World War II · Film · 1956
A Town Like Alice
Captured when Japan invades Malaya, a young Englishwoman and a group of women and children are marched from town to town because no one will take charge of them; an Australian prisoner risks everything to help.
Where it happened
Follow the story across 4 places.
Stop 1: Kuala Lumpur
Jean stays behind to help her employer's wife and children, and they are all captured as the Japanese take the city.
Stop 2: East coast of Malaya, near Kuantan
Key location
After months on the road and many deaths, the women settle in a Malay village and work in the rice fields until the war ends.
Stop 3: London
Years later, an unexpected inheritance lets Jean return to Malaya to repay the village that saved her.
Stop 4: Alice Springs
Learning that Joe survived, Jean travels to the outback town he told her about on the march.
What really happened
Japanese forces landed in northern Malaya on 8 December 1941 and swept down the peninsula, taking Kuala Lumpur on 11 January 1942 and Singapore on 15 February. European civilians who had not escaped were interned, and thousands of women and children spent the war in camps across Southeast Asia.
Nevil Shute's 1950 novel moved to Malaya the real ordeal of a group of Dutch women and children in Sumatra, who were shuttled from place to place by Japanese troops, as told to him by one of them, Carry Geysel. The Australian soldier's crucifixion echoes Herbert 'Ringer' Edwards, who was nailed to a tree for killing cattle on the Burma Railway and survived.
Where to watch
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Full details
- Original title
- A Town Like Alice
- Directed by
- Jack Lee
- Countries
- United Kingdom, Australia
- Languages
- English, Japanese, Malay
- Released
- 1956
- Period
- –
- Theaters of war
- China & Southeast Asia
- Themes
- Prisoners of war
- Romance
