A Town Like Alice is a 1956 British drama film produced by Joseph Janni and starring Virginia McKenna and Peter Finch that is based on the 1950 novel of the same name by Nevil Shute.

In post-Second World War London, a young woman, Jean Paget, is informed by solicitor Noel Strachan that she has a large inheritance.

On their trek, the group meet a young Australian soldier, Sergeant Joe Harman, also a prisoner, who drives a truck for the Japanese.

Jean does not correct his impression that she is married (she is carrying the youngest of Mrs. Holland's children, the mother having succumbed to the endless walking).

One day, the eldest Holland child, a young boy, wanders off into the jungle and is fatally bitten by a snake.

At one stop, a Japanese officer likes Jean's looks and offers to let her and the baby remain, while the rest travel another 200 miles to Kuantan on the east coast.

Jean turns away but another young woman is not so choosy after four months of walking and the deaths of four women and the boy so gets into the officer's car.

Sugaya orders the women to continue marching; he leaves them only one guard, the kindly sergeant, so that he can bear his disgrace alone.

She travels to Alice Springs, then to the (fictional) town of Willstown in the Queensland outback, where Joe has resumed his job as manager of a cattle station.

[8] "The festivals are just a joke – a film-selling 'racket' which offers the chance for vulgar display and reckless extravagance", said Peter Finch.

[12][13] The film's success saw Rank put Jack Lee and Joseph Janni under contract for two years as a team.