Review: A Book and a Movie

sheepherder · 01-15-2012, 09:25 PM

The two are not connected, other than that they both take place and are concerned with what the British called "The Emergency" in Malaysia.

First, the book. "The Officer From Special Branch" is a novel set at the height of 'The Emergency', the late 40's and early 50's, and concerns a British officer sent to the Malay peninsula to eliminate Communist agitators and terrorists. This he does, but it seems his successes are won at great personal cost. The book is one of those that you really don't want to put down, as the Officer plans and implements projects to capture or kill the Communist leaders. It is very insightful, and although the author, Tom Lilley, has left no personal notes as to his real career, it is most likely that he was either involved or was there when the Emergency was in effect. The book was published in 1970 and I am surprised it was not made into a movie...

The movie. "The 7th Dawn" is also set during 'The Emergency' and centers around an American plantation owner who has been friends with Communist partisans during WW II and the movie starts, rather surprisingly, at the end of the war in Malaysia with the partisans executing Japanese prisoners of war...One of the partisans, a high ranking officer, then travels to Moscow to be trained in revolutionary doctrine, and returns to find the peninsula under British control. He leads the Communist forces against the British rule, while his erstwhile friend, the plantation owner, who considers himself apolitical, is forced to take sides when his mistress is taken prisoner by the British and sentenced to be executed unless he turns the Communist leader in to the British authorities.

This movie was released in 1964, before the American involvement in Viet Nam was news, and has not received much attention, possibly because it depicts an American helping Communist terrorists, even if before they became such. I first saw this film sometime in the late 60's, on what was called "The Late Show", a late night movie presentation. But the theme from the movie is probably instantly recognizable, like "Tara's Theme" from 'Gone With The Wind'.

I heartily recommend both of these, if you can find them. I was able to get "7th Dawn" on VHS and convert it to DVD, and "Officer From Special Branch" was a library sell-off. (Seems like many libraries in the US are merging into regional mega-libraries and selling off all their duplicates.)

We Americans tend to ignore the fact that the British and French (and Dutch and others) were also involved in the Communist revolution in Southeast Asia in the late 40's, 50's & 60's as well as the US, and it is very interesting to read or view a book or movie dealing with another point of view. (I was reminded of the movie "Too Late the Hero", which depicts British soldiers in the Pacific in WW II and presents a very different viewpoint than is usually seen in WW II movies).

I hope you can find these and enjoy them as much as I did. They have both become part of my permanent library.

Edit: I found out yesterday that "The Officer From Special Branch" was also published under the title "The Projects Section", presumably in the same year [1970]. No reason given for the change...

sheepherder · 02-01-2012, 01:08 PM

I just today received a book order straight from England, "The 'K' Section", by the same author as the book(s) above, which is a sequel to "The Officer From Special Branch" and has most of the same characters, and the same subject (reading from the dust cover)...

I haven't read it yet, but the dust cover promises that "This is a violent book"...That's good enough for me!!!

sheepherder · 04-15-2012, 08:59 AM

I finally finished "The K Section", and it is a very different book from "The Officer From Special Branch" even though it has many of the same characters...

In this book, our hero from "Officer From Special Branch" is now in a neighboring country about to move from British control to local government. This is complicated by the many local tribes who are close knit and don't mingle with each other. The problem facing the British authorities is to try to make sure that the colony adopts democratic principles rather than fall under Communist control. The Special Branch undertakes a campaign to place their own local people in high places in the trade unions, as these are the organizations that will control the coming elections.

This book was a lot more complicated, politically, than the first book. I admit that I still don't understand many of the machinations described, partly because some of the practices detailed in the book are foreign to me. (Some are not; for instance, trade unions telling their undecided (or uninterested) members who to vote for)...

Not too much violence in this book, mostly behind-the-scenes maneuvering to place men in positions of influence. Blackmail, assassination, terrorist acts. Whether such methods were actually used in Malaysia during & following "The Emergency" is left to the reader's determination.

A book worth reading, but like some others, I may have to read it a couple times to fully grasp the ideas and ideology being portrayed...

pitsword · 04-15-2012, 10:22 AM

The 7th Dawn is my favorite movie of all time. I know that I have watched it at least 10 times. William Holden was my favorite actor. I first saw the movie in 1965 IIRC. Soon after returning to Pearl Harbor from a joint Submarine mission with Brit Boats that were stationed in Kuala Lumpur. That movie, although set at an earlier date, had a great sense of reality for me in many, many ways.

sheepherder · 04-15-2012, 10:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pitsword

The 7th Dawn is my favorite movie of all time...

