A Town Like Alice (1956 film)
| A Town Like Alice | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Jack Lee |
| Produced by | Joseph Janni |
| Written by | Nevil Shute (novel); W. P. Lipscomb and Richard Mason (screenplay) |
| Starring |
Virginia McKenna Peter Finch |
| Music by | Matyas Seiber |
| Cinematography | Geoffrey Unsworth |
| Edited by | Sidney Hayers |
| Distributed by | The Rank Organisation |
|
Release date
|
1956 |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Box office | 1,037,005 admissions (France) |
A Town Like Alice is a 1956 British drama film produced by Joseph Janni and starring Virginia McKenna and Peter Finch that is based on the eponymous 1950 novel by Nevil Shute. The film does not follow the whole novel, concluding at the end of Part Two and truncating or omitting much detail. It was partially filmed in Malaya and Australia.
In post-Second World War London, a young woman, Jean Paget, is informed by solicitor Noel Strachan that she has a large inheritance. Asked what she wants to do, Jean decides to travel to Malaya to build a well in a small village.
Jean goes to the village and arranges for the well to be dug. The women will not now have to walk so far each day to collect water, as they have always done. She recalls her life in the village for three years of the war.
The film flashes back to 1942 when Jean was working in an office in Kuala Lumpur in Malaya when the Japanese invaded and she was taken prisoner. As part of a group of women and children (the men having been sent away), she is the only one to speak Malay fluently, and so takes a leading role in the group.
But the Japanese refuse to take any responsibility for the group, marching them from one village to another. Many of them, unused to physical labour, die. Jean is only able to survive because she understands local ways and is prepared to 'go native'.
The group meets a young Australian soldier, Sergeant Joe Harman, also a prisoner, who is driving a truck for the Japanese. He and Jean strike up a friendship and he tells her about the town of Alice Springs, where he grew up. Appalled at the women's treatment by the Japanese, he steals food and medicines to help them. Jean does not correct his impression that she is married.
When the thefts are discovered and investigated, Harman takes the blame to save Jean and the rest of the group. He is crucified on a tree and left to die by the Japanese soldiers. The distraught women are marched away, believing that Joe is dead.
To further humiliate them, the Japanese assign only one guard to the group, an elderly sergeant. They become friendly with him, although they can barely communicate. They even help to carry his pack and rifle when he is ill. When he dies of exhaustion, Jean asks the elders of a Malayan village if they may stay and work in the paddy fields, asking only for food and a place to sleep. The elders agree and they live and work there for three years, until the war ends.
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