A Town Like Alice

It was a lucky stroke that it was a Mobil Masterpiece Theater TV mini-series, for a film five hours long, however good, would not work in a theater. But it worked for me, and I hated to see it come to an end. The second viewing was even better.

Nevil Shute, author of many fine stories, including "On the Beach," would have been proud of this production so faithful to his epic story, and populated with Shute's own characters right down to the smallest detail. Every aspect of movie making shines here: a perfect and incredibly talented cast, fine direction, beautiful photography, splendid music. The dialog is exactly on the mark, and many a time an expression, a look, said everything without a word spoken.

The story begins as the Japanese are overrunning Maylasia early in WWII. A British community is taken, the men sent to prison camps, the women sent to . . . They didn't have a place for women prisoners, so Jean Paget and the other fifteen or so women and several children are marched from one Japanese-held place to another. It seems that the officers at each one, not knowing what to do with women and children, passed the problem by sending them off to yet another place, afoot. After walking some 300 miles over perhaps a good part of a year, during which half the women and some children died, providence and Jean Paget's resourcefulness lead them to a "home," an isolated village where they spend the remainder of the long war.

The story continues after the war, leading to a truly heartwarming romance. Not to mention some providential intervention that makes the romance work wonderfully. Never does the drama get sticky. There is a nice balance of conflict, but never melodramatic overt conflict.

The Aussies are renowned for the fine horses in their movies, always ridden with evident skill, and they didn't disappoint here. The airplane scenes I particularly enjoyed, for their adherence to the period and the way they were handled. The Twin Beech's first landing was a grease-job, making me wonder how many times they had to shoot it. That was answered by the next landing – not nearly so slick but nevertheless okay in spite of the bounce. We get to see the planes taxi in, where Hollywood would have shown the landing then cut to the opening door.

Joe Harmon's beat-up old pickup – it may have been a Studebaker – made me smile. He always had to open the door with the outside handle, and it drooping at half mast.

Sadly, I have not encountered a soul who has seen "A Town Like Alice," before I introduced them to it. The accolades have created a waiting list and a one-week time limit on borrowers. Buy it, I know you will love it. And you'll bring enjoyment to those you lend it to. A word of caution: put a time limit on borrowers. Call them after a few days and nudge them into starting it. Otherwise, it may find a new home, as books and movies tend to do.

DANGER! This is a three-tape package starring Helen Morse as Jean Padget and Bryan Brown as Joe Harmon. Don't fall for the video of the same title with a different illustration on the jacket. It's a 60-minute production by someone else. May not even be the same story.

I wish ... would do a favor to the masses who enjoy truly good movies by putting this one on their feature page. It cries out for some exposure.


10 SUPERSTARS!!!   June 28, 2006
D. Trible (Planet Earth)
17 out of 17 found this review helpful

This magnificent film will hold you spellbound to the very end, and it deserves a place in your video library. PLEASE GO TO AMAZON'S "TELL US WHAT YOU WANT" PAGE AND REQUEST IT'S RELEASE ON DVD!!!

The powers that be count the number of times it is requested to gauge the amount of interest in the title. So, if it is requested enough times, eventually the message will get to the right people and we'll all get what we want: the 1981 version of A Town Like Alice on DVD!!! Hooray!

(Try a web search for 'amazon tell us what you want' if you have trouble finding the page. Click on the DVD icon on the page to get to the request form.)

*****UPDATE*****
Amazon has possibly taken their "most requested" page offline, as a recent search turned up a whole lot of nothing. Hopefully it will be brought back.


WONDERFUL STORY, GREAT ACTING, POWERFUL   June 8, 2000
16 out of 16 found this review helpful

This has got to be the utimate love story. This movie shows that there doesn't have to be a lot of sex to show two people in love.

Based on Neville Shute's book, it is a story that encompasses four cultures and the struggles within those cultures and of a love that endures despite many hardships and time and distance.

Bryan Brown and Helen Morse are captivating in their roles as Joe Harmon and Jean Paget, two people who meet in the trying circumstances of war and are separated by fate but reunite again only to endure the hardships of the outback of Australia.

Beautiful scenery and wonderful acting make this a must see movie. Although long, it is a don't miss movie.


