Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955)

User Rating:

6.6/10   

Director:

Henry King

Writers:

John Patrick (screenplay)
Han Suyin (novel)

Release Date:

26 September 1955 (Sweden)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | Romance | War

Tagline:

The price they pay when they come out of their secret garden and face the world in modern-day Hong Kong - makes this one of the screen's unforgettable experiences!

Plot:

A widowed doctor of both Chinese and European descent falls in love with a married American correspondent in Hong Kong during China's Communist revolution.

Plot Keywords:

Love | Doctor | Hong Kong | Separated | Chinese Civil War

Awards:

Won 3 Oscars. Another 2 wins & 5 nominations

Cast

William Holden	...	Mark Elliott
Jennifer Jones	...	Dr. Han Suyin
Torin Thatcher	...	Humphrey Palmer-Jones
Isobel Elsom	...	Adeline Palmer-Jones
Murray Matheson	...	Dr. John Keith
Virginia Gregg	...	Anne Richards
Richard Loo	...	Robert Hung
Soo Yong	...	Nora Hung
Philip Ahn	...	Third Uncle
Jorja Curtright	...	Suzanne
Donna Martell	...	Suchen, Suyin's sister

Runtime:

102 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Mandarin

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.55 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording) (optical prints) | 4-Track Stereo (Western Electric Recording) (magnetic prints)

Certification:

Australia:G (DVD rating) | Netherlands:AL | West Germany:12 (f) | USA:Approved (certificate #17475) | Canada:PG (video rating) | Australia:PG | Finland:S | Sweden:Btl | UK:U

Filming Locations:

20th Century Fox Studios - 10201 Pico Blvd., Century City, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

Jennifer Jones reportedly chewed garlic cloves before her love scenes with William Holden to deter her notoriously womanizing co-star.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: When the orderly comes to get Dr. Han in the operating room at the beginning of the movie, one of the members of the film crew (a man wearing glasses) can be seen reflected in the window of the right-hand door to the O.R.

Quotes:

Dr. Han Suyin: Our gorgeous lie did not even last the night.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Grease (1978)

Soundtrack:

Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing

A Many-splendored film

I purchased the DVD for this one, having seen the trailer for it on another DVD. I am fascinated by the film for several reasons and wonder whether it was really filmed in Hong Kong. The paradisiac scenery of the film, continuous anticyclonic weather, clear blue skies, the beautiful hill with the tree behind the hospital, a deserted beach etc etc all seem to have very little to to with the pictures we see of HK today - rain, mist and thousands of skyscrapers ... could it really be the same place, or was the film in reality shot elsewhere ? Perhaps HK internauts could confirm or deny ! Does that hill with its tree really exist.

In French the film is called " La Colline de l'Adieu " ( Goodbye hill )

Apart from this, I don't like the Cinemascope format, all the characters seem to small, so I have to use the zoom on my DVD to fill the screen ( losing picture detail in the process of course ).

Perhaps Mr William Holden liked the Orient, I'd already seen him in Suzie Wong and it was interesting to compare the two films. SW was more gutsy and crude than LIAMST.

I love the theme music of this film and have countless different recordings of it. I also loved both actors, both Holden and Jones were beautiful people. Repeated viewings of the DVD have brought me to like the film more and more, but I would have preferred just a little more passion in the love scenes. Also, JJ as a Chinese person leaves a little to be desired, beautiful though she is, she doesn't have the mannerisms of a Chinese person. It would be interesting to have an Oriental point of view on this one.

Should I add that the FINAL scene on the hill tightens the spectator's throat to a point of near suffocation !