In yet another big-budget, Cinemascope, Technicolor romance from 1955 (the other being Picnic), William Holden again confirms my belief that he was terrible as a romantic lead. He was 37 when he shot this film, starring opposite the 36-year-old Jennifer Jones, which was at least a more understandable casting choice than the 22-year-old Kim Novak chosen to play his love interest in Picnic, but it was still impossible to take him seriously as a romantic hunk. The beefcake factor was kept to a minimum, at least: we only had to endure one swimming scene. Holden just needed to grow into his body; he's much better as someone grizzled and world-weary, like in The Bridge on the River Kwai or The Wild Bunch.

Holden isn't the entire film, but he's its biggest flaw. Jennifer Jones acquits herself pretty well (despite a bad sort-of accent) playing Han Suyin, a half-Chinese, half-British doctor in Hong Kong on the eve of China's Communist takeover. She's a widow, and she thinks of herself as a Chinese widow, which, according to the film, means that her heart is dead and she won't take another lover for the rest of her life. The brash Mark Elliott (Holden), a foreign correspondent, enters her life and informs her that he's going to change her mind about love. As I cringed in my seat, she slowly decides to take him up on his offer, despite everything her culture teaches her, and despite the fact that he's married. He's going to divorce the wife, really!

The couple must face myriad problems. There's the ever-present prejudice against relationships between people of different races. Han's family back in China call her back home to deal with her younger sister, who wants to escape the Communist revolution by taking up with a European man; this is a big no-no to her family, who cast her out. They take it surprisingly well when Han informs them that she wants to marry Mark, but never mind that. There's also prejudice against their relationship coming from the higher-ups at the hospital, especially from a gossipy harridan named Adeline Palmer-Jones (Isobel Elsom), who engineers an underhanded attack on Han's livelihood because she doesn't like the fact that Han and Mark are together. There's also the problem with Mark being married, which gets worse when his wife refuses to grant a divorce.

One drawback to the film is its didacticism. It's a big and blocky film, and the characters deliver big and blocky speeches: about having pride in one's heritage, about not wanting to feel anything, about local customs, about whatever topic is at hand. There's a character named Suzanne (Jorja Curtrights) who serves as a moral lesson for Han: she wants to pass as a British woman, and she dresses in a western fashion, dyes her hair blonde, and takes up with a married man—is she supposed to be what Han will end up as if she's not careful?

The best thing about the film is its local color. It was shot on location in Hong Kong, and in this respect its didactic tendencies were a welcome respite for the overheated romance. It pays a lot of attention to the traditions of the Chinese and the unique situation