A Town Like Alice (1956)

Very well executed

The Age of Commercialism

best movie i've ever seen.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Strange that I never saw this before today on TCM. I mentioned Tenko in headline because there is a great deal of similarity between the two. The women of Tenko, the television series and this movie bear some similarities. Tenko has a better chance to flesh out the women and their captors. The men are not so much a part of the movie but appear occasionally, as do the children and natives. This is a decent film but I prefer Tenko if you have the time.

I cannot add anything more to the excellent review already contributed (thanks, Roger) but I would like to add a few comments. I first watched this film one wet Saturday afternoon on TV with my Dad. It gave me a real insight into the plight of women prisoners of the Japanese during WW2 which was unusual for that period (the early 1960's) as war movies seemed to focus more on Europe. We were studying Australia in Geography at school. Combined with the adventures of 'Skippy the bush kangaroo' this was a heady, exotic mix and oh, how I wanted to be a '£10 Pom' and head off to Oz when I was old enough - and become a flying doctor, of course! Well, I never became a doctor and didn't go to Australia yet I have continued to be fascinated by the outback and the pioneering spirit of Australians and both the book and this film have played their part in this. The story line - mixing flashbacks to the war and the romance between the two key characters never fails to entertain. If ever there was a film ready for a re-make, this is it. The book contains more and could be used in such a re-make but please, pleases, PLEASE let it not be a 'Hollywood make over'! It needs a scriptwriter who can stick to the book and not re-write the ending, a director who understands Australia, an historian to ensure accuracy and a casting director who has read the book and doesn't cast on looks alone. A bit of a challenge, but not impossible.

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.

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?