Don't listen to the negative reviews

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

Blistering performances.

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.

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.

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.

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.