A Town Like Alice is a British film released in 1956. It tells the story of Jean Paget (Virginia Mckenna), a young woman who is informed of her large inheritance by a solicitor, Noel Strachan (Geoffrey Keen). She decides to use her inheritance to travel to a small village in Malaya, where she intends to build a well. An invading Japanese army captures the British territory in Kuala Lumpur, Malaya. The Japanese send the captured men to labor camps, leaving behind the women and children. Not knowing what to do with the British women and children, they send them on a forced march from one place to another. Since Jean can speak Malay fluently, she takes up the leadership role in the group. Many of them die along the way from physical labor and torture. Since Jean understands the local ways, she is able to survive. She is later befriended by an Australian man who sneaks food for them from his camp.moreless