Shane [1953], doing the same thing, and annoying Jean Arthur, inside the farm house); the joy of the women when they come across an abandoned house with hot running water; and, Jean's bargaining with a Malay shop-keeper for tinned milk for a baby.

If this period in history is of interest, you could do worse to spend two hours of your time. And, as for how the romance turns out, well, you'll just have to see the movie, won't you?

A gutsy and gut wrenching 1950s low budget movie about WWII in Malaysia

[secondtake · 8/10 · 14 December 2011]

A Town Like Alice (1956)

A remarkable movie, completely under everyone's radar, about a group of English women in Asia during World War II. They suffer under the hands of the Japanese not as prisoners, quite, but as refugees caught between captors. Having nowhere to go and no one to protect them, they end up walking and walking, through jungle and no-man's land, past actual POW camps and through native villages, until gradually they start to die from the hardship.

Mixed into this really vivid and heartbreaking drama is a love affair between a passing Australian soldier and one of the women. The man is a prisoner of the Japanese who seems to have some freedom because he can fix things for them, and he crosses paths with the women a few times over the years.

Years, yes. The movie moves quickly through a long period of war. This is the real war for most people, the occupation by the Japanese and their arrogance, and the patience and impotence of ordinary people. It is told with alarming frankness. I mean, it's still a movie from the 1950s, not a documentary, but the plainness of the actors, the relatively low budget of the film, and the location shooting all make for a convincing final product. It's amazing, at times, and heartwarming as much as heartwrenching. There is even the one terribly good Japanese soldier trapped by the same bigger circumstance of a war that was not his doing.

The one known actor here is Peter Finch, who is marvelous, even though his role is limited. He is meant to be a bright spot in the life of this woman, and he is wonderfully bright and cheerful (a true Aussie stereotype that we all love).

The book that inspired the movie is widely regarded to this day, and was written by Nevil Shute, who heard about a group of Dutch (not English) women shuttled about by the Japanese in Dutch Malaysia during the war. It turns out that they were not usually made to walk, but Shute's misunderstanding of the story led to the main drama of the book and later movie. The crucifixion of prisoners by Japanese soldiers (shown in the movie) is substantiated, however, and it's a gruesome final turn of events for the plot.

There are few movies of this post-war period that really deal with ordinary suffering by ordinary people in Asia during the war (the suffering of civilians in Europe or Britain is fully shown, by contrast). This one does it well, very well. A wonderful surprise.

An often overlooked subject in WWII films

[GrandeMarguerite · 7/10 · 21 August 2006]

I have just posted a comment on "Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence" directed by Nagisa Oshima in the early 1980s. The main originality of MCML does not lie in its subject, as other films have dealt with Prisoner-of-War camps under the Japanese rule, the most famous of them remaining "The Bridge on the River Kwai" by David Lean (1957). As MCML is a much more recent film, it might be considered as a more realistic approach to the daily life in a camp under such circumstances; yet realistic films on this subject appeared as early as in the 1950s with works like "A Town like Alice" directed by Jack Lee, which was rejected in its time by the Cannes Film Festival for its shocking content and violence — a sharp contrast with often romanticized productions where war has a glamorous aspect. "A Town like Alice" is also original for it tells war from the point of view of women, and women in conflicts are often ignored by war movies.

It has been years now since I watched "A Town like Alice". I remember it as a good and honest film about the conflict with the Japanese in the Far East. Virginia McKenna as a British nurse and Peter Finch were both convincing. It may be not the best film on WWII, yet it has an authenticity and favors a psychological and realistic approach to the characters than can attract many viewers, not just war movies freaks.

By the way, the title is a reference to the town of Alice Springs, where the story ends.

A strong story makes for a good film

[dj_kennett · 7/10 · 29 October 2000]

A Town Like Alice is now an old film. However it has a certain directness and freshness which makes it quite watchable.

A Town like Alice is the story of an English nurse, who is trapped in Malaya with a group of Englihs women during the Japanese invasion. As the group can't be categorised by the Japanese army into a useful pigeonhole, they are forced to walk from city to city looking for a place to be prisoners-of-war.

The story is a strong one and the movie doesn't let the book down. Shot in excellent locations in Malaysia, the only problems are fitting the breadth of the story into a limited time.

Excellent Movie

[screenman · 9/10 · 7 November 2009]

I suppose that it should be confessed at the outset that I had the hots for Ms McEnna in her youth. Nevertheless, I still think that this is an excellent movie of the 1950's war genre.

