I watched the Ingrid Bergman film Inn of the Sixth Happiness tonight. It’s been long on my To Watch list and today I just felt like watching it. It was one of those films that was always on the telly in the black and white Seventies (made in 1958), and I’d see bits of it, but had never seen the whole thing. It was amazing to see it all in colour and on widescreen. I liked it a lot. Bergman plays an inexperienced though idealistic Christian woman called Gladys Aylward who wants to be a missionary in China. So, she works to save up the money to go there, and does just that. She ends up at the titled Inn in an out of the way province run by an old woman missionary called Mrs Lawson who helps her settle into her role. I liked that the film didn’t push the whole Christian missionary angle. Even though Mrs Lawson tells stories from the Bible to the many travellers visiting the inn, it’s mostly through the many actions of self sacrifice and dedication that demonstrates their true faith and the value of their religious beliefs. To this end, the final section has Bergman guide a group of one hundred children through hazardous mountains to sanctuary when the Japanese invade the country.
It’s an epic film and Bergman looks wonderful in it, even though she’s meant to be a dowdy missionary. There’s even a love interest for her with Curt Jurgen’s soldier character (which did not happen to the MC in real life). Robert Donat plays a local chieftan who helps Gladys, and he’s very good as usual – even though he’s a white actor playing a Chinese character. Some reviewers on Letterboxd derided him for doing this, but I say shut up, he’s fine. While the first Five Happinesses are known, I like that the whole point of the Sixth Happiness is that it is unknown and has to be found within each person’s own heart. Bergman’s character clearly discovers this Happiness within herself in her life in China. I felt like this was a film I needed. It was great to complete my memory of those fleeting old black and white viewings.