The Inn of the Sixth Happiness **** (1958, Ingrid Bergman, Robert Donat, Curd Jürgens) – Classic Movie Review 6596

Director Mark Robson’s long but satisfying 1958 British drama The Inn of the Sixth Happiness stars Ingrid Bergman, who triumphs over her physical miscasting in a heartwarming turn as Gladys Aylward, the English missionary who brings Christianity to war-torn Thirties China.

Robson was nominated for an Oscar for Best Director and it won a Golden Globe for Best Film Promoting International Understanding.

In his final role, an ailing Robert Donat movingly plays the Mandarin of Yang Cheng, whom Bergman’s Aylward turns to Christianity, and co-starring Curd Jürgens [Curt Jurgens] plays Captain Lin Nan, a half-Chinese army officer she falls for. But it is the British stalwart players like Athene Seyler (Mrs Lawson), Ronald Squire (Sir Francis Jameson), Moultrie Kelsall (as Dr Robinson) and Richard Wattis (Mr Murfin) who truly give the movie its real texture.

Donat died on 9 June 1958, aged only 53, before the film was premiered (in London) on 23 November 1958, and affectingly his last scene is a final goodbye.

With this being a British film, China was impersonated by the north Welsh hills, and other Welsh locations, with the rest filmed in the studio at MGM British Studios, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, England.

Also in the cast are Peter Chong, Noel Hood, Joan Young, Michael David, Bert Kwouk, Edith Sharpe, Tsai Chin and Lian-Shin Yang.

The Inn of the Sixth Happiness runs 158 minutes, is written by Isobel Lennart, based on the novel by Alan Burgess, shot by Freddie Young, produced by Buddy Adler and Mark Robson, scored by Malcolm Arnold, and designed by John Box and Geoffrey Drake.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6596

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