The Inn of the Sixth Happiness

Plot synopsis:
The story begins with Aylward (Ingrid Bergman) being rejected as a potential missionary to China because of her lack of education. Dr. Robinson (Moultrie Kelsall), 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 (Athene Seyler). Lawson 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 (Robert Donat) 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 and of the Mandarin. Meanwhile, however, China is being invaded by Japan, and Aylward is encouraged by Lin (Curt Jürgens) 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 now left alone with the children, aided by Li (Burt Kwouk), the former leader of the prison revolt she helped to resolve. Lin tells her that the only hope for safety is to take the children to the next province, where trucks will evacuate them to a safer area, but they must get there within three weeks, or the trucks will leave without them.
Just as they are preparing to leave, another fifty orphans appear from a neighboring 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 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, and she reminds him of 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.

Tags: violence

Review:
And that would probably explain the second half of the movie where Ingrid doesn't speak with the same strong accent, great acting, I believe!For the Asian watching such a movie, there was very little to complain about.
The story is surprisingly a true one - Gladys Aylward was a British servant who believed her calling was to preach in China.Inn of the Sixth Happiness was done in the old Hollywood style with a bit of romance built in, but that seems to be the only way they deviated from the real story.Ingrid Bergman does a wonderful job of recreating Gladys and the movie cinematography really captures the old China I knew.I would highly recommend this to anyone who wants to be entertained, and to anyone with a sense of adventure..
Gladys meanwhile has succeeded in restoring order in a prison uprising with her healing presence, and when Lin Nan finds it necessary to warn the people of the countryside against the Japanese, Gladys, through bandits she has befriended and are now devoted to her, manages to aid him in his efforts...Lin and Gladys gradually fall in love, and before he leaves to rejoin the Chinese forces, he gives her a jade ring as a token of his feeling, and promises that they will someday be permanently together...The Japanese attack, and it becomes necessary to march 100 motherless children to a mission safe in the interior...
Before Gladys volunteers for, and leaves on, the mission with the children, the Mandarin offers her a parting gift: his conversion to Christianity.There is no doubt about the splendor of Ingrid Bergman dramatizing Gladys Aylward, the "woman who wasn't qualified to come to China." With a luminous smile, she fills the screen with radiance, bringing missionary work purity of spirit, challenge, simplicity, frankness, honesty, energy, force and love...The film, based on the novel "The Small Woman" by Alan Burgess, is a fine adventure story with love, war, religion, comedy, music, and spectacle...Hollywood took some liberties in romancing the character with a Chinese officerwhich was not trueGladys Aylward (1904-70) was a great 'little woman' who lived a virtuous life full of quality, respect and admiration...
Once more, in this film as she had in her earlier films, Ingrid Bergman proves she was "A PERFECT ACTRESS!" In this film, "Inn of the Sixth Happiness," she plays Englishwoman Gladys Aylward who knew that China was the place where she belonged.
In the 30's, the working-class Englishwoman Gladys Aylward (Ingrid Bergman) leaves Liverpool and arrives in London, trying to join the China Missionary Society expecting to be sent to China.
She is successful, changes her nationality to Chinese and her name to Jen-ai (meaning "the one who loves people"), surprising the skeptical bi-racial Captain Lin Nan (Curt Jurgens).
When Wangcheng is invaded by the Japanese, Jen-ai travels through the mountains with one hundred children to save them from death."The Inn of the Sixth Happiness" is a wonderful and engaging epic based on the true story of the enlightened Gladys Aylward.
Ingrid Bergman is stunning in the role of a servant in a period of class struggle in London determined to go to China where she believes she belongs and has a mission from God to be accomplished.
The colors and the landscapes are impressive, but the cast of Ingrid Bergman as a woman not gorgeous; Curt Jurgens as a Chinese-Caucasian; and Robert Donat as a Chinese is weird, but they have perfect performances and I believe that is what matters in a film.
This film concerns the life and achievements of one Gladys Aylward, a Christian woman from Great Britain who conceived early on that her place in the world was in China.
She worked as a maid to get the money to get a one way ticket to China with only an address of an aged female missionary who needed a young assistant.This film marked Ingrid Bergman's complete return to our fickle public's favor.
No one would get away with that casting today, but Robert Donat is also that good a player.I'm sure if the film were remade today, we'd have real oriental players like Russell Wong for the Colonel and James Shigeta for the mandarin and maybe someone like Kate Winslet for Gladys Aylward.
I suppose the best way to lead is by example and Ingrid Bergman as Gladys Aylward set the best example she could.
She gave up her British citizenship and became a Chinese citizen.The film was helped a great deal by the inclusion of that children's song This Old Man where Ingrid tries to teach her youngest charges some English with it.
I understand that the real Gladys Aylward, on whose life the film is based, was embarrassed by the fictional "love story" portion of the film.
