Review of A Town Like Alice (Special Edition)

Introduction

A Town Like Alice was made in 1956 and is based on the best-selling book by Neville Shute. The film concentrates on the story of a group of British women in Malaya during World War Two, who get trapped when the Japanese invade. Their captors send the women on an arduous trek through the jungle and each time they reach their supposed destination, they are sent somewhere else. The movie tells the story of this harrowing ordeal, and the women`s fight for survival.

Video

The video is presented in black and white full-frame, and is of reasonable quality given the 45-year vintage of the film. The picture is quite grainy at times and also suffers from quite a lot of small specs of dirt on the print - however, it is very watchable and perfectly acceptable considering its age.

Visually the makes use of some good locations, but at times is very obviously set in a studio with the tell-tale signs of rear-projection and slightly dubious matt paintings giving the game away, however overall it is very well made.

Audio

The soundtrack comes in Dolby Digital Mono, replayed through the front stereo pair. Obviously a 45-year-old movie with a mono soundtrack isn`t going to test a home cinema system, so the numerous atmospheric sound effects as the women trek through the jungle aren`t particularly exciting. Having said that, like the video, the sound is perfectly acceptable given the vintage of the movie.

Features

The extras consist of a 25-minute documentary, a stills gallery, the trailer and cast/crew bios.

The documentary is interesting and contains interviews with Virginia McKenna, Jean Anderson and Jack Lee talking about all aspects of the film. The remaining extras are as you would expect.

The disc comes in utterly horrid packaging - a cardboard case, which opens to reveal a clear disc tray with the 15 chapter breaks and various promotional posters reprinted inside. The box feels cheap and will not hold up to much use, easily becoming scuffed. Why, oh why can`t studios stick to durable Amaray style cases, which can be replaced easily if damaged, and also fit into DVD racks/stand up properly on shelves? ARGH!

Conclusion

A Town Like Alice is a respected movie, which when released provided a harrowing account of the women`s ordeal. Forty-five years later, when we are used to seeing war films with people getting blown to pieces, with sickening injuries and huge special effects sequences, the film obviously has far less impact than it did in 1956. However, the ingredients of a good movie are a great cast and a strong, well-told story, and this film has both. Virginia McKenna is brilliant as the ice-cool beauty Jean Paget who becomes the unofficial leader of the women, and her supporting cast all turn in good performances. The story is powerful and emotional and has good character development and a good script, which ensures that the film doesn`t lose its way during the approx 110 minute running time (the box says 135 minutes, but this includes the documentary).

Overall, this is considered to be a classic movie, and I quite enjoyed it, although aside from the documentary the DVD doesn`t offer anything that you can`t get from watching the movie on television, so it is probably one to rent rather than buy.