Ginny and Peter Finch provide typically understated performances that are reminiscent of 'Ice Cold In Alex' and 'The Cruel Sea'. Solid, sterling, stiff-upper-lip-stuff that has no place in the spineless, simpering, metro-sexual third millennium.

I have never read Shute's novel, so I cannot comment on what liberties have been taken, but viewed without prejudice as a movie outlining Japanese brutality and human endurance it is still a well-realised piece of work. Everyone gives a thoroughly believable turn, both Caucasian and Oriental alike, as Ms McEnna's character concludes 'you can't really hate anyone' in the end. Though the Japanese - like their Nazi counterparts - did their very best to merit it.

Ms McKenna leads a group of unwanted western women and children, for whom no Japanese officer wants responsibility. So; they get shunted from one place to another, on foot, inadequately fed, and without medical assistance. Inevitably; they begin dying. Finch plays a captured Aussie running trucks for the Japanese. Filmed in black-&-white, in Britain and on location, it offers a very believable turn upon the miasmic swamps, crippling heat, humidity and deluging rain.

Of course, it's a love story too. And here again Ginny and Peter play their parts to perfection. I defy any true romantic not to be rendered lachrymose by her realisation of his survival and their final meeting at the end. Her hasty, last-minute application of cosmetics is particularly touching and well-observed. As if he'd care a hoot one way or the other.

It's a great old feel-good movie for the austerity generation. I give it nine stars and good luck to 'em all I say.

Shute The Works

[writers_reign · 7/10 · 29 October 2009]

It's often interesting to read comments that are clearly written in haste and not checked before they are posted. For example one comment on this film says it's almost in the same league as Tenko, the author clearly not aware that the BBC television series Tenko, which aired a good two decades after the film, was inspired by the film - and arguably the best selling novel by Nevil Shute on which the film was based. A separate reviewer describes the main protagonist, Jean Paget, as a nurse when we are clearly shown in the initial 'flashback' scene that she is, in fact, a secretary in an office in Kuala Lampur. Virginia McKenna has all the 'English Rose' masking an steely inner core quality that the role requires and it's difficult if not impossible to imagine any other actress of the time inhabiting the role so well - McKenna of course made something of a specialty of world war two heroines and this performance is only a whisker behind her outstanding portrayal of Violette Szabo in Carve Her Name With Pride. Peter Finch, as a native Australian, acting in England less than a decade, was also perfect casting for Joe Harman but as someone has already pointed out, the main thrust of the book was how Jean Paget, receiving a substantial legacy after the war, was inspired to 1) build a well for the Malayan village who had taken her and the rapidly diminishing number of technical prisoners of war, and allowed them to see out the war there working alongside their own women, and 2) create a town in the Australian outback to rival the idealized memory of Alice Springs that Joe had spoken about during the war. It's a fine novel, Shute interviewed at length a woman who had endured such a journey, but as a Master storyteller he blended fact with fiction and there is one notable emission in the film that was crucial to the novel: By the time she first encountered Joe, who was underneath his lorry, she had long abandoned her 'Western' garb for the single, wraparound garment worn by the native women. Joe has only ever seen her clad that way so that when they finally do meet after the war there is a palpable uneasiness between them until Jean realizes what the problem is and exchanges her 'Western' clothes for the wraparound garment. In the film - which makes no reference to Jean creating a virtual town - he steps off the plane, sees her in the waiting room and they fall into an embrace. Despite these cavils it remains a fine film, worth two hours of anyone's time.

A film like no other

[tomsview · 9/10 · 15 February 2014]

This is a moving film with a stunning performance by Virginia McKenna. It also has Peter Finch in a portrayal of what must be the quintessential Australian character of the period.

The film is told in flashback as Virginia McKenna's character, Jean Paget, goes back to Malaya after WW2 to help the villagers who saved her life. We learn that Jean was captured there by the Japanese along with a group of other British women and children.

They are sent from town to town on foot. However, no Japanese will take responsibility for them - they walk hundreds of miles and many die. They encounter an Australian, Joe Harman, played by Peter Finch, who finds them food and medicine. Finally, the survivors see out the rest of the war in a Malay village. After the war, Jean travels back to Malaya and then to Australia to learn of Joe's fate.

