Angustia de un querer

Han Suyin's autobiographical novel "A Many-Splendored Thing" becomes glossy, unconvincingly clean and luxurious romance set in Hong Kong, 1949, wherein a widowed female doctor of Chinese-English descent falls for an American correspondent stuck in a loveless marriage. John Patrick adapted Suyin's story, apparently turning her heartfelt remembrances into swooning romantic dross complete with poor dialogue exchanges (He: "I can't believe you're a doctor." .. She: "Too bad we don't have a scalpel, I could make a small incision."). Dark-haired, pale-skinned Jennifer Jones meets handsome, smiling William Holden at a party and immediately feigns indignance, as if widowed women bury their sexuality (or feel they must appear to) once a man takes an interest in them. Henry King directs the proceedings with a gentle touch, bringing it all to a misty-eyed flourish, yet Jones' character is never an embraceable one. Constantly referring to her heritage (and the fact she's "Eurasian"), this lady is forthright in all the wrong ways (she'd be more likely to turn off Holden's reporter rather than keep him around). Jones (who got an Oscar nomination) and Holden do create a loving rapport which becomes sweeter once Jennifer loosens up. This hard-working woman curiously puts a great deal of stock into superstitions (omens, Proverbs, butterflies), which seems out of step with such a no-nonsense lady; the sequence where she travels back home to Chunking to visit relatives is also odd (it doesn't take shape, it just appears as though she's running away). Holden performs in a low, easy key and glides through rather unperturbed (nothing ruffles this guy, but there's nothing to explain his devotion either; the man is obviously touched by this woman, but that doesn't tell us much about him). Alfred Newman's Oscar-winning music (and the memorable, Oscar-winning theme song by Sammy Fain and Paul Francis Webster) are lovely, and the locations are gorgeous, though the obvious studio shots are too tidy--even the hospital where Jones works seems overly opulent. A nice-enough weeper for soap fans, though one without the substance to entice a wider audience. **1/2 from ****

This film always hits me hard emotionally at the end. Though the issues of the film - interracial romance and adultery - were controversial at the time, this film goes way beyond those narrow parameters and instead penetrates into ground-breaking novelty and trail-blazing uniqueness. Here we have a true love story, as written by the woman involved in this love affair, told in a brilliant aggressive style that extols the virtues and glory of mad passionate love. I "love" this endorsement of the only emotion that makes life truly worth living. Jennifer Jones is full of grace and William Holden is simply magnificent in his role as a reporter. A wonderful film that only people who have been in this kind of love can really appreciate and understand. And for those who haven't yet been in love, even just the hope that one day lightning can strike for you makes life worth living - because love is worth having even if but for a short time - even if you lose - because love is the "stuff" - the essence - of life. This film works for me. A warmly felt experience!

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 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.

... 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.