However, he was then cast as an Australian soldier in A Town Like Alice (1956), which became the third most popular film at the British box office in 1956 and won Finch a BAFTA for Best Actor. He followed it with The Battle of the River Plate (1956), playing Captain Hans Langsdorff. This was also successful financially and British exhibitors voted Finch the seventh most popular British star at the box office for 1956.[27]
In 1953 he appeared in his first Hollywood movie, Elephant Walk (1954), shot in Ceylon and Los Angeles. The circumstances of production were turbulent; filming started with Vivien Leigh in the lead but she had a nervous breakdown during production and had to be replaced by Elizabeth Taylor. The experience helped sour Finch on a Hollywood career and he would only work occasionally there for the rest of his career.
In 1954, the Australian journalist and author George Johnston wrote a well-researched series of biographical articles on Finch, his life, and his work, which appeared in the Sydney Sun-Herald on four consecutive Sundays, which were certainly the first detailed account of Finch's life to be published. Finch later provided the inspiration for the character Archie Calverton in Johnston's novel, Clean Straw for Nothing.[37]

