Malaya (1949)
Director: Richard Thorpe
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
A murky World War II actioner in which James Stewart and Spencer Tracy further the Allied cause by smuggling rubber out of Jap-infested Malaya with the help (sometimes given under 'persuasion') of the planters. Tracy does the rough stuff as an uncommitted adventurer; Stewart handles the message as a man with a score to settle (his brother was killed fighting in the Pacific). You'd think the film was still fighting the war, the way Stewart carries on, getting himself killed (Tracy too) while indomitably waving the flag. It's made, such as it is, by the excellent supporting cast which seems to have Casablanca vaguely in mind.Author: TM
Cast & crew
Director: Richard Thorpe
Producer: Edwin H Knopf
Cast: Spencer Tracy, James Stewart, Valentina Cortese, Sydney Greenstreet, Lionel Barrymore, Gilbert Roland, John Hodiak full cast
Genre(s): War
Duration: 95 mins
Most popular on this site
Features
To the letter
Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.
Mind over matter
David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.
Fool's gold
Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.
We are the championed
Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."
A history of violence
Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.
True romantic
James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.
Playing in the dark
MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.
Junk bonds
Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.



What do you think?
Post your review now