Not fondly remembered by many, but I liked it. I have affection for these Rank movies but the people involved did try to make a decent movie. It helps to have some excellent leads in Peter Finch and Mary Ure. And the script is quite left wing for Rank which gives it freshness - there is a lot of criticism of the white rubber company man (Michael Hordern) who only cares about profits and the white colonial officials who seem incompetent; the main antagonist is an Indian, who is quite smart and not unsympathetic.
It is still a 1957 Rank movie - the hero is a white man, there is brownface, it was shot in Corsica instead of where it is actually set. Peter Finch is very good - he did well as these tortured doctors in the third world. Mary Ure matches him as the wife - she's gorgeous, especially with her blonde hair swept back, fresh out of the water. By Rank standards this gave her a decent role - although the plot is resolved half way through.
The nurse who loves him, Natasha Parry in brownface, never does anything. The film isn't enough action and isn't enough melodrama - it's smarter, which is fine, but doesn't give the audience simpler baser pleasures.
It looks good. Beautiful colour photography. Frustratingly vague about being set in Malaya - it could be Burma. Why not just call them communists, etc? I was never quite sure how it was going to end. Maybe it would've been a bigger hit had Finch and Parry been a couple, then Ure died. Parry goes off to war. That would've had more emotional impact.
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