Malaya

Light adventure movie starts exceptionally well, with Stewart a lot of fun as a bumbling newsman (running gag of Stewart's botting a cigarette from all and sundry is very amusing). It's a shame that once Tracy enters the picture, Stewart is sidelined and almost pushed aside, but it still remains a serviceably entertaining yarn, until it takes a misjudged turn into fairly nihilistic seriousness towards the end. Shoutout to the always dependable Greenstreet, as Tracy's seen-it-all contact.

Not nearly as compelling as it feels like it should be given its stars and premise.

It's nice to see Tracy and Stewart in their only buddy movie--in Murder Man (1935), their only other movie together, they merely occupy the same cast--and they work well as a team. Greenstreet is particularly world-weary, and effective as usual. But the result lacks energy and suspense--for which Cortesa, Thorpe and a rambling plot are principally to blame. Only for die-hard Tracy and Stewart fans.

On the male side Malaya (1949) was stacked with stars! Not much in the way of females with the exception of Valentina Cortese. It's war, so that's understandable. Unfortunately the games at play wasn't very engaging. Naturally the star-power and the quality they bring to the actual acting keeps it floating, but highlights were far and few between, which is sad when you got Spencer Tracy, James Stewart, Lionel Barrymore & Sydney Greenstreet for his final screen appearance, and doing a good job.