User Reviews

Despite its length, the mish-mash of accents and the alarming number of handkerchiefs needed to watch this film, 'The Inn of the Sixth Happiness' overflows with love of life and humanity. Bergman is luminous in her role, and the intense emotion she pours into every scene lifts this otherwise average film onto a higher plane.

Robert Donat was terminally ill with a brain tumour when he made this film, and (much to his professional embarrassment) had to have his lines on cue-cards dotted around the set for his last few shots. Ingrid Bergman's tears are desperately real, for Donat's final words are the farewell of a dying man where art and life fold together into a brief unity. One of the most poignant moments in cinema.

When I reviewed "Death of a Centrefold" I proposed the creation of a new category at the Razzies, the Jamie Lee Curtis Award for the least convincing portrayal of a real individual, named in honour of Jamie's attempt to impersonate Dorothy Stratten in that film despite bearing absolutely no resemblance to her. Had that award been around in 1958, "The Inn of the Sixth Happiness" would have been a sure-fire winner. It is a based on the story of the missionary Gladys Aylward who was short, dark-haired, stocky and, having been born and bred in North London, did not speak with a Swedish accent.

So the obvious choice to play her was Ingrid Bergman. Yeah, right.

Aylward was a domestic servant who believed that she had a call from God to become a missionary in China. She was, however, rejected by the official missionary societies because she lacked formal education. Undeterred, she managed to save enough money to buy a ticket on the Trans-Siberian railway, rejecting the quicker and safer alternative of travelling to China by ship because it was more expensive. In China she was accepted as an assistant to an established missionary in the city of Yangcheng. The film chronicles her life in the city, her (fictional) love affair with an officer in the Chinese army and her epic journey across the mountains with a large number of orphaned children to escape the invading Japanese. (The story takes place in the 1930s).

Aylward was still alive when the film was made, and apparently hated it. She objected to the casting of Bergman, not because of the dissimilarity in looks or her accent, but because she considered the actress, who several years earlier had been mired in scandal when she left her husband for Roberto Rossellini, an immoral person. (This scandal had led to Bergman being blacklisted by Hollywood for a time, and her casting here as a virtuous heroine was widely taken as a sign that Hollywood had finally forgiven her). Aylward also objected to the way the film minimised the difficulties she had had crossing the Soviet Union to get to China and to the implication that she had had a romantic relationship with Captain Lin Nan.

The treatment of the Lin Nan episode shows just how strange Hollywood's racial politics could be in the fifties. Lin was a real person, but contrary to the impression given here he was not Dutch on his father's side; this was a detail added to placate American public opinion which would apparently not accept a romance between a white woman and a wholly Asian man but would accept one between a white woman and a Eurasian man if he were played by a white actor. (in this case Curt Jürgens). In 1958 it was still considered politically correct for the British actor Robert Donat to play a Chinese character in "yellowface". You wouldn't get away with that nowadays. There are a number of other inaccuracies- the inn which Aylward ran in Yangcheng was actually named "the Inn of the Eight Happinesses", the number eight being considered auspicious in China, but for some reason this was changed to the "Inn of the Sixth Happiness", hence the title.

And yet this is not altogether a bad film. Bergman might not have been the most appropriate choice to play Aylward, yet she still manages to create the feeling of a truly good person, both compassionate and courageous. Donat gives an excellent performance as the elderly mandarin, a conservative figure who gradually comes to accept the necessity for the changes which Lin Nan and his fellow-reformers are trying to bring about in Chinese society. (The film takes a very positive view of the Kuomintang who ruled China at the time, probably because it was made during the Cold war and they were the avowed enemies of Mao's Communists). This was Donat's last film; he died shortly after it was finished.

