Angustia de un querer

Love is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955)

This should have been could have been terrific, and it won five (five!) Academy awards, including for it's now more famous title song. One reason it was a hit was it was deeply romantic and epic and yet dealing with a vividly disturbing issue for Americans, the take over of China by Communist rule.

William Holden, at the height of his fame, holds his own in his restrained and slightly diffident way, and Jennifer Jones is forceful and believable and likable, if a hair too mannered for my taste and too frankly lovely for the good of the movie. This is a love story set against a new kind of wartime, leading eventually to the Korean War, and there is nothing better for a movie than love and war. Ask Tolstoy. The filming is wide screen saturated color in that first two years of this kind of spectacle, and like other films of the mid-fifties it falls victim to being pretty at times. The events are set in Hong Kong and that's part of the visual charm, but it's also a distraction for the filmmakers, drifting (just slightly at times) into a travelogue.

There, all my reservations are out of the way. If you can not worry about how "good" the movie is or what it could have been (compared to others, or just on it's own formal terms), it's a vivid, engrossing, politically loaded situation with two charming and beautiful actors. It might be a surprise that Jones plays a Chinese doctor (Eurasian, officially), Dr. Han Suyin (Jones was actually an Oklahoma girl), but this is what Hollywood was still demanding of its casts, afraid to diversify. And depending on star power to succeed. Holden plays Mark Elliott, a journalist.

As the affair begins between our leads, Dr. Han Suyin (a widow) says to Elliott, after he wonders why she'd go out with a married man, "I thought if you were happily married there could be no danger, and if you weren't it could make no difference." And it begins there, freighted with desire and worry. You know somehow that things will not go smoothly, and they don't, though the plot is oddly prosaic at times. It's partly the script, but also, oddly enough, the filming, with a very static camera (which sits and waits as the actors talk, beautiful backdrops and all). I think Jones and Holden are "creditable" in their roles, a good word because it's so awkward and awful.

One thing that happened for me, in 2011, was getting washed in nostalgia. It's a movie about falling in love as the world is spinning out of control around you. It's before cell phones and constant news--so some of the best scenes are out of touch with everything in the world except the two of them. The music swells, the sun hits the blue waters in the bay, and it seems like a huge escape. I suppose that's what it was for them, from their histories, from their obligations. Eventually the world caught up, however, and things unravel.

Another great thing about the movie, however old-fashioned the approach might seem, is the racial conflicts at work, for and against them. It is maybe the big theme of the movie, when all is said and done. This is a tear jerker of the largest magnitude. Soak it up.

This film immediately catches the eye, with the atmospheric aerial views of a very pretty Hong Hong. Filmed in those rich colours of 1950 films which modern blockbusters never seem to capture. Probably a sign of those times, because this is not a high powered, seen it all before film, full of havoc and violence. The havoc and violence are there though, in the backdrop, with thousands of refugees trying to get out of China This is a very moving and compelling story, full of hope and love in a tragic time, in recent history. The story of two people from different cultures falling in love. And the build up to them trying to overcome this is at the heart of this very fine and moving film.

This movie will likely be too sentimental for many viewers, especially contemporary audiences. Nevertheless I enjoyed this film thanks mostly to the down-to-earth charm of William Holden, one of my favorite stars, and the dazzling beauty of Jennifer Jones. There are some truly heartwarming scenes between the pair and the talent of these two actors rescues what in lesser hands could've been trite lines. The cinematography of Hong Kong from the period of filming is another highlight of this movie. All in all, a better than average romantic drama, 7/10.

Some movies just stands up to the changes of time. This is one such movie. Why it never gets old is because it's a quality production, with good settings and story.

I really love this movie, although the story is kind of simple, the situation is not. Jennifer Jones plays an Eurasian woman from Chung King, and William Holden a reporter from Singapore. Two people from a very different background meet in one of the most international city in the world - Hong Kong - where old Chinese culture and new capitalism meet. Now that would be confusing to anyone who's trying to sort out their relationship.

The movie combines all these elements well, and exotic Hong Kong location adds to the beauty of the story. It's interesting to see Hong Kong in 1955, comparing it to Hong Kong of today. Some places looks similar like the Victoria Peak (although it has no high rise buildings), but Aberdeen was much less crowded.

Music score is a real tear jerker.

If you like romance, this is one of the best movie you can watch.

... in my opinion, of course. There are films that come close-- An Affair To Remember, Rome Holiday, and several others. But for sheer appeal to die-hard romantics like myself, Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing is the absolute pinnacle. It qualifies as a "perfect" romantic vehicle in my mind because of it's perfection in all areas of the cinematic art-- story, script, location, acting, even in it's controversial subject matter, illicit love. But in the capable hands of William Holden and Jennifer Jones (a truly inspired bit of casting), both still in the prime of their careers, it became a thing of beauty forever. In fact, one totally forgets the racial context of their love affair, leaving only the passion and romance. I even loved the theme song, which like the film itself, has become a romantic standard over the many decades since it was made. This was the first movie that made me cry like a baby, the dramatic emotional impact in my life, totally unforgettable. This epic film, exploring everything from racism to the the horrific toll of war, is one for the ages.