It was based on the book "The Durian Tree" by Michael Keon, which I have never been able to find, in the past...Amazon now shows it as a used book from 1961...Hmmm, they have a Limited Edition DVD of the movie listed as well...

The tree seems to be a meeting place, although I don't recall it ever being directly referred to in the movie...

pitsword · 04-15-2012, 11:24 AM

The Durian tree was/is the same as our "great oak trees" in the park. Beautiful, full tree giving shade. The fruit was enough to make you puke, it had a really horrific smell.

sheepherder · 04-15-2012, 01:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pitsword

The fruit was enough to make you puke...

Aw, now you got me thinking about food...Specifically, shrimp fried rice...When I was on Okinawa in '71, you could walk into Kin Son ville and get a dinner of 'shlimp flied lice'...

It was delicious...Nice big shrimps, lots of fried rice, in a flat wooden box [bamboo?] with a fried egg spread over the top of the rice...Chopsticks...Pepsi [in a Japanese bottle]...Man!!!

(I had to go out just now and get some Birdseye Steamfresh Chicken Flavored Rice and a can of Campbell's Chunky Beef w/Country Vegetables soup to pour over it)...

Campbell's doesn't make a Shrimp w/Country Vegetables...

sheepherder · 04-24-2012, 06:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pitsword

The Durian tree was/is the same as our "great oak trees" in the park.

The book "The Durian Tree" that "The 7th Dawn" was based on came today...Paperback...Published in 1961...

It's in pretty good shape...hardly read...but it's...browned...and dry...

I'll read it eventually...but I think it will probably be the last read for this old paperback...

pitsword · 04-24-2012, 06:25 PM

Haaaa, Susanna York behind that fern frond. Drying off from her swim that Ferris watched. Ferris, Ng and Dhana, the triangle of life.

Opening scene, Ferris with a sten sending the bad gomers in the trench grave to meet Buhda and the helo P A blaring "the war is over, the war is over". Ferris taps the gomer in front of him with the muzzle and the gomer falls in the trench. Ahhh, so great, so real.

01-15-2012, 09:25 PM	#1
sheepherder Lifer Lifetime Forum Patron Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: ...on the 'ol Erie Canal... Posts: 8,195 Thanks: 1,413 Thanked 4,462 Times in 2,336 Posts	Review: A Book and a Movie The two are not connected, other than that they both take place and are concerned with what the British called "The Emergency" in Malaysia. First, the book. "The Officer From Special Branch" is a novel set at the height of 'The Emergency', the late 40's and early 50's, and concerns a British officer sent to the Malay peninsula to eliminate Communist agitators and terrorists. This he does, but it seems his successes are won at great personal cost. The book is one of those that you really don't want to put down, as the Officer plans and implements projects to capture or kill the Communist leaders. It is very insightful, and although the author, Tom Lilley, has left no personal notes as to his real career, it is most likely that he was either involved or was there when the Emergency was in effect. The book was published in 1970 and I am surprised it was not made into a movie... The movie. "The 7th Dawn" is also set during 'The Emergency' and centers around an American plantation owner who has been friends with Communist partisans during WW II and the movie starts, rather surprisingly, at the end of the war in Malaysia with the partisans executing Japanese prisoners of war...One of the partisans, a high ranking officer, then travels to Moscow to be trained in revolutionary doctrine, and returns to find the peninsula under British control. He leads the Communist forces against the British rule, while his erstwhile friend, the plantation owner, who considers himself apolitical, is forced to take sides when his mistress is taken prisoner by the British and sentenced to be executed unless he turns the Communist leader in to the British authorities. This movie was released in 1964, before the American involvement in Viet Nam was news, and has not received much attention, possibly because it depicts an American helping Communist terrorists, even if before they became such. I first saw this film sometime in the late 60's, on what was called "The Late Show", a late night movie presentation. But the theme from the movie is probably instantly recognizable, like "Tara's Theme" from 'Gone With The Wind'. I heartily recommend both of these, if you can find them. I was able to get "7th Dawn" on VHS and convert it to DVD, and "Officer From Special Branch" was a library sell-off. (Seems like many libraries in the US are merging into regional mega-libraries and selling off all their duplicates.) We Americans tend to ignore the fact that the British and French (and Dutch and others) were also involved in the Communist revolution in Southeast Asia in the late 40's, 50's & 60's as well as the US, and it is very interesting to read or view a book or movie dealing with another point of view. (I was reminded of the movie "Too Late the Hero", which depicts British soldiers in the Pacific in WW II and presents a very different viewpoint than is usually seen in WW II movies). I hope you can find these and enjoy them as much as I did. They have both become part of my permanent library. Edit: I found out yesterday that "The Officer From Special Branch" was also published under the title "The Projects Section", presumably in the same year [1970]. No reason given for the change... Attached Thumbnails Attached Images __________________ I like my coffee the way I like my women... ...Cold and bitter...