I saw this film in a packed cinema in Sydney when it was first released in 1956. I was quite young, but there would no doubt have been many in the audience who had first-hand experience of war with the Japanese, including my father. The film resonated with Australians who did not feel great love for the Japanese at the time, mainly due to their treatment of prisoners of war.

Also at that time, Australians were rarely depicted on the screen, but Aussie, Joe Harman, has a key role, which accorded with the idealised national character of the day, unfortunately including his use of derogatory terms for native peoples, common at the time.

Although much of the film was shot in the studio, there was enough location shooting in Malaya and Australia to give it a feeling of authenticity.

It is a harrowing story with many heartbreaking scenes. It vividly captures the fall of empire as the Japanese supplant the British in Malaya, and humiliate them in front of their former colonial subjects. The scenes of the women and children trudging along holding their meagre possessions or the little girl looking back as she leaves a beloved rocking horse show their comfortable lifestyles torn asunder.

Jean Paget emerges as one of the strong characters of the group. This is such a truthful performance by Virginia McKenna who looks beautiful even though she is covered in sweat and dirt for much of the film.

The story is fictional. It is based on Neville Shute's novel, which he based on the plight of a group of Dutch women in similar circumstances in Sumatra. However, it is possible they didn't actually have to walk everywhere. In that case does the film slander the Japanese?

Fresh in people's minds when the film came out, was the knowledge that the Japanese had carried out a number of death marches in the Philippines and Borneo as well as atrocities on the Thailand-Burma Railroad. Japanese troops had also been involved in the massacre of prisoners of war, nurses and tens of thousands of Chinese civilians in Singapore and elsewhere.

The events in "A Town Like Alice" may be fictionalised but they fit the modus operandi. The militaristic Japanese regime of the time looked with contempt on people who surrendered in war, and this often manifested itself in cruel treatment.

Although the Australian-made mini-series with the charismatic Bryan Brown and luminous Helen Morse brought more of the book to the screen, I don't think it diminishes this version at all - it is still unforgettable.

A great movie

[filmsfan38 · 13 June 2003]

I have the video of this movie which I got a few years back. I wish they would bring this movie out on DVD. Its wonderfully acted. Hard to believe this was based on a true story. I can't believe these women marched hundreds of miles, having nothing to eat much of the time and some of their companions dying along the way. They must have been a hardy bunch. Its too bad more people couldn't see this movie. Virginia McKenna and Peter Finch were excellent as the main characters and the rest of the supporting cast were very good too. I'm glad to have the video, but would very much like to see a DVD come out on it. The movie is in black and white but this in no way detracts from the story or the acting.

The long road to walk

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 15 November 2015]

I remember my mother and my aunt watching this film when I was a little boy late once night when it came on television.

They seemed to have cried most of the way through the film. This is an image that sticks in my mind whenever this film is mentioned.

Years later my mother told me how she lost some relatives in the second world war as they tried to escape from the Japanese in Burma by trying to walk it to India. They apparently died of exhaustion

A Town Like Alice adapted from the novel by Nevile Shute looks at a group of women as they shuffle from one Japanese camp to another during occupied Malaysia but no one would take them in. Slowly one by one they perish because of malnutrition, sickness, disease or exhaustion.

During their journey they are accompanied by an old guard who slowly comes to respect them.

During the journey Virginia McKenna meets Australian soldier Peter Finch also a prisoner of war but he does his best to help them out here and there and both fall for each other. However he faces severe punishment when he is found out for stealing some chickens.

The film is told in flashback as McKenna goes back to Malaysia after the war and discovers what happened to Finch.

This is a gritty and unromanticised view of life in occupied Far East, many years before films like Empire of the Sun. Also it is unusual for not being set in a prisoner of war camp, these people want to get there and stay there.

It was filmed in Malaysia and Australia for added authenticity.

Look out for Jean Anderson, many years later she appeared in the BBC television series Tenko which was also women held in a prisoner of war camp in Malaysia.

Japanese Chivalry

[bkoganbing · 8/10 · 11 June 2011]

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.

a great film ,bit forgotten nowadays perhaps

[ib011f9545i · 7/10 · 4 October 2020]

I saw this on tv many years ago and remember being impressed by it. It is never on tv nowadays,I wonder why. The film is about the experience of women interned by the Japanese when they occupied South East Asia in 1941. This is no stuffy 1950s British film. The cruel actions of the Japanese are shown in the film as much as they could be at the time it was made. The acting in this is outstanding,there are no bad performances. Peter Finch and Virginia Mckenna are the stars. As a student of the history I wonder if enough people realise just how bad the Japanese behaviour was in World War2. There are endless films and books about the evil nazis but fascist Japan is sometimes forgotten about. The film is in black and white and was made more than 60 years ago but I don't hesitate to recommend it to film lovers. I think it might be not as well known films of similar vintage that are better known such as The Cruel Sea or The Dambusters.

