Windom's Way

Dr Alec Windom is a British doctor who works in a village in Malaya. He is visited by his estranged wife Lee.

• Peter Finch as Alec Windom
• Mary Ure as Lee Windom
• Natasha Parry as Anna Vidal
• Robert Flemyng as Colonel George Hasbrook
• Michael Hordern as Patterson
• Grégoire Aslan as Mayor Lollivar

• John Cairney as Jan Vidal
• Marne Maitland as Commissioner Belhedron
• George Margo as Police Officer Lansang
• Kurt Siegenberg as Kosti

• Martin Benson as Samcar, Rebel Commander
• Sanny Bin Hussan as Father Amyan
• Burt Kwouk as Father Amyan's Aide
• Olaf Pooley as Colonel Lupat
• John A. Tinn as Patrol Leader

The film was based on a 1952 novel by James Ramsey Ullman, which was reportedly inspired by Dr. Gordon S. Seagrave, who was imprisoned for allegedly helping the Karen people. The novel was set in the fictitious island state of Papaan.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18377146 |title=REVIEWS IN BRIEF |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |issue=36,000 |date=9 May 1953 |accessdate=22 September 2017 |page=8 |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article44021056 |title=Natives took to Reds after village uprising |newspaper=The Australian Women's Weekly |volume=20 |issue=29 |date=17 December 1952 |accessdate=22 September 2017 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news|title=It Can Happen--and Has--to Doctors in the Far East|author=Wood, Percy|work=Chicago Daily Tribune|date=May 25, 1952|page=c5}}

Ullman says he wanted to tell the story how "in between man – call him the liberal – can get caught between the rollers of fanaticism or authoritarianism on either side; the case of a man trying to do his job and be a human being among other human beings and how hard this is in the twentieth century."{{Cite news|title=Ullman Wants Down Off Mountain|author=Rochelle Girson|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=July 20, 1952|page=B7}} Ullman admitted the story of Seagrove "was somewhere in the back of my mind" when he wrote the book.

The book was a Literary Guild choice and became a best seller in the US.{{cite news|title=The Best Sellers|work=New York Times|date=27 July 1952|page=BR8}} Ullman wrote a first draft of a play based on the book.

Film rights to Windom's Way were bought by Carl Foreman, who wrote the script. He sold the rights to this and two other properties to Earl St John of Rank Film Productions, who in January 1955 announced it as part of its schedule for that year (but it would not be made for another two years).{{Cite magazine|magazine=Variety|url=https://archive.org/details/variety197-1955-01-05/page/n49/mode/1up?|page=51|title=Pinewood Rank Prod|date=5 January 1955}} The company was making an increasing amount of movies overseas at the time to combat the threat of television.{{cite magazine|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/wrecking-australian-stores-the-1957-film-version-of-robbery-under-arms/|date=7 March 2025|access-date=7 March 2025|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|title=Wrecking Australian stores: the 1957 film version of Robbery Under Arms|magazine=Filmink}}{{cite magazine|magazine=Filmink|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/forgotten-british-film-moguls-john-davis/|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|date=26 April 2025|access-date=26 April 2025|title=Forgotten British film moguls: John Davis}}

The script was rewritten and 'Anglicized' by Anthony Perry. Perry's draft was considered too "political" and was rewritten by Jill Craigie to be softened. However, the resulting work was considerably more left-wing than Rank's other colonial war films of this time such as The Planter's Wife and Simba.[https://books.google.com/books?id=UyYTDAAAQBAJ&dq=vincent+porter+sue+harper&pg=PA386 British Cinema of the 1950s: The Decline of Deference] by Sue Harper, Vincent Porter Oxford University Press, 2003 pp 43-45{{cite book|page=645|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kGikCgAAQBAJ&q=%22windom%27s+way%22&pg=PA645|title=Women Screenwriters: An International Guide|first1=Jill|last1= Nelmes|first2=Jule|last2= Selbo|publisher=Springer|date=2015|isbn = 9781137312372}}

Ronald Neame had just left The Seventh Sin (1957) during production. He was contacted by his old producing partner John Bryan who suggested Neame make Windom's Way with Peter Finch.

Finch made the film immediately after returning from Australia where he made Robbery Under Arms. Part of the location shoot took place in Corsica in May 1957 for three weeks. The rest was filmed at Pinewood.{{Cite news|title=BRITISH SCREEN SCENE.: Televised Feature Results in Lawsuit --New Projects--Bright Inventory Work in Progress "Comeback" Rebuttal|author=STEPHEN WATTS|date=June 23, 1957|work=New York Times|page=93}}{{Cite magazine|title=Peter Evans's Studio round up|magazine=Kinematograph Weekly|page=19|url=https://archive.org/details/sim_kinematograph-weekly_1957-05-23_481_2597/page/19/mode/1up|date=23 May 1957}}

Neame says Corsica was a "difficult location".Neame p 156 It was Mary Ure's first movie under her contract with Rank.

"It was not a successful picture, I'm afraid", said Neame later. "I think it fell between two stools, neither politically profound nor exciting enough as an action film. John just liked the book very much and I would have directed anything to get back to the studios again."Brian McFarlane, Autobiography of British Cinema p 433

"The finished film may have had too many messages for people to stay interested", Neame later wrote. "It was neither a hit nor a disgrace."

Variety called it "a slowish but well-made intelligent drama".{{cite magazine|magazine=Variety|title=Windom's Way|url=https://archive.org/details/variety209-1958-01/page/n5/mode/1up?|date=1 January 1958|page=6}}

The New York Times said the film was "without any topical teeth" in which Windom's "political sympathies, like the geography, are so vague that one need have no fear of being subverted by associating with him in this film. All one needs to worry about, precisely, is being a little provoked and bored."[https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9D04E4D71E31E73BBC4953DFB6678383649EDE New York Times review of film]

The film was nominated for four British Academy of Film and Television Arts awards in 1958.{{Cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052398/awards|title = Windom's Way - IMDb| website=IMDb }}

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book|title= Straight from the Horse's Mouth|first=Ronald|last= Neame|year=2003|publisher=The Scarecrow Press, Inc.}}

• {{IMDb title|id=0052398|title=Windom's Way}}
• {{TCMDb title|17847}}
• [http://www.colonialfilm.org.uk/node/4371 Windom' Way] at Colonial Film
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20160310021648/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6bade840 Windom's Way] at BFI
• [https://variety.com/1956/film/reviews/windom-s-way-1200418177/# Variety review of film]

{{Ronald Neame}}

Category:1957 films

Category:British drama films

Category:Films directed by Ronald Neame

Category:Films shot at Pinewood Studios

Category:Films scored by James Bernard

Category:Films shot in Corsica

Category:Films set in Malaysia

Category:British thriller films

Category:Films about the Malayan Emergency

Category:1950s English-language films

Category:1950s British films