Robert Donat Collectors Guide: The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958), Part 2

by Brent Reid
Brent Reid
Post Views: 137

Home video and soundtrack

  • The film has faced a longer, rockier road that the characters it depicts
  • Bad luck on the small screen: home video has not been kind to this opus
  • There have been four transfers to date, all of them flawed; take your pick
  • Malcolm Arnold’s magnificent score is a perennially popular concert staple
  • International arrangers have adapted it for many live and recorded suites
  • Original recording only on a rare vinyl for over 50 years, now on every format
  • The composer’s adaptation of a children’s nursery rhyme was a worldwide hit
  • Best known of Ingrid Bergman’s many spoken word appearances on record
The Inn of the Sixth Happiness aka Sjette lykkes kro (1958) Danish poster by Benny Stilling

Danish poster

The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, Part 1: Plot and production

Contents

Home video

The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958) US Fox DVD artwork

This US DVD artwork (rear/insert, landscape) was redone (alt) years later for streaming services such as Prime Video HD

Like every other widescreen film in the early days of home video, especially those shot anamorphically, the 2.35:1 aspect ratio film was panned and scanned to fit 1.33:1 tube TV screens, and its glorious surround soundtrack unceremoniously crushed to mono. In particular, this utterly ruined the careful compositions of iconic, award-winning cinematographer Freddie Young and director Mark Robson, Oscar-nominated for the second time in a row after Peyton Place. Nowadays there are two widescreen transfers available: the first has natural, original colour grading but a slightly squashed image, due to CinemaScope “mumps”, and the primary 4.0 stereo soundtrack has been folded down to 2.0. Though most prevalent on DVD, this transfer is also still seen in HD on some streaming services and TV broadcasts.

Behind the scenes

Only the identical US and Canadian DVDs have any worthwhile extras, the most significant of which is an audio commentary with Nick Redman, Aubrey Solomon and Donald Spoto (author of Notorious: The Life of Ingrid Bergman, 1997). There are also the two Fox Movietone News clips above and below, and a brief restoration comparison (1:51). Lastly are the English and Spanish theatrical trailers (both 3:07); the latter is in both languages, with burned-in Spanish subtitles for English dialogue. The other discs only have the English trailer and all bar the Japanese are also identical, being PAL format and coded for regions 2 and 4, with a host of sub and dub options.

Pressed bootlegs: Chile (Cinematekka/set/+BD), Korea (La Ent, M&M) and Spain (Feel BD-R).

Première outtakes | Gladys Aylward tribute | BFI Archive

The sole region free BD, released everywhere with a translated sleeve and label art, replicates the US DVD’s extras, apart from dropping the outdated restoration comparison. It features the second transfer, a HD remaster that improves on the old one in almost every way; it’s much more detailed, even than the previous HD stream, largely corrects the anamorphic “mumps” effect and replicates the original Westrex 4-track stereo mix (left, centre, right, and mono surround channels) on the English track.

The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958) Canadian Fox Blu-ray

Canadian BD

But the transfer’s one huge flaw is that it’s been over-darkened and aggressively tealed, an increasingly prevalent but incredibly homogenising and short-sighted trend, and there are no longer any pure whites to be seen anywhere in the film. Not in painted woodwork, white shirts or even eyes and teeth; just a garish, heavy blue wash over everything. The revisionist colour scheme and darkening is entirely the fault of a certain nameless, over-zealous colorist at Cineric, who deliberately inflicted his perverse preferences on a number of 20th Century Fox restorations around the same time.

