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By
NICK ZEGARAC
"The Inn of the Sixth
Happiness" is the fictional account of Gladys
Aylward (Ingrid Bergman), a woman with no formal
education whose only great desire in life is to
become a Christian missionary in China. After many
setbacks and rejection, Gladys makes it to a tiny
Mandarin province, presided over by Yang Cheng
(Robert Donat). Eager to rid his province of this
English woman, Cheng gives Gladys a seemingly
impossible task to perform as his foot inspector.
However, when Gladys shows remarkable foresight
and resilience in her duties, a strange and
compelling bond and friendship between the two
ensue.
This would be Robert Donat's final film. He was
greatly ailing from cancer during its production
and his on screen farewell with Bergman seems to
hit a sublimely poignant note.
As the threat of warring factions begins to grow,
Gladys succumbs to a romance with Lin Yan (Curt
Jurgens) who advises Gladys to get out before it's
too late. She does but not without rescuing a
small army of children to the British missionary
post where she is, at long last, welcomed with
open arms.
This is a lush and lavishly produced romantic epic
that really holds its own. Bergman excels as the
somewhat backward Gladys who finds within herself
a reason to live and thereafter achieves great
things through vigilance and determination.
This is a film I remember first seeing on late
night television some ten years ago. Of course,
then it was not in widescreen and its color
negative had been ravaged by time and neglect. Fox
Home Video has done an outstanding job on this
reissue. The film is presented in its proper
Cinemascope aspect ratio and looks years younger.
Colors are rich, well balanced and incredible
vivid. Black levels are strong. Edge enhancement,
aliasing and pixelization are rarely seen.
Contrast levels are strong. There is an incredible
amount of fine detail rendered throughout, even
during the darkest scenes. Wow! After such a
stunning video presentation, the audio falls a
little short of expectations. It's not 5.1 but
Stereo Surround and, at times, suffers from a
muffled characteristic. But again, it is a
complete improvement over the state that this film
has usually been seen in.
Here's my only beef with this disc: no extras,
save an audio commentary and movietones trailer.
Come on, Fox! A film worthy enough of being in
your "Studio Series" deserves at least a making-of
featurette or biography on Ingrid Bergman! |