The three main actors, Ingrid Bergman, Robert Donat, and Kurt Jurgens, put in excellent and nuanced performances.
There are, of course, quite a few creative licenses taken at the expense of the actual life of Gladys Aylward (which IMHO is actually much more inspiring) but that is to be expected with cinema.What surprised me even more was that Robert Donat who played the Mandarin (the literal translation of his title in the movie would be County Governor; ie.
Gladys was a young woman who felt led by God to go to one of the poorest, uncivilized areas of the world, to preach the story of Jesus, brave a treacherous trip across many lands, learn a strange new language, face the hostility of a people with a different religious background, etc.
She had heard second hand that Gladys hadn't been too thrilled with the film; however the "fan book" seemed to declare that bit of gossip a fallacy.Robert Donat does a wonderful job of acting as the leading official of the town.
I like the way the two of them slowly mellow towards each other during the progression of their relationship; it is one of the chief delights of the film.I highly recommend this film to people of faith and to people without faith in God. With so few major motion pictures ever made about people who desire to preach the Christian gospel, it is a nice change to view this classic movie and be inspired..
This movie pulled you into the characters like a great book and you wanted Gladys to succeed, yet it was not always a sure thing.
I think "The INN" Is the best movie Ingrid made.Her acting was so beautiful, it made me cry.It's about a missionary,Gladys Alwayd.
And LARRBLUE I have read seval books on Gladys and it IS TRUE that the children were smiling and pointing to the yellow river even though they were starving.I do agree that some parts were hollywood-atzion, but the inn rules and is the best movie in the world!
I don't know if the real Ingrid Bergman was a saint, but she was better than any other actor or actress at conveying the saintly in us.Bergman positively glows in this simple tale of a maid, who is rejected as a missionary and achieves greatness all the same.
As a matter of fact, it could be used for any British war film.I also just saw a very similar movie "The Devil at 4 O'Clock." Sixth Happiness is considerably better, thanks to Bergman, and the decision not to have a subplot for the teenagers.
This movie is based on the book, "The Small Woman" which is the true story of Gladys Alyward who went to China as a missionary.
Even though this movie might seem to have the ingredients to make it very mushy (a la "The Sound of Music"), it is so based in real life that it is able to sustain the gritty realism that a person would face going to a remote place in China in the years before World War 2 (and indoor plumbing).
This is a story of a real English woman (Gladys Aylward) who gave her life for the Chinese people as a missionary with surprisingly strong will.She visited the office of China Inland Mission Center in London only to be refused.
Robert Donat's performance will always be a touching farewell and for me gives the film a genuine touch of reality, portraying a noble man near the end of his life who is doing his part to help change things for the better with Gladys' help of course.The romance between Jurgens (not a eurasian as portrayed but a chinaman in real life) and Bergman does irritate now that I know it did not occur, but the rest of the film is pretty true, though I gather Gladys was as awkward and stubborn as only a missionary can be, and Jeannie Lawson (Athene Seyler) was a really difficult person.
Ingrid Bergman gives a strong performance as a sort of Gladis of China, an unusual woman who finds a fulfilling life in a foreign culture and foreign tongue.
Watching The Inn of the Sixth Happiness is uplifting story about a woman was a domestic in England, who went to China to help.
This movie is based on the true story of Gladys Aylward.
The "Inn of the 6th happiness" based on the memories of Gladys Aylward filmed in 1958 is without any doubt one of the best movies that I've ever seen.The performances of Ingrid Bergman and Robert Donat are just superb.
"The Inn of the Sixth Happiness" is a somewhat true biographical tale of Gladys Aylward, a British missionary to China who was beloved by the people.
Gladys (Ingrid Bergman) has arrived at a missionary society office in order to be deployed to China.
This 'an interfering woman' not only ran the inn but was appointed foot inspector, ran a school, was a prison reformer and ultimately saved many children's lives when war with Japan broke out a few years later.So is this a good movie?
I saw this film years and years ago, and I never forgot it because of Ingrid Bergman's magnificent performance.Bergman plays Gladys Aylward, a British woman who wants to be a missionary in China; however, she's turned down due to lack of qualifications.
Together, the women open the Inn of the Sixth Happiness where mule drivers can stay, enjoy the food, and hear the Biblical stories.Over time, Gladys becomes beloved in the community for her strength of purpose, her warmth, and her love of the Chinese people.
But when the Japanese attack in the '30s, it falls to Gladys to get 100 children, including several she has adopted, over the mountains to safety.Though Gladys Aylward hated this movie, the script actually follows the events of her own life closely, and that includes the soldier with whom she falls in love.
One of her best performances, and a role worthy of her great talent.This was Robert Donat's last film; he died while it was still being made.
It is cast strictly for effect (with glowing Swede Ingrid Bergman cast as a glowing Brit who wants nothing but to serve God and help children--how about that?--or Brit Robert Donat playing a Chinese governor!).