The underlying restorations are fine; they were simply ruined at the final hurdle. All of them need to be regraded and reissued but there’s very little chance of that happening, especially since Fox’s 2019 acquisition by Disney, who have next to no interest in issuing any of their classic film catalogue. Here are other titles I’m aware of, similarly spoiled by that inept staffer; leave a comment if you know any more:

  • The Blue Max (1966) – article, caps; old and new transfers on BD
  • The Bravados (1958) – caps
  • Bus Stop (1956) – caps
  • Carousel (1956)
  • Desk Set (1957) – article, caps, video
  • The Egyptian (1954)
  • The Fly (1958) – caps
  • Garden of Evil (1954) – caps; old and new transfers on BD
  • House of Bamboo (1955) – caps
  • The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958) – article, caps
  • Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959) – caps; old and new transfers on BD
  • The King and I aka The King of Cyan (1956) – caps, video/#2; corrected on streaming and DCP
  • River of No Return (1954) – caps, video
  • Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957) – caps; old and new transfers on BD

Soundtrack

The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958) – Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Malcolm Arnold US LP

US LP

Miss Ingrid Bergman welcomes you to The Inn of the Sixth Happiness

“The Chinese will wish you five happinesses—health… wealth… long life… virtue… and a peaceful death in old age. There is also a sixth happiness which each of us must find in our own hearts. The motion picture The Inn of the Sixth Happiness is the story of that sixth happiness—and how it came to the inn that bears its name. Filmed against the turbulent and troubled background of old China, it tells the dramatic story of Gladys Aylward, whose courage and humility made a miracle happen in the face of almost overwhelming danger. It is the story of three people from different worlds… the past… the present… and the future—who meet and each in their way affect one another with their own meaning of life and death—of love and happiness. I sincerely believe it is a motion picture the world will not easily forget.”

For this never-to-be-forgotten motion picture, Malcolm Arnold composed a musical score of surpassing excellence. The “Theme Melody” alone is perhaps the finest piece of melodic beauty ever to flow from the CinemaScope screen. Arnold’s score reflects the gamut of emotion and action. It is as inspired as his Academy Award-winning score for The Bridge on the River Kwai and The Roots of Heaven. He had a group of Chinese musicians flown from Hong Kong to London to supplement the seventy musicians of the Royal Philharmonic who recorded the score under Arnold’s direction. The sound is the finest yet attained on film soundtrack and it has been expertly balanced and equalized from 4-track stereo tape originals.

Adding to the splendor of sound and score is a climax scene which has been captured by camera and microphone with such realism that it stands as one of the greatest emotional experiences ever generated by the sound motion picture medium: It is the unvarnished performance by Ingrid Bergman and a hundred war-orphaned Chinese children singing “This Old Man” while marching triumphantly into the safety of a Chinese village after a hazardous trek over war-torn roads and hills. The sound of a hundred untrained voices singing a simple song in a performance as sincere in its interpretation as is Mr. Arnold’s score, makes for one of the screen’s most memorable moments.

It is all here in this album. – US 20th Fox LP (1958)

Well worth hearing in its own right, detached from the film, this was one of Malcolm Arnold’s two favourites of his own scores, the other being Whistle Down the Wind (1961). As a specially adapted suite it’s a concert hall staple, especially in the Far East, with dozens of great live recordings on YouTube alone. The original US-only LP was released in both mono and stereo, with non-overlapping snippets of film dialogue interspersed between the cues but they’re omitted in the CD reissue.

Live suites: EMWO 13, OSWO 16, LTPO 18, KHE 22

Two cues were extracted from the Chinese-inflected soundtrack for single release, the lovely Main Theme and, by way of contrast, Arnold’s arrangement of the popular nursery rhyme, This Old Man. They spawned numerous concurrent competing versions internationally, the most widely released of which touted itself as “The original and best version featuring Cyril Stapleton and the children who appear and sing this song in the film”. These are the main examples:

The Inn of the Sixth Happiness/Nick Nack Paddy Whack (The Children's Marching Song) – Cyril Stapleton and His Orchestra Belgian Decca 7"

Belgian 7″

The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, Part 1: Plot and production

I started Brenton Film because I love film – quelle surprise! The silent era, 1930s and 1940s especially get my literary juices flowing, so you'll see a lot about those. For more, see the About page and read this before emailing.

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