02-01-2012, 01:08 PM	#2
sheepherder Lifer Lifetime Forum Patron Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: ...on the 'ol Erie Canal... Posts: 8,195 Thanks: 1,413 Thanked 4,462 Times in 2,336 Posts	I just today received a book order straight from England, "The 'K' Section", by the same author as the book(s) above, which is a sequel to "The Officer From Special Branch" and has most of the same characters, and the same subject (reading from the dust cover)... I haven't read it yet, but the dust cover promises that "This is a violent book"...That's good enough for me!!! Attached Thumbnails __________________ I like my coffee the way I like my women... ...Cold and bitter...

04-15-2012, 08:59 AM	#3
sheepherder Lifer Lifetime Forum Patron Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: ...on the 'ol Erie Canal... Posts: 8,195 Thanks: 1,413 Thanked 4,462 Times in 2,336 Posts	I finally finished "The K Section", and it is a very different book from "The Officer From Special Branch" even though it has many of the same characters... In this book, our hero from "Officer From Special Branch" is now in a neighboring country about to move from British control to local government. This is complicated by the many local tribes who are close knit and don't mingle with each other. The problem facing the British authorities is to try to make sure that the colony adopts democratic principles rather than fall under Communist control. The Special Branch undertakes a campaign to place their own local people in high places in the trade unions, as these are the organizations that will control the coming elections. This book was a lot more complicated, politically, than the first book. I admit that I still don't understand many of the machinations described, partly because some of the practices detailed in the book are foreign to me. (Some are not; for instance, trade unions telling their undecided (or uninterested) members who to vote for)... Not too much violence in this book, mostly behind-the-scenes maneuvering to place men in positions of influence. Blackmail, assassination, terrorist acts. Whether such methods were actually used in Malaysia during & following "The Emergency" is left to the reader's determination. A book worth reading, but like some others, I may have to read it a couple times to fully grasp the ideas and ideology being portrayed... __________________ I like my coffee the way I like my women... ...Cold and bitter...

04-15-2012, 10:22 AM	#4
pitsword User Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Southern Maine Posts: 459 Thanks: 3,964 Thanked 103 Times in 83 Posts	The 7th Dawn is my favorite movie of all time. I know that I have watched it at least 10 times. William Holden was my favorite actor. I first saw the movie in 1965 IIRC. Soon after returning to Pearl Harbor from a joint Submarine mission with Brit Boats that were stationed in Kuala Lumpur. That movie, although set at an earlier date, had a great sense of reality for me in many, many ways.

04-15-2012, 11:24 AM	#6
pitsword User Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Southern Maine Posts: 459 Thanks: 3,964 Thanked 103 Times in 83 Posts	The Durian tree was/is the same as our "great oak trees" in the park. Beautiful, full tree giving shade. The fruit was enough to make you puke, it had a really horrific smell.

04-24-2012, 06:25 PM	#9
pitsword User Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Southern Maine Posts: 459 Thanks: 3,964 Thanked 103 Times in 83 Posts	Haaaa, Susanna York behind that fern frond. Drying off from her swim that Ferris watched. Ferris, Ng and Dhana, the triangle of life. Opening scene, Ferris with a sten sending the bad gomers in the trench grave to meet Buhda and the helo P A blaring "the war is over, the war is over". Ferris taps the gomer in front of him with the muzzle and the gomer falls in the trench. Ahhh, so great, so real.