Director Mark Robson was nominated for a "Best Director" Oscar, which was not undeserved. The film has its faults, but these generally have little to do with the direction. Robson keeps a firm hand on his material to create a coherent narrative out of what could otherwise have become a rather shapeless film. He was, for example, right to omit details of Aylward's adventures in Russia; the film is quite long enough already, and to have covered these incidents in greater depth would have made it seem overlong and unfocused. He provides a splendidly emotive ending in which Aylward and her young charges march to safety to the strains of "This Old Man". Yes, it might be a bit sentimental, but I defy anyone not to be moved. 7/10

Phew! – what would the world have done in the last few centuries without the missionary zeal of a handful of Caucasian heroes and heroines, who dragged the benighted places of the earth to their present enlightened heights, to the everlasting glory of God, themselves and, er…Hollywood? OK OK, I'm being a bit unfair to a very enjoyable film – and the real life woman whose story inspired it – to suggest that "The Inn of the Sixth Happiness" is blighted by the tendency to glorify the (Caucasian) individual at the expense of the (native) group. If you can watch it in context it's great cinema. Radiant Ingrid Bergman plays, somewhat implausibly but nonetheless effectively, the former servant Gladys Aylward, another in the long history of famous English Eccentrics, whose missionary zeal takes her quixotically on a difficult journey to a remote northern province of China. There, in the period leading up to WWII and Japan's attack on China, she becomes an indispensable part of the community, in no small part due to her work as the local Mandarin's Foot Inspector, travelling the province to enforce the new law banning the binding of women's feet. Along the way her life is shaped by her evolving friendship with the Mandarin himself, and her initially difficult relationship with handsome, bitter Captain Lin Nan.

That the Mandarin and Lin Nan are both played by Caucasian actors is not surprising for the 1950s, but is distracting and annoying. This casts no discredit on the actors themselves. Robert Donat's last film performance as the ageing, wily Mandarin, and Curt Jurgens' powerful study of a cold military man whose life is turned upside down, are both excellent, nuanced and committed. Bergman really throws herself into the part, and a large cast lend believability. Yang, the Chinese cook, adds comic humour with his entertainingly tall Bible tales; and there's a welcome appearance by the charismatic Burt Kwouk.

So I gleefully overlook the outdated attitudes and conventions, and immerse myself in a different world with great pleasure – but I take even greater pleasure from knowing that in the modern age, each country gets to tell their own stories, without Caucasian interference. Now great directors such as Ang Lee, Zhang Yimou, Ki-duk Kim, Kitano Takeshi, Mohsen Makhmalbaf and Idrissa Ouedraogo show the western world how it's done.

(Flash Review)

A Christian woman is being called to travel to China, this being the 50's, to work at a mission. Unable to get there through proper channels as she is unqualified and undereducated, she pays her own way and journeys there herself by rail, boat, rickshaw, etc… Upon her arrival to an isolated Chinese village, she must learn the language, the customs and win acceptance by the locals. While there, the main director of the inn passes away so she must take control of it while also working as a foot inspector (unbinding girls feet when found bound tight) as her social duties. That among resolving village problems and making friends with the local military captain win her acceptance among the people. This will serve her well when war finds their isolated village. What brave and gritty heroics will she take on during tumultuous times? Overall, this is a nice foreign period piece with the famous Bergman carrying the film. Some great rural Chinese scenes and views help bring this cinematic voyage along.

This film is quite true to life, but as Ingrid Bergman said herself, movies are for entertainment, therefore some liberties have to be taken. Bergman's return to WangCheng to marry Colonel Linnan is implied in the final scene. As to Meryl Streep being more suitable as a previous commenter suggested - words fail me!!!! Ingrid Bergman was and IS far greater than Meryl Streep - there is no comparison. Miss Bergman made no attempt to conceal her accent at the beginning of the movie - as a previous commenter suggests. She is so well-known that no one bothers to take any notice of her accent and she can play anyone of any nationality. This is a brilliant film and I happen to know that Miss Bergman researched her role in detail; she spoke at length to a Chinese lady who had had her feet bound as a child - this was when on location in North Wales. The lady was helping to look after the Chinese children. In real life Gladys Aylward DID succeed in getting one hundred children across the mountains to safety in Sian. This is a lovely film, extraordinarily well-acted by all - especially by Miss Bergman, Curt Jurgens and Robert Donat [whose last film it was]. Watch it!!!!! It's great. I don't think cynical comments have any place where this film is concerned. Today's films are nothing compared with films made in the 1940s and 1950s - they are all blood and thunder and special effects [Titanic, for example]. Visit our Yahoo club Ingrid Bergman International for more details of great films! Mary Hutchings