The Planter's Wife (aka Outpost In Malaya) (1952)

Set during the Malayan Emergency (a guerrilla war between the Malayan communists seeking independence and the British Commonwealth), a rubber plantation owner (Jack Hawkins) struggles to keep his plantation safe from attack while dealing with the unraveling of his marriage. Based on the novel by Sidney Charles George and directed by Ken Annakin (SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON). The film was released in the U.S. under the title OUTPOST IN MALAYA and that seems a more appropriate title as the wife (Claudette Colbert) in question doesn't seem to be the focus of the story. The domestic scenes are the usual tedious interplay we've seen again and again. Where the film really comes alive is in the film's intense last half hour which is a siege against the rubber plantation by the communist insurgents. It's a real nail biter! There's also an unsettling fight between a cobra and a mongoose captured in detail where I had to look away. The film was a big hit overseas but despite Colbert's presence, it didn't do well in the U.S. With Anthony Steel, Ram Gopal, Sonya Hana, Yah Ming and as Colbert and Hawkins' son, Peter Asher who would grow up to be a pop star as part of the duo, Peter And Gordon in the 1960s.