Malaya

United States

1949

95 Min

Black and White

1.37:1

English

Currently 3.0/5 Stars.
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SCR Manchester Boddy, Frank Fenton

CAST Spencer Tracy, James Stewart, Valentina Cortese, Sydney Greenstreet, John Hodiak, Lionel Barrymore, Gilbert Roland, Roland Winters, Richard Loo, Ian MacDonald, Tom Helmore, Lester Matthews

Smuggler Carnaghan (Tracy) is let out of prison by government agent Kellar (John Hodiak) on condition that he help John Royer (Stewart) sneak the entire vitally-needed rubber crop out of Japanese-held Malaya during World War II. They slip into the country and contact Carnaghan’s associate, the Dutchman (Greenstreet), who conveniently recruits a gang of cutthroats for them from customers in his saloon, including Romano (Gilbert Roland).

Using money and intimidation, they succeed in purchasing all the available rubber, but eventually the Japanese commander, Colonel Tomura (Richard Loo), gets wind of the scheme. On the last trip to transport the remainder of the cargo to a waiting freighter, Carnaghan smells an ambush, but Royer disregards his warning and is killed by the waiting soldiers. —Wikipedia

Director

Richard Thorpe

Richard Thorpe (February 24, 1896 – May 1, 1991) was an American film director. Born Rollo Smolt Thorpe in Hutchinson, Kansas, he began his entertainment career performing in vaudeville and onstage. In 1921 he began in motion pictures as an actor and directed his first silent film in 1923. He went on to direct more than one hundred and eighty films. The first full length motion picture he directed for MGM was Last of the Pagans (1935) starring Ray Mala. After directing The Last Challenge in 1967, he retired from the film industry. He died in Palm Springs, California in 1991. Thorpe is also known as the original director of The Wizard of Oz. He was fired after two weeks of shooting, because it was felt that his scenes did not have the right air of fantasy about them. Thorpe notoriously gave Judy Garland a blonde wig and cutesy “baby-doll” makeup that made her look like a girl in her late teens rather than an innocent Kansas farm girl of about thirteen. Both makeup and wig were discarded… read more