Solid Rank Film Organization 50s war film from the women's point of view.

[tersokol · 8/10 · 24 September 2008]

Not really a spoiler, but I was originally disappointed when I realized this movie was concentrating on just the death march portion of the book. Very warm and heartfelt, but kind of misses the point of the title, which is really about what happens after the movie version ends. The mini series gave a better overall translation. An alternate title for the book was The Legacy, and that might have suited this version better. Still good though. By the way, Jean was not a nurse, she was a secretary, and Joe was not from Alice Springs -- it just represented a sort of ideal to him. He was from Willstown, and hoped it would one day develop into a town like Alice.

A Tale of Survival

[angelofvic · 6/10 · 12 November 2011]

I thought this was an Australian film, about Australians, in Australia. Imagine my horror when it was instead about horrific treatment of Allied prisoners by the Japanese in Malaysia during WWII.

The film is relentless -- brutal even -- especially as it involved women and children for the bulk of the film. It never seems to end ... until the very end, when the godawful war ends and things get a bit better -- OK, quite a bit better.

Virginia McKenna gives a lovely, wonderful performance as the protagonist, and quite holds the film together. Also featuring Peter Finch, and a number of other fine performances, including the wonderful Japanese sergeant in charge of the women and children.

Worth a watch. Perhaps it's best summarized as being a good tale of survival.

However, the film has two flaws: One is, that the basic plot point, which the film spends 80% of its time on, never happened, even though the film announces that it is fact-based in the opening credits. The plot line the film relies on was a complete misapprehension by author Nevil Shute.

The second problem the film has is that it only covers half of the book -- the horrific, unrealistic half.

All in all, I'd say that if you want a realistic portrayal of Allied prisoners of war in Malaysia by the Japenese during WWII, watch King Rat (1965), a much better film.

Shouldn't have been called "A Town Like Alice"

[alan-467 · 5/10 · 23 September 2019]

This is a decent war movie, which is why I've given it 5 stars, but only tells the story of first half of the book, so should have been called something else. The major theme of the second half of the book is that, after Jean Paget goes to Australia and finds how the outback town of Willstown near Joe Harman's cattle station is not much more than a ghost town, she goes about using her inheritance to transform it into a go-ahead place like Alice Springs. This movie doesn't deal with that story at all.

Instead, you should get the 2-DVD set of the excellent TV series which tells the whole story, though even that rushes the conclusion.

A Town Like Alice

[henry8-3 · 7/10 · 7 May 2022]

Told in flashback, Virginia McKenna is an office worker who needs to escape Malaya during WWII as the Japanese close in. She and others are captured and because the Japanese have no facilities for women and children they are required to walk across the country looking for a camp to stay. During their months of hardship walking, McKenna falls in love with Peter Finch who helps them whenever he can.

Remarkably brutal but never explicitly so, this is a moving and at time upsetting drama mixing a wonderful love story with the terrible cruelty of the Japanese. It's very British with much stiff upper lip stuff going in, but it seems real and the story pulls no punches in its depiction of hardships women young and old and their children had to endure. McKenna is fine, but it's the supporting characters that impress the most plus a terrific turn from Finch.

Strong drama

[jem132 · 8/10 · 9 April 2009]

I've never read the novel upon which this film is based upon, but I'm interested in reading it now after seeing this very good film. Told in flashback, it's a WW2 drama with a difference, as we trade in the battlefields for the harrowing experiences of a group of English women who are forced on a Japanese death march through Malaya. It's a starkly realistic film, with many confronting scenes as the women have to drawn on every last emotional and physical reserve they have to survive. It feels so realistic and draws you into the storyline so much that when character after character succumbs to the awful trek it's like a knife through the heart. And when the women finally get to bathe after weeks of marching through the swamps, we feel their relief too. Virginia McKenna is the lead actress as young Jean Paget, and while McKenna may not be the world's greatest actress she's a good fit for the role, determined with a winning smile and warmth. The supporting actresses are colourful and each bring something different to the film. Peter Finch plays the Australian soldier Joe who falls for McKenna, and she for him. The "Alice" of the title is of course Alice Springs, NT, where Finch works on a station. Alice becomes a symbol of hope and comfort. He's charming and they have terrific chemistry together. I understand the ending is romanticized (but, hey, that's Hollywood for you!), but I liked it. Great cinematography and location shooting in Malaya and Australia (is this the first feature film to show the interior of Australia?), and strong direction from Australian Jack Lee