Can you imagine that not a word was mentioned about this movie, only a listing on the day "the inn of the 7th Happiness: Ingrid Bergman"!
"The Inn of the Sixth Happiness" tells the true story of Gladys Aylward, an Englishwoman in the 1930s who was turned down when she applied to be a missionary in China and instead decided to pack up and head there on her own to see what contributions she could make.
I look to movies to tell me good storied well told, not dogged recreations of things as they actually happened, and I know how to take my films with a grain of salt, thank you very much.
And this movie tells a good story, and tells it very well.Ingrid Bergman shines as Aylward in a much more physical role than any I'd seen her in previously.
The film turns into a kind of Chinese version of the "The Sound of Music" in its later parts, as Aylward leads a large group of children from one village to another across a harsh and rugged landscape in order to find safety from political conflict.
One can't help but feel like this is a very sanitized version of events, but come on, this was 1958, and in any case would anyone want to watch a movie about the acute suffering of a bunch of children?A love story gets old fast and feels obligatory, even if it actually happened.
On the other hand, I thought I would find Robert Donat cringe worthy playing a Chinese elder in yellow face, but I thought his parts of the movie were rather delightful.For what it's worth, my mother turned my on to this movie because the real Gladys Aylward visited her high school back in the 1950s to speak about the experiences depicted in this film, and she claimed that the movie was fairly accurate.Mark Robson received a Best Director nomination for this movie, the only nomination it managed to collect.
Very Hollywood "based on a true story" movie about a white woman (played by Ingrid Bergman) who goes to China during a time of great unrest to spread the word of God. It's not quite as offensive as it sounds.
And the children came rolling home too,so to speak ,as they sang the famous little ditty."The inn of the sixth happiness" cannot be taken seriously today (could it be in 1958 anyway?) :it's a Hollywoodian extravaganza ,where Robert Donat plays a mandarin and Curd Jurgens a "half Chinese half white" handsome officer who falls in love with Gladys:it's really a madhouse !The movie is a vehicle for Bergman ,who wanted to repeat her Joan of Arc act:even her hairdo recalls the Maid from Orleans.It's a chocolate box China ,where Bergman is Donat's "foot inspector" (sic),then prison troubleshooter ,and finally the children's providence.For his last part,Robert Donat over-emotionalizes his last lines ,which could be valuable if the movie rose to the occasion.The love scenes Bergman/Jurgends are convention itself .It' really amazing that Bergman chose to return to this old hat melodrama after the glorious Rossellini hour.If you consider "sixth happiness" as a relic, a kitsch entertainment,you can enjoy it ;the crossing of the mountains and the lilting "nick nack paddy wack " song is fun to watch.Give the dog a bone!.
I know from related reading that the real - life Nurse Gladys Aylward (still alive when the film was released) was upset by the phony insertion of a love interest between her and the army captain.
I strongly believe it weakens the dynamic premise of the film - here was a woman single-mindedly devoted to missionary work amongst the people and particularly children of an obscure North Chinese province and it just detracts from her religious dedication to her cause for her to be swooning around a handsome Eurasian as played by Curt Jurgens.
All told, however, I found the film too sentimental reflecting more on the merits of Bergman the actress than on Aylward whose true - life story this was.
Despite good performances from Ingrid Bergman and a very interesting first half, the bloated screenplay and "Hollywood" second half make this movie disappointing overall.
He never reappears at the end of the movie and you aren't told what happened to him.I can't help thinking how much better Meryl Streep would be in this role-- at least her accent would have been impeccable.The story parallels that of the Exodus from Egypt, and since the protagonist is a missionary, that parallel should have been emphasized more clearly, the way it was done masterfully in "Shakespeare in Love".At the end, the "Hollywood-ization" of the movie has completely taken over, and Ingrid and the children perch at the top of a mountain, looking at the "promised land" (the Yellow River) and smiling and pointing.
Never mind that these kids are starving and exhausted and probably near death (in real life)-- they smile and point just the way the director told them to.They don't make movies like this anymore-- even in Hollywood-- and thank God for that..
This film is quite true to life, but as Ingrid Bergman said herself, movies are for entertainment, therefore some liberties have to be taken.
This is a lovely film, extraordinarily well-acted by all - especially by Miss Bergman, Curt Jurgens and Robert Donat [whose last film it was].
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.
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.
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.
***SPOILERS***   ***SPOILERS*** A wonderful true life story of a middle aged woman(a maid) in London that has it in her heart to go to china to become a Missionary.
Gladys (Ingrid Bergman) continues the lady's work and things get harder for her as the invasion of the country from the Japanese cause the people of china move to other parts of the country to stay safe from the war.
The obvious choice to play Gladys Aylward was Ingrid Bergman.
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.
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.