Review of Outpost in Malaya

The ending of the film is quite lively but I found most of it not that gripping and the sub-plot of the planter and his wife's relationship difficulties holds the movie up too much. Jack Hawkins is fine as usual as the determined planter Jim Frazer and Ram Gopal and Jeremy Spenser give good support but Claudette Colbert is miscast as the titular planter's wife Liz. The political and colonial background is hardly touched on and is probably confusing for the casual viewer. The film is set in old Malaya but was mostly shot on location in Sri Lanka. The music score by Allan Gray and Rajani Lakhia is pretty good though. It says something in that the highlight of the film is a fight between a cobra and a mongoose. Now that was exciting.