Ingrid Bergman stars as Gladys Aylworth in this deeply touching film about a woman who wants to make a difference in the world. She wants to go to China and work as a missionary, but when she applies with her church, the missionary department decides that she doesn’t have the experience she needs to undertake such a task. Always shy and submissive, she breaks out of her mold and decides to go to China anyway. She takes a job as a domestic and earns money for her passage, but when she arrives in China, discovers that it’s much harder than she thought it would be.
Her dogged determination never flags as she leaps right in to try to improve things in her small village. She is appointed “foot inspector” by the leader of the village, who is enchanted with her idealistic ways even if he does think she’s a bit crazy. As she establishes herself in an old building, soon the children of the area have taken her into their hearts, and she’s sheltering many orphans who she comes to love as her own.
A different kind of love comes her way in the form of Lin Nan, a half-Dutch, half-Chinese man who sweeps her off her feet. He must go off to war, however, and promises to come back for her when he’s able. Not one to sit and pine, Gladys stays busy taking care of her orphans, the numbers of which are rising by the week.
The climax of the movie shows Gladys taking the children into the mountains to the nearest safe town as the Japanese advance on their village. With courage and faith, she leads them over mountain ridges, teaches them how to duck into the brush when planes fly overhead, and delivers them all to the mission office in the town. When she arrives, she meets up with the man who rejected her application to serve as a missionary so many years ago, the one who told her she’d never make it in China. A nice little slice of humble pie is served to him as he realizes just what it is Gladys has done.
I absolutely loved this movie. It combines moments of drama with humor, tenderness, and a little sprinkling of romance to tie it all together. It will make you think and it will expand your understanding of the Chinese culture and everything that country went through during its years of conflict with Japan. Truly a remarkable film, it’s based on a true story and is not rated.
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