The Inn of the Sixth Happiness
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Movie Reviews of The Inn of the Sixth Happiness
Movie Review: Great Movie
Summary: 4 Stars
Great movie! Book was better, but another medium to communicate sound values.Movie Review: A movie of heart...
Summary: 3 Stars
In spite of the rejection of her application for missionary work because of her lack of formal education, Gladys Aylward--a strong London domestic in the service of a retired explorer--decides to join an English missionary who has set up a hostelry in the mountains of North China... Here, Sara Lanson (Athene Seyler) takes in muleteers, provides them with food and lodging, and tries by ingenious means to convert them to Christianity...
Gladys saves enough money to travel to China via the Trans-Siberian Railway... Eventually she reaches the inn and Miss Lanson, and becomes her aide...
Gradually, Gladys wins over the people of the area, with her good works and humble, friendly approach... Soon she is known as "Jan-Ai" (The One Who Loves People).
After Miss Lanson's death, Gladys goes to work as a foot inspector (to enforce a government edict against binding of females' foot) at the request of a tired and cynical mandarin (Robert Donat), who is irritated by her meddling and sends her on foot-inspection trips to get rid of her... But upon her return from an arduous journey, he finds himself respectful of her dedication and courage and becomes her friend...
Captain Lin Nan (Curt Jurgens), a Chinese Army officer, comes into the district to enforce discipline in the face of the Japanese 1931 invasion... Gladys meanwhile has succeeded in restoring order in a prison uprising with her healing presence, and when Lin Nan finds it necessary to warn the people of the countryside against the Japanese, Gladys, through bandits she has befriended and are now devoted to her, manages to aid him in his efforts...
Lin and Gladys gradually fall in love, and before he leaves to rejoin the Chinese forces, he gives her a jade ring as a token of his feeling, and promises that they will someday be permanently together...
The Japanese attack, and it becomes necessary to march 100 motherless children to a mission safe in the interior... Before Gladys volunteers for, and leaves on, the mission with the children, the Mandarin offers her a parting gift: his conversion to Christianity.
There is no doubt about the splendor of Ingrid Bergman dramatizing Gladys Aylward, the "woman who wasn't qualified to come to China." With a luminous smile, she fills the screen with radiance, bringing missionary work purity of spirit, challenge, simplicity, frankness, honesty, energy, force and love...
The film, based on the novel "The Small Woman" by Alan Burgess, is a fine adventure story with love, war, religion, comedy, music, and spectacle...
Hollywood took some liberties in romancing the character with a Chinese officer--which was not true--Gladys Aylward (1904-70) was a great 'little woman' who lived a virtuous life full of quality, respect and admiration... She faced the impossible with hope, seeing the world through God's telescope...
Movie Review: She Knew Where She had to Be
Summary: 5 Stars
Ingrid Bergman as Gladys Aylward knew where she had to be. She wanted to perform missionary work and she knew she could when no organized institution believed she could. From England, off to China she went. She makes a difference and eventually has to help the Chinese children from the unspeakable perils from hoards of the brutally invading Japanese. Curt Jurgens is very impressive and charming as the Chinese officer but somehow Robert Donat seems terribly miscast as a Chinese elder. The cinematography is breathtaking and the directional 2 channel stereo is fantastic sounding. This is a good family film.
Movie Review: The Inn of six happiness
Summary: 5 Stars
Classic performance by Ingrid Bergman, based on a true heroic story about a woman who follow her dream and fullfiled her her life mission.Movie Review: An intelligent, moving epic
Summary: 5 Stars
Today "bigger" often means "louder and more stupid" so it will be quite a surprise, particularly for younger viewers, to see an epic (which this film surely is) in which the characters and situations, stylised though they may be, start from a premise of subtlety and intelligence. The thoughtful, engaging commentary track tells us that the relationship at the heart of the story - between Gladys Aylward and General Lin Nan - was largely fabricated and that Ms. Aylward deeply disapproved of the filmakers' licence in extrapolating a love story from their friendship. And yet their mutual respect for one another in The Inn of the Sixth Happiness is one of the film's most moving ideas.
Leaving aside the religious issues, this picture is the story of how a woman arrives in a community as an outsider and graudally wins love and respect. The ending feels contrived and hokey to me and no doubt some readers will find the portrayal of Chinese characters by Western actors offensive but the many beautiful moments - Bergman's scenes with Robert Donat's Mandarin, her scene with Jurgens' Lin Nan in the garden - more than compensate for them. On this disc the film looks and sounds far better than anyone could have expected. It also boasts a beautiful score by Malcolm Arnold. This is one of those rediscoveries DVD was invented for.