MALAYA (1949)

In January 1942, the U.S. is fighting World War II on two fronts, and one major problem is a shortage of much needed rubber for tanks and trucks. Manchester, editor of the L.A. Record, is heading a rubber scrap drive, and reporter John Royer (James Stewart) says he can get massive amounts of excess rubber from plantations in Malaya, despite a current blockade, with "the right kind of money and the wrong kind of man." The U.S. government provides the money to bribe the plantation owners, and provide Royer with a partner, Carnahan (Spencer Tracy), a smuggler whom they extract from Alcatraz for the job. Once in Malaya, they get help from a shady saloon keeper known as the Dutchman (Sydney Greenstreet) who gives them their required twelve men ("good honest riff-raff") to help move the rubber. They encounter other characters including a singer and old flame of Carnahan's (Valentina Cortese), a Japanese officer who becomes suspicious, and a German plantation owner who betrays the Americans at a crucial point. 

I found this to be an odd duck of a movie. It seems to have been an A-picture with two big stars (Tracy and Stewart), a popular character actor (Greenstreet), and an Italian actress at the beginning of a decent career in Hollywood (Cortese). But the script is mostly B-movie stuff that I think would have come off better with B-movie leads (Tom Neal, John Carroll, Lynn Bari, etc.). A B-movie length, maybe 75 minutes instead of 100, would have paid off, too, getting rid of the occasional doldrums. Stewart and Tracy both seem like they knew this and have tried to hide their star wattage, but not always successfully. Still, they're OK, especially Tracy. I like that the Cortese character is lively and attractive, not beaten down and world-weary as so many femmes of the exotic melodrama are. There is notable support from John Hodiak as a government man and the always reliable Gilbert Roland as one of the "riff-raff." The pop standard "Blue Moon" is used throughout. Not a waste of time, but not as enjoyably scruffy as it should have been. Pictured are Stewart, Tracy and Greenstreet. [TCM]