One of the finest of WWII stories   January 8, 2004
16 out of 16 found this review helpful

This may be one of the finest stories set in WWII that I have ever seen. Based on the wonderful novel by Nevil Shute, it tells the story of Jean Paget and Joe Harmon in Malaya after the invasion by the Japanese. Only 19, Jean is living with her brother on a rubber plantation when their world comes to an end with the "impossible" arrival of the Japanese army. The men are sent to labor camps where her brother ultimately dies building the railway. There is no prison camp for the women or children and the Japanese solve the problem by sending them on forced marches from place to place, eventually covering hundreds of miles and the deaths of more than half the women. Jean looks after a young family whose older children die followed by the mother. She ends up with a baby who remains remarkably healthy.

On the other end of the island they run into two Austrialian POWs who drive trucks for the Japanese. They enjoy risking their lives to find soap, medicine and food for the women. Their world looks up for the first time after so much suffering and many deaths. Eventually Joe Harmon goes too far by stealing the camp commander's prized black chickens. When found out, he is cruely punished (crucified) and a pall comes over all the women including their Japanese guard. When their guard dies of shame they are terrified that they will no longer have food to eat and worry that the villagers they have stayed with will turn them out from fear of the Japanese invaders. Jean finds a way for the women to pay their way by working in the rice fields and carefully negotiates with the village headman.

All of this may seem mundane in description, but the production brings to life this period of war, hard labor, and death. Despite the difficult subject matter, the movie handles all these topics well including the Japanese soldiers (some are cruel, some are kind) and the Malayan villages that they must rely upon. The mores of English colonial life and the loss of that priviledge with the Japanese invasion are also depicted so that we understand how difficult these women's lives are and the horrors of being under the control of so foreign a mindset.

Part II of the story begins after the war when Jean receives an inheritance and returns to Malaya to build a well for the village that sheltered the women until the end of the war. There she learns that Joe Harmon is still alive. The grief that has ruled her life since the war is finally lifted and she appears young again for the first time. What ensues is the "love story" part of the movie; it isn't a mushy romance, but one of two people who saw great horror together and have found something strong and certain. The final part of the movie deals with Jean's attempt to transform the Outback town of Willstown into something that she and other women can live in; a town like Alice Springs that has shops and ice cream and work for girls and women that will keep them in the area. From this transformation comes the title of the movie - beautifully described in the book and barely referrenced here.

At 5 hours, this is a long mini-series, but one well worth watching again and again for the nuances of the relationships and the incredible depiction of life in Malaya, Australia, and England after the war. Helen Morse does a wonderful understated job as Jean Paget and Bryan Brown is likeable as Joe Harmon. There is also a wonderful turn by Gordon Jackson (The Great Escape) as Jean's attorney and love interest in England. The minor parts, played by native Australians, Malayasians, and Japanese bring realism to the movie and each adds to this incredible story.

Only available on VHS, it comes in a 3-pack at LP and a single tape in EP format. Of course, the EP version is much more fragile and doesn't stand up well to repeated viewings.

I highly recommend this mini-series and the Nevil Shute novel if you can find a copy.


Fine miniseries based on the Nevil Shute novel   July 14, 2002
Gary M. Greenbaum (Fairfax, VA USA)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful

When a young Englishwoman, after WWII, inherits money, she soon decides to return to Malaya, where she was sheltered in a village after being captured by the Japanese, and build the villagers a well. Before winding up in the village, she, and other captive women and children, were forced to march from town to town by the Japanese, who did not know what to do with them. They meet Joe Harmon, an Australian soldier, who steals food for them, and is crucified by the Japanese and left for dead.

While in Malaya, she learns that Harmon survived, and goes to Australia to find him. Meanwhile, Harmon, who had thought she was a married woman when they met in Malaya, had learned otherwise, and gone to England to seek her out. They eventually meet up in Australia, and she determines to marry him and to make his town in the Outback into "a town like Alice"--a modern town, like Alice Springs.

Wonderful performances by all, great scenery, very faithful to the book. I should add that they added a bit of conflict near the end--Jean enters a bar, which is forbidden by the local mores, and Harmon rages at her and they nearly separate. Unneeded, to my mind. Also, when her trustee, Noel Stachan, takes her to the opera, he announces that it will be something light and in English. It is "The Pearl Fishers", which is neither.

Fine production, very watchable over and over!