| The Inn of the Sixth Happiness | |
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Original film poster |
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| Directed by | Mark Robson |
| Produced by | Buddy Adler |
| Written by | Alan Burgess (book) Isobel Lennart |
| Starring | Ingrid Bergman Curd Jürgens Robert Donat |
| Music by | Malcolm Arnold |
| Cinematography | Freddie Young |
| Editing by | Ernest Walter |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
| Release date(s) | December 11, 1958 |
| Running time | 158 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English Mandarin Japanese Russian |
The Inn of the Sixth Happiness is a 1958 American 20th Century Fox film based on the true story of Gladys Aylward, a tenacious British maid, who became a missionary in China during the tumultuous years leading up to World War II. Directed by Mark Robson, who received an Academy Award for Directing nomination, the film stars Ingrid Bergman as Aylward and Curt Jürgens as her love interest, Colonel Lin Nan, a Chinese officer with a Dutch father. Robert Donat, who played the mandarin of the town in which Aylward lived, died before the film was released. The musical score was composed and conducted by Malcolm Arnold. The cinematography was by Freddie Young.
The film was shot in Britain. Snowdonia in Wales was used for exterior locations. Most of the children in the film were Chinese children from Liverpool, which has one of the oldest Chinese communities in Europe.[1][2]
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The story begins with Aylward being rejected as a potential missionary to China because of her lack of education. Dr. Robinson, the senior missionary, feels sorry for her and secures her a position in the home of a veteran explorer with contacts in China. Over the next few months, Aylward saves her money to purchase a ticket on the Trans-Siberian railway, choosing the more dangerous overland route to the East because it is less expensive.
Once in China, she settles in the town of Yang Cheng, where she secures a post as assistant to a veteran missionary, Jeannie Lawson (played by Athene Seyler), who has set up an inn for traveling merchants, where they can get a hot meal and hear stories from the Bible. The film follows Aylward's acculturation, culminating in her taking over the inn when Lawson dies in an accident.
The local mandarin appoints Aylward, a stubborn but endearing woman, as his Foot Inspector to ensure that the ancient practice of foot binding is eradicated in the region he governs. She succeeds in this, and manages to put down a prison revolt as well, winning her the esteem of the local population as well as of the mandarin. Meanwhile, however, China is being invaded by Japan, and Aylward is encouraged by Lin to leave. She refuses, and as the town of Yang Cheng comes under attack, she finds that she has fifty orphans in her care.
As the population prepares to evacuate the town, the mandarin announces that he is converting to Christianity to honour Aylward and her work (she is rather taken aback by this, as she would have preferred him to convert through religious conviction.) She is now left alone with the children, aided by Li, the former leader of the prison revolt that she helped to resolve (played by Burt Kwouk). Lin tells her that the only hope for safety is to take the children to the next province, where trucks will drive them to safety, but they must get there within three weeks, or else the trucks will leave without them.
Just as they are preparing to leave, another fifty orphans appear from a neighbouring town, so Aylward and Li have no choice but to lead one hundred children on a trek across the countryside. Although it should only have taken them a week, the roads are infested with Japanese patrols, and the group has no choice but to cut across the mountains. After a long, difficult journey, they all arrive safely (except for Li, who died to save them from a Japanese patrol) on the day the trucks are to leave. Aylward is greeted by Dr. Robinson, whom she reminds how he rejected her as a missionary years before.
The film culminates with the column of children, led by Aylward, marching into the town, singing the song "This Old Man" to keep up their spirits.
Filmed in Nanmor, near Beddgelert in 1957. A gold-painted statue of Buddha that was used on a set for the film is now at the Italianate village of Portmeirion, North Wales. Sean Connery was considered for the role of Colonel Lin. The screen tests from this can be seen on the DVD.
The film makers, since release, have been criticised for casting Ingrid Bergman, a tall woman with a Swedish accent, as Gladys Aylward, who was in fact short and had a cockney accent. Likewise, the two leads, British actor Robert Donat and Austrian actor Curt Jurgens were not even Chinese.
The film was based on the book The Small Woman (1957), by Alan Burgess.
The real Gladys Aylward (1902–1970) was born in London. She was a former domestic turned missionary in China and best known for her work with children. Aylward became a Chinese citizen in 1936. Four years later, despite being in ill health herself, she led more than 100 children over the mountains to safety at the height of the Second Sino-Japanese War.
In 1958, the year this film was released, she founded a children's home in Taiwan, which she continued to run until her death. Known in China as "Ai-weh-deh", or "Virtuous One", she continues to be regarded as a national heroine.
Gladys Aylward was deeply upset by the inaccuracy of the movie. Although she found herself a figure of international interest thanks to the popularity of the movie and television and media interviews, Aylward was mortified by her depiction in the film and the many liberties it took. The tall, Swedish Ingrid Bergman was inconsistent with Aylward's small stature, dark hair and cockney accent. The struggles of Aylward and her family to effect her initial trip to China were skipped over in favor of a plot device of an employer "condescending to write to 'his old friend' Jeannie Lawson," and Aylward's dangerous, complicated travels across Russia and China were reduced to "a few rude soldiers," after which "Hollywood's train delivered her neatly to Tsientsin."[3] Many characters and places' names were changed, even when their names had significant meanings, such as those of her adopted children and of her inn, named for the Chinese belief in the number 8 as an auspicious number. Colonel Linnan was portrayed as half-European, a change which she found insulting to his Chinese lineage, and she felt her reputation damaged by the Hollywood-embellished love scenes in the film; not only had she never kissed any man, but also the film's ending portrayed her character abandoning the orphans in order to join the colonel elsewhere[4] even though in reality she did not retire from working with orphans until she was sixty years old.[5] In real life, Gladys and Lin Nan were not reunited - he was lost in the war and she never knew what happened to him.[6]
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