I had the morning off today and having packed away all the videos & DVDs for the upcoming move I was flipping around the channels searching for something of interest. AMC is running a tribute to Spencer Tracy and they ran a film today which I'd never seen before.

MALAYA stars Tracy and James/Jimmy Stewart in a rather odd departure for the two of them. Filmed in 1949, the movie takes place in WWII on the Japanese-held island. Stewart is a 'down-on-his-luck' reporter who actually got his one time friend Tracy sent to federal prison. When Stewart's brother is killed in the war, he conceives of this plan to smuggle much needed raw rubber to the U.S. Unfortunately, the only guy with the connections and abilities to set this up is Tracy.

Besides these two gents, we get Sydney Greenstreet as the shady (hard to believe, huh?) barowner known as The Dutchman, the always smiling and 'up for anything' Gilbert Roland (doing a great job and obviously having fun as Romano) and the lovely Valetina Cortese (doing her very best Marlene Dietrich). Hell, Lionel Barrymore even shows up for about three minutes for no apparent reason whatsoever.

The TV Guide gives the film only two stars, but I thought it was better than that. I mean, it was certainly predictable (with an ending that appears tacked on to make folks feel better, I guess) but it's nice to see some good actors doing something a little bit different. Also, some of the dialogue given to Tracy with in his scenes with Cortese is nothing but poetic. Oh, and if you get offended by the nationalistic and somewhat racist portrayal of Japanese, remember when the film was made. Steve Bob says check it out.