Hope And Alice Springs Eternal

[Lejink · 6/10 · 24 June 2023]

The British appetite for movies depicting different experiences in World War II was as strong as ever when this Jack Lee-directed film appeared in 1956. Based on Nevil Shute's best-selling novel, the twist here was that the movie principally dealt with the fate of a group of travelling English women of different ages and classes, along with some infant children too.and led by Virginia McKenna, are made to separate from their men-folk and forced to tramp from town to town in wartime Malaya seeking a boat which will repatriate them back to Britain. However every camp they reach is in the hands of the occupying Japanese Army where they are routinely and unsympathetically turned away and forced to march on and on with their numbers dwindling. The only assistance they really get from anyone is from a pair of captive male Australians now employed as drivers by the Japanese, until one act of sympathy by one of the two, Peter Finch in an early starring role, is discovered and offends the petty sensibilities of the Japanese commanding officer who exacts a bitter retribution out of all relation to the actual offence.

The film unstintingly documents their arduous trek but even as they suffer subjugation, humiliation and ultimately death, but ultimately this is a tale of self-discovery, courage and ultimately survival with McKenna's character's main motivation being the picture painted to her by Finch of his home town in Australia, Alice Springs. This romance between the two frames the main story of the women's march, the latter of which I personally felt was story enough, certainly it was enough to fuel several series many years later of the similarly-themed long running BBC TV series "Tenko". While I can understand the purpose of the surprise finish to send the audience home with a warm, feel-good glow, it nevertheless seemed to denigrate somewhat from the gritty realism of what had preceded it.

There are some interesting plot-points within the narrative, like when an attractive young women in the group who agrees to become the Japanese commander's concubine in order to ensure her safety and we do see women and children die in the journey too.

Ultimately though it's one of many post-war British movies celebrating our native determination, pluck and grit, which it certainly does capably if a little predictably. There are strong performances by the ensemble cast and McKenna and Finch especially. Inevitably there is a degree of stereotyping in the behaviour of the Japanese military although one at least is permitted to act against type and actually offer the British ladies some assistance.

If nothing else this typically solid Rank Organisation feature will save me from ever wading through umpteen episodes of "Tenko" for which I am certainly grateful.

The female side of the war of "Bridge on the River Kwai"

[clanciai · 10/10 · 1 October 2019]

This is in black and white which underlines the great pathos of the story and its lost women in the war, having to wander hundreds of miles across Malaya as there is no place for them in the war of the Japanese in Asia. Yet there are a few interesting Japanese persons as well that must raise anyone's deep sympathy. The story is by Nevil Shute and as excellent as any of his outstanding novels, usually taken directly from his own experience or reality. However, the true story behind this formidable drama was about Dutch exiled ladies in Indonesia, which could be important to remember. Virginia MacKenna is always a joy to behold and here in a sarong more lovely and beautiful than ever - she and Peter Finch make the film an unforgettable experience. There was another screening of "A Town Like Alice" some 25 years later for television in many epoisodes, but it was bleak and bloodless in comparison. Here you feel the intensity of the drama and the terrible presence of the war and its implications in every scene, and it's all perfectly realistic, concentrating on the main thing. The TV series was much more extensive getting lost in unnecessary details and with less impressive actors, while this film will be a lasting monument forever.

Would have liked more than a pinch of Finch.

[davidallen-84122 · 6/10 · 16 November 2023]

Peter Finch would have to be my favourite film actor and my sole reason for watching most of his work. Therefore, while understanding all the favourable reviews of ''A Town Like Alice", Finch does not show up until well into the film and then only in snatches, as the poor female prisoners take precedence. We have two intimate scenes as he shares a cigarette and longing eye contact with the heroine and that's about it until the harrowing punishment scene when censorship demanded that the camera film away from Joe and focus on the shocked reaction of the male and female prisoners. Fast forward to the abrupt ending (no spoilers from me).

