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Nonureva Really Surprised!

Breakinger A Brilliant Conflict

Mischa Redfern I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

DKosty123 I am so surprised that this movie was made in 1949. It plays much like war propaganda films made during the war. The story of the rubber shortage during the beginning of the war and some Americans and others getting involved to steal rubber in Malaysia. Spencer Tracy does some fine acting here. He also punches out several people and somehow it seems like he actually does. Valentina Cortese is the leading woman, she is even shorter than Tracy. James Stewart has a different type of role here as a brother trying to get revenge with the Japanese after his brother is killed in the war. Sydney Greenstreet is a bad guy whose playing both sides. Lionel Barrymore has a brief role early in the film. John Hodiak is featured as Kellar.For some reason, when the film ends, it has the feel of what might have been a war propaganda film. This might be because the story was written by Manchester Boddy who wrote a film called "Mr. Blabbermouth" which was one of those films. Frank Fenton converted it for the screen as he did other films often in the 1950's.

blanche-2 Spencer Tracy and James Stewart preside over a terrific cast in "Malaya," a 1949 film also starring Valentina Cortese, Sydney Greenstreet, John Hodiak, Lionel Barrymore, Roland Winters and Gilbert Roland.This is a fictional account of a very real situation involving the shortage of rubber during World War II. Japan really dominated the countries that had the rubber, and there was smuggling of rubber to the U.S. The situation involving Tracy and Stewart, however, never happened.Tracy plays a con named Carnahan, whom the government releases from Alcatraz in order to spearhead this project, and Stewart plays John Royer, a former reporter with a shady enough past that the government (represented by John Hodiak) thinks he's a good bet to go into Malaya and smuggle tons of rubber out of that country and pay with gold. Carnahan knows the country like the back of his hand and has the connections. He and Royer pose as Irish sailors looking for work in order to get around a suspicious Colonel Tomura (Richard Loo) while they are helped by an old friend of Carnahan's, The Dutchman (Sydney Greenstreet). Cortese has the Dietrich role, that of a singer in love with Carnahan.There are some exciting scenes in this film, and it holds one's attention. One of the best performances comes from Gilbert Roland, who leads the smugglers handpicked by The Dutchmen. He's very convincing.As for Tracy and Stewart, well, although Tracy started out in tough guy Wallace Beery roles, 1949 was a little late for him to be taking them up again. Actually Hodiak would have been good, or Bogart, or John Wayne, Jimmy Cagney, someone along those lines. I thought Stewart was very good and that the two of them made an effective team. Someone said he came off as a nice guy. I thought he did cynic and hardboiled well. You can be cynical and hardboiled and averse to physical violence.All in all, pretty good.

Andrei In 1942, shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, John Royer, an ex-newspaper correspondent, is summoned home by his publisher, John Manchester, after serving four years in the Far East. When Manchester asks Royer to help in a nation-wide drive to salvage rubber, the reporter scoffs and proposes a daring scheme to smuggle large quantities of rubber out of Japanese-occupied Malaya. After returning to his hotel room, Royer is contacted by a federal agent named Kellar, who reveals that he has thoroughly investigated Royer's past and has learned that Royer's story about smuggling resulted in the imprisonment of his friend Carnahan. Later, Kellar escorts Royer to a railroad car where Manchester is waiting with a panel of men, who intend to question him about his plans. Royer explains that he requires gold to buy the rubber, men needed to steal it and a camouflaged Navy ship to transport it from Malaya. Royer also insists that Carnahan be freed from Alcatraz to work on the mission. Carnahan is still angry at Royer for writing the expose that led to his imprisonment, but agrees to cooperate in return for his freedom. As Royer and Carnahan set sail for Malaya, Royer explains that he is risking his own life because his brother was killed by the Japanese. The cynical adventurer Carnahan responds that his only interest is in the gold. Upon reaching the Malay city of Penang, Carnahan and Royer pose as Irish seamen and visit the saloon owned by the Dutchman, an old friend of Carnahan's. There, Carnahan is warmly embraced by his former lover, the opportunistic singer Luana. The Dutchman also introduces them to Col. Genichi Tomura, the corrupt Japanese commandant with a penchant for gambling. After hearing their plans, the Dutchman agrees to recruit twelve men for the operation. While alone with Carnahan later that night, Luana recalls their past relationship and begs him to get her out of Malaya. The next morning, the Dutchman puts Carnahan and Royer in touch with three of the biggest planters in the district. Although all three agree to cooperate, Carnahan and Royer are wary of the third, Bruno Gruber, a German planter. That evening, while Carnahan distracts the Japanese by getting himself arrested, Royer, aided by Romano and the other guerillas, delivers the rubber from the first two plantations to a U.S. ship camouflaged as a small island. Afterward, the Dutchman convinces Tomura to release Carnahan into his custody. Afraid to trust the German, Carnahan refuses to participate in the last shipment but Royer, out of revenge for his brother's death, insists on completing the mission. Carnahan relents and joins Royer, then beats Gruber into revealing that the Japanese are waiting downstream to ambush them. Determined to secure the last of the rubber, Royer continues on alone and is brutally killed by Tomura's men. Hearing the sound of gunfire that signals the death of his friend, Carnahan shoots Gruber, prompting the Dutchman to observe that at least Royer died for his beliefs. The following day, Tomura visits the Dutchman and offers to allow the remaining rubber to be shipped out for a price. Although he suspects a trap, Carnahan resolves to complete Royer's mission. While Romano and his men deliver the rubber, Carnahan decoys Tomura with his boat. When Luana insists upon joining him, he pushes her overboard to safety. As Carnahan nears the U.S. ship, Tomura stops his boat, takes him captive, then signals the Japanese flotilla to attack the ship. Just then, two American PT boats suddenly appear and sink the flotilla with torpedoes. In the fracas, Carnahan is wounded but manages to kill Tomura. Some time after the end of the war, Kellar comes to Malaya to award a medal to Carnahan, who is now living on an island with Luana. Refusing the medal, the cynical Carnahan tells Kellar to pin it on the Dutchman instead.

smitty9740 Someone had the wits to make a 1940's patriotic war movie in the style of film noir. Is it hokey? Of course it is!! But when it's done like this, you have a sense of watching a war film at its best. Part of it is a literate script that goes far beyond the usual patriotic hoo-ha and gives a sense of real urgency to the war in Asia. Part of it is some totally professional acting by Stewart, Tracy, Greenstreet and, not least, John Hodiak in the role of an FBI agent. If you're bored, as I am, by the John Wayne, flag-waving nonsense that proliferated during the war, try this on. It manages to be improbable and believable at the same time.