The Inn of the Sixth Happiness

The renowned story of Gladys Aylward (played by Bergman), an ex-housemaid who became a missionary in China in the 1930s. Sketchily scripted and shamelessly glamorised (Aylward bitterly resented being depicted as having had an affair with a Chinese army officer, played by Jurgens), the film is nevertheless a proficiently mounted blend of spectacle and human interest; and the famous climax (Aylward leading the orphaned children over the mountains) is a throat-tightener. The last film of Robert Donat, who looked very ill in his part as the Mandarin. DMcG.