A Town Like Alice (1956)

A Town Like Alice
Directed by Jack Lee
Written by W.P. Lipscomb and Richard Mason from the novel by Nevil Shute
1956/UK
The Rank Organization/Vic Film Productions
Repeat viewing/Amazon Instant

“It was so beautiful’, he said. ‘The Three Pagodas Pass must be one of the loveliest places in the world. You’ve got this broad valley with the river running down it, and the jungle forest, and the mountains….we used to sit by the river and watch the sun setting behind the mountains, sometimes, and say what a marvelous place it would be to come to for a holiday. However terrible a prison camp may be, it makes a difference if it’s beautiful.” ― Nevil Shute, A Town Like Alice

I love a good POW story and this is an especially moving one.

The title town is Alice Springs, Australia but most of the story takes place in Malaysia during WWII.  As the film begins, Jean Paget (Virginia McKenna) is talking to the lawyer handling her inheritance in London.  She tells him she has decided what she will do with her money.  She will return to Malaysia and build a well for the village that took her and her friends in when they were POWs.  Jean does this and starts thinking about her experience.

She was working as a secretary when the evacuation order came.  She stopped to answer a phone and missed the bus to the train station. Instead, she goes to the home of her boss and helps his wife tend to their three children while they pack.  He is very delayed picking up the car from a mechanic.  They finally flee but the car breaks down.  They are picked up by a truck carrying many stragglers but are eventually captured by Japanese soldiers who have commandeered the ferry they were counting on to take them to safety.

The men are sent to a prison camp.  The women and children are told they are to go back to Kuala Lumpur, where they will catch a train to Singapore to be interned there.  KL is 50 miles away.  They will walk in the tropical heat.  They object but there is nothing to be done.

After walking many miles, they are told the train bridges have been blown up.  They must trek another 50 miles to catch a boat.  There is another snafu.  The women and children’s “captivity” devolves into a continuous forced march as one camp after another refuses to take responsibility for them.  They have very little food and no medicine.  They begin to die like flies.  Jean, who is sensible and speaks Malaysian, becomes their spokesperson.

Along the way, Jean strikes up a friendship with Joe (Peter Finch), an Australian POW mechanic who speaks rapturously of his cattle station near Alice Springs.  Despite considerable danger, he tries to help the women.

I loved this movie even more the second time I saw it.  It seems so real to me.  The women are very human.  Some of them complain non-stop.  Others simply cannot go on. Even the naturally strong Jean cracks at different points.  It is easy to get emotionally invested in their plight. The Japanese are not demonized either.  The screenplay and acting are excellent.  My fellow romantics will likely find themselves crying, as I did, at the sweet ending.

I liked this so much that I decided to re-read the book as well.  The film captures only the first part of the book.  Jean ends up in Alice Springs and has an eventful life there too.  Recommended.