Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing
Director: Henry King
Year Released: 1955
Rating: 1.0
A generic love story that ends in obvious tragedy: morally perfect Eurasian doctor Jennifer Jones meets American writer William Holden, they fall for each other and then he leaves to cover a war and ... you figure it out from there. Every passage of dialogue has Jones (as the world's least believable Eurasian) trying to 'prove' she's part Chinese by espousing philosophical advice or explaining things about her culture you wouldn't ordinarily know - Jones, if you remember, was also the hardly believable 'half-breed' in Duel in the Sun. The theme song is the only thing this movie is remembered for, and justifiably so: lines like "I have always been afraid of hands. Men's hands." and "We shall now have tea and speak of absurdities" are a long way from Wilder and Diamond.
