| Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing | |
|---|---|
Original film poster |
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| Directed by | Henry King |
| Produced by | Buddy Adler |
| Written by | John Patrick Han Suyin book |
| Starring | William Holden Jennifer Jones |
| Music by | Alfred Newman Sammy Fain title song |
| Cinematography | Leon Shamroy, ASC |
| Distributed by | Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation |
| Release date(s) | August 18, 1955 |
| Running time | 102 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing is a 1955 American drama-romance film. Set in 1949-50 Hong Kong, it tells the story of a married, but separated, American reporter (played by William Holden), who falls in love with a Eurasian doctor originally from China (played by Jennifer Jones), only to encounter prejudice from her family and from Hong Kong society.
The movie was adapted by John Patrick from the 1952 novel A Many-Splendoured Thing by Han Suyin. The film was directed by Henry King.
The movie later inspired a television soap opera in 1967, though without the hyphen in the show's title.
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The widowed Eurasian doctor Han Suyin (Jones) falls in love with the married-but-separated American correspondent Mark Elliott (Holden) in Hong Kong, during the period of China's Communist Revolution. While they find brief happiness, she is ostracized by her Chinese community.
Nominated and winning multiple Academy Awards, Variety characterized it as "beautiful, absorbing."
The film won Academy Awards for Best Costume Design, Color, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture and Best Music, Song (for Sammy Fain and Paul Francis Webster for "Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing"). It was nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Jennifer Jones), Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color (Lyle Wheeler, George Davis, Walter M. Scott, Jack Stubbs), Best Cinematography, Color, Best Picture and Best Sound, Recording (Carlton W. Faulkner).[1][2]
Filming locations in Hong Kong included:
The sentimental and upbeat theme song, "Love is a Many-Splendored Thing" was one of the first songs written for a movie to become no. 1 in the charts in the same year. Written by Sammy Fain and Paul Francis Webster, the song was recorded by The Four Aces and also by Jerry Vale, Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra, among others. Italian-language versions were recorded by Nancy Cuomo, Neil Sedaka, and Connie Francis. Francis also recorded the song with its original English lyrics, and a German language version, Sag, weißt du denn, was Liebe ist.
Here's a sample of the song's lyrics:
In the film, charged romantic moments occur on a high grassy, windswept hill in Hong Kong. In the bittersweet final scene on the hilltop, the song (heard on the sound track) recalls the earlier encounters:
The theme song, as recorded by The Four Aces, went to #1 on the charts for four weeks in 1955 (in the midst of the rock-and-roll era) and won the Academy Award for Best Song.