Love is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955)
Review by Dindrane
Film:
DVD:

Written by John Patrick, based on the novel by Han Suyin
Directed by Henry King
Starring Jennifer Jones, William Holden, Torin Thatcher, Isobel Elsom, Murray Matheson

Features:

• Running audio commentary by film historian Michael Lonzo, film historian Sylvia Stoddard, and expert on film music John Burlingame
  
• A&E Biography episode on actor Holden
  
• Newsreel
  
• Video clip
  
• Original theatrical trailer
  

Released by: 20th Century Fox
Region: 1
Rating: NR
Anamorphic: Yes

My Advice: Rent it, or buy it if you love Hong Kong, classic films, or great romances

Love is a Many-Splendored Thing relates the tale of Han Suyin (Jones), a lovely Eurasian doctor, living in Hong Kong. When she meets Mark Elliot (Holden), an American journalist stationed in Hong Kong, they quickly fall in love, but all is not to be smooth. Elliot’s paper transfers him to Korea when the war there breaks out, and both people suffer racial prejudice as their friends and families attempt to coerce them to break up.

The military background of this film is interesting and a nice counterpoint to the love story. Set in the years just before 1950, Hong Kong was terrified that the Communist Chinese, winning in Taiwan, would invade their city and forcibly end British rule. This constant tension and fear wore on the people, and this instability and turmoil fits into the story of Suyin and Elliot nicely.

The acting is good enough, but there are a few problems. The Chinese ancestry of Jones is just not brought out very clearly, and in those days of having purely Caucasian actors play other races, it’s all that much harder a sell to modern audiences. You can’t just put a cheongsam on a white girl and expect us in the present day to buy that she’s Asian. It would have been nice to have to have a feature on this release that would have placed the castings decisions of that era of Hollywood into context--perhaps that would have made the whole thing easier to swallow. In any case, however, the love story is sweet enough, the tension is, well, tense enough, and the whole thing is poignant, enjoyable, and just plain entertaining.

The audio and video are both nice. The lush locales and exoticism of Hong Kong are played up by the cinematographer Leon Shamroy, and the quality of the film stock keeps that for the most part. The skies are brilliant blue and an amazing backdrop for a love story.

There are a host of nice features on this release. We have an audio commentary with film historian/cinematographer Michael Lonzo, film historian and critic Sylvia Stoddard, and music writer John Burlingame; all three people provide fascinating additional information about the film and the making of it, from the music to the locales to the history and the actors. I found myself hoping more and more as their talk went on that Stoddard, et al, would come out with a book soon. Besides the commentary track, we also have a biography of William Holden, as aired on A&E’s Biography. One of the nicest additions is the inclusion of the newsreels that would have shown in theatres at the time of the film’s release, showing an awards presentation. I love these brief, but historically valuable shorts. We also get a clip from the Photoplay Awards and the original theatrical trailer.

Love is a Many-Splendored Thing is a classic in the field of romances for its gut-wrenching portrayal of star-crossed true love and poignant separation. But it is also a delightful film in general that will appeal to even those who have never met a romance they didn’t hate.