The Inn of the Sixth Happiness...

The Inn of the Sixth Happiness is a film based on The Small Woman, Alan Burgess' biography of Gladys Aylward. She was an English woman who, against advice, became a Christian missionary in China during the 1930's; effecting social reform and eventually leading a group of orphaned children to safety following the Japanese invasion.

The Inn of the Sixth Happiness starred Ingrid Bergman in the lead role and was filmed in 1958 at Elstree studios and on location in Snowdonia where the Beddgelert area doubled for the Chinese countryside (it was also where Carry on up the Khyber was filmed ten years later). Rumour has it that the studio used staff from every Chinese restaurant in Liverpool, Birmingham and Manchester for the extras needed for the film.

This film always makes me cry. Guaranteed. Every time. I first saw it with my mother when I was only 7 or 8 where I cried - and I've cried on every subsequent viewing. I'm not sure why it gets me going and I'm not sure I want to know why. It's something deep down; a gut level reaction and boy do I blub whenever I watch it. I even start to well up when I hear Malcolm Arnold's music from the film.

Here's the film's climactic last scene. Now, where's my box of Kleenex...