Surviving in occupied Malaya

[Tweekums · 8/10 · 25 June 2012]

Shown in flashback this film tells of the wartime experiences of Jean Paget, a young secretary working in Kuala Lumpur when the Japanese invaded Malaya. She flees south towards Singapore with her boss, his wife and their three children, one a babe in arms. They don't get very far before they are captured by the Japanese along with several other English families who were waiting for a boat. The men are taken into custody and the women are told that they must march fifty miles back to Kuala Lumpur where they will be put on a train south. When they get there, there is no train and they must walk south again; each time they get to were they have been told to go the Japanese tell them they can't stay there and must walk somewhere else. On one such walk they encounter a couple of Australian prisoners who have been forced to maintain and drive a lorry for their Japanese captors. Jean befriends one of them, Joe, and as they get to know one another he talks about the town he lives in; a small town near Alice Springs in the middle of Australia. As their treks continue people start to die; from exhaustion, from illness and even from a snake bite. Sometimes things look a bit better such as when Joe steals some chickens for the women; this only serves to lead up to a particularly gruelling punishment where the women are forced to watch as the Japanese crucify him.

The way the film was shot let us know that Jean would survive the war but that didn't make the film any less gruelling; certain characters who one would expect to survive a film like this don't which comes as quite a shock. It was good to see that the Japanese weren't all depicted as monsters; the unnamed Sergeant was not unkind to them although the same cannot be said of Capt. Sagaya who was a brute. The environment they had to walk through was just as brutal with snakes, no clean water and malarial swamps to be crossed before they could get to safety. The beautiful Virginia McKenna does a fine job as Jean and Peter Finch is also good as the happy go lucky Joe. Thankfully after the long and arduous trek through the jungles of Malaya there is an upbeat ending which I won't spoil. This film is will worth watching for anybody interested on movies about the war; it is certainly different from most as there is no combat to speak of.

A Town Like Alice

[CinemaSerf · 7/10 · 4 May 2024]

Virginia McKenna takes on the role as a dispossessed British colonial secretary forced into captivity/slavery and to fight for her very survival by the Japanese invasion of Singapore in 1941 and who is, together with a group of similarly forsaken women, shunted around from camp to camp before finally being pretty much abandoned to the wilderness by the Japanese Army. Unusually, for many films made immediately after the war, it tries to offer some semblance of balance between conquerors and conquered. In no way does it attempt to deny or ameliorate the atrocities perpetrated on the prisoners but it does indicate that there was a certain element of "chivalry" offered to the women by their captors - and in some cases these soldiers were treated just as harshly by their own side as collaborators as were many of the women. The story itself develops into a gentle love story as she encounters Australian POW Peter Finch who helps them procure food, and who is "crucified" for his troubles. The film is, at times, too simplistic - but that adds to the poignancy. The relentlessness and horror of their existence - contrasted against their upper/middle class, servant supported, previous lives is writ large. Marie Lohr and a wonderful Jean Anderson (whom you might remember reprised some of her role in the excellent BBC serial "Tenko" from the early 1980s) deliver strongly too.

Real Life!

[Jools-10 · 8/10 · 14 October 2000]

This film is in the same league as the series Tenko for it's realism. I have also watched the mini series which could have it's moments too but the film wins because of the fact that it was made around a decade after it had happened, when things must have been quite fresh in everyones minds. These women were taken captive as the men were but they were not wanted by anyone. These women were far away from home with no clothes apart from what they stood up in, no money and they didn't speak the language. Given those fact the thoughts are so scary!

A poor film adaptation

[Daytona-2 · 4/10 · 29 November 2003]

A poor, one dimensional, adaptation of the book. Good cinematography and good acting from Virginia McKenna. Lacks atmosphere due to the large amount of missing material.

Masterful film and deeply moving wartime love story

[SimonJack · 10/10 · 6 August 2012]

"A Town Like Alice" is a great movie. It's one of a very few films about World War II in the "rest" of the Pacific - outside the scope of the battle and combat areas that are most known and portrayed in films. Yet it takes place in an area of the Orient that also was greatly scourged by the Japanese. And it covers the plight of foreign civilians - in this case, English, who were caught, imprisoned or who otherwise suffered under the Japanese. It also has Australian, British and other prisoners of war in Malaysia. For all of these reasons, this film has historical value as well. The film is adapted from the 1950 historical fiction novel of the same title, by British author Nevil Shute.

