The Inn of the Sixth Happiness
Directed by Mark Robson
Written by Isobel Linnart from a novel by Alan Burgess
1958/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
First viewing/Netflix rental
[box] [Robert Donat’s final line in his final film] The Mandarin: We shall not see each other again, I think. Farewell, Jen-Ai.[/box]
This is an overlong but solid drama about faith and endurance, featuring the always radiant Ingrid Bergman.
The film is loosely based on the true story of Gladys Aylward, an English missionary to China. Gladys (Bergman) is a simple working-class girl who feels called to spread the gospel in China. She applies to the official missionary society and is rejected as “unqualified” due to her humble class and education. Undeterred, Gladys goes to work for an aristocratic China hand as second maid and saves enough money for an un-sponsored journey by train through Europe and the USSR.
She has an introduction to an elderly missionary in hand and joins her to establish the titular inn in a remote mountain town. This is designed to attract muleteers with its lack of fleas, good food, and Bible stories. Gladys’s colleague dies soon after and she must carry on on her own, but has no funds.
Fortunately, Gladys’s financial worries are resolved when she is befriended by a mandarin (Robert Donat) who is under instructions by Chang Kai-Shek’s government to enforce the law requiring girl’s feet to be unbound. He is in need of a willing “foot inspector” and Gladys fills the bill nicely. She also becomes his messenger to the hinterlands and very popular with the populace. At about the same time, Gladys meets Nationalist Capt. Lin Nan (Curd Jurgens) and they eventually become friends and start an unconsumated romance.
Time goes by and China is invaded by the Japanese. Gladys has adopted several children and is entrusted with about a hundred more whom she must take across treacherous mountains to safety.
It was touching and a bit sad to see Donat in his final film. I thought this was quite OK but it could have been trimmed by at least half an hour with no ill effects. The DVD contains a good commentary by film scholars. It appears that the trek across the mountains was only one of the many hardships Gladys underwent in service of her Lord.
The Inn of the Sixth Happiness was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director.
Trailer
