This movie is based on the true story of Gladys Aylward, a determined young woman who felt called to be a missionary in China in 1930. She was not considered suitable by the China Missionary Society, so she worked for some months as a parlourmaid until she could afford the train ticket to take her to China.

At first Gladys is treated with suspicion, but she learns the language, dresses and lives like a Chinese woman, and shows tremendous courage in the face of great adversity. There are a few additional fictional romantic moments in the movie, but on the whole it's very true to her life story, documented in many places.

The acting is excellent, the photography stunning at times, the many Chinese children utterly delightful. It's a fairly long film - about two and a half hours - but I found it enthralling, despite knowing the overall storyline. Produced in 1958, the opening sequence and titles look very dated, but the rest is extremely well done.

Recommended. ( )

Gladys Aylward (an improbably mesmerizing Ingrid Bergman) is a British would-be missionary with an obsession about China. As she has no experience, the Missionary Society won't let her go, but she goes anyway, alone, to a remote northern province. She is hated, then loved; finally she becomes both a significant political figure and the heroine of a miraculous escape in which she shepherds 100 children to safety across the mountains just ahead of a Japanese invasion.