Others have commented on the plot, so I won't elaborate except to note the subtle love story that is intricately woven into the movie. It is a rare and beautiful part of the whole film. It's nothing like the usual romances one sees in war movies - though there's nothing wrong with most of those. But, in "A Town Like Alice," it is such a subtle relationship that most viewers won't recognize that there is a budding love story in the first or second encounter of the two stars. Of course, neither do the two people that Peter Finch and Virginia McKenna play. And that adds to the warmth, the beauty and reality of it. But once realized, it's seen as a story of true love, deeply felt, and held in the very souls of the stars.

This film came out just 11 years after the end of the war, and it was apparently considered too controversial by some. The film was pulled from the Cannes Film Festival that year, because it might offend the Japanese. I wonder if that didn't also affect the voting for the Academy Awards in the U. S. It received no nominations for an Oscar. Admittedly, the competition was very tough, with a number of very good films that year. Ironically, another film that had a lot about Japanese Imperialism took the largest number of Oscars in 1957 - "The Bridge on the River Kwai" won seven Oscars. It was most deserving, as were the individual Oscars, including Alec Guinness as best actor.

"A Town Like Alice" did get due recognition in 1957, however, when it won two of five nominations for BAFTA awards (British Academy of Film and Television Arts). And those were for best actor and actress to Finch and McKenna.

As for the Cannes Film Festival? They blew it. Hollywood and the other venues of film entertainment often take pride on being open, honest and daring in showing true art and history. Often times, it may be controversial with one group or another. So, they show their weakness and faults, when they cower from showing some films that are based on truths because of the risk of possible criticism or opposition. Thankfully, we still have writers and producers and other film promoters who are willing to risk the offense of some, for the sake of showing and telling the truth of history. They would rather not offend those who endured the suffering, ostracism and persecution.

My online research found an interesting article about the Cannes debacle. It appeared in the May 23, 1956, edition of Australia Women's Weekly. Remember - Finch was a London-born Aussie. Here are some of the details reported in that article: "The British film, 'A Town Like Alice,' withdrawn from the festival because it might have offended the Japanese, was warmly applauded by the Japanese after it had been shown privately during the festival. Japanese stars who met Peter Finch at a cocktail party told him how they wept during the screening of 'A Town Like Alice.' Although it was withdrawn from the festival, the Rank Organization arranged a private showing at a theatre for a specially invited audience."

The next day, the Japanese Ambassador invited Finch to the Japanese reception at their hotel. "There, a line of Japanese producers and actors bowed, all smiles to see him. Relations have never been more cordial. Both Peter Finch and director Jack Lee are now claiming that the Japanese never registered a protest against the film being shown. They believe the festival committee decided this itself rather than risk trouble."

"A Town Like Alice" is a moving story about people - including many civilians, in a country overrun by war. Their future and even survival were uncertain. All they could do was hope in the midst of hardship and the privations at the hands of a ruthless conqueror.

A Japanese warm-up to the Bataan Death March!

[gilligan1965 · 8/10 · 17 August 2018]

Despite really liking the work of Virginia McKenna and Peter Finch, I never saw, or, even knew of this movie until yesterday!?!?

Filmed mainly on location in Malaya (also, the United Kingdom and Australia), this movie (story) depicts just how kind and rotten people can be towards one another during a military invasion...how desperation can bring out the best and worst in people.

The movie immediately grabs your interest by forcing you to decide whether the Japanese did these women and children a favor by separating them from their men who're sent to a prison camp (history buffs know how Japanese prison camps were); or, were cruel and sadistic by giving them what seems like freedom, but, sentencing them to an endless plight of attrition where "survival of the fittest" applies all-too-well.

Much like "Lord of the Flies," these women begin forming somewhat of a pecking-order where Jean Paget (Virginia McKenna) is obviously the leader of the bunch; but, how strong many of the other women are. Also, how weak one is by saving herself by becoming a collaborator.

Joe Harmon (Peter Finch) is a captured Australian POW who takes a great interest in helping these women, especially Paget, and, how he risks his life to do so.

There's even a sympathetic Japanese sergeant who's escorting the women and children along their trek, and, helping them. They, in turn, help him.

I could write much more, but, this is as much as I feel like writing because I don't wish to ruin any details for the viewer. I choose to keep this a movie review, not a movie report.

A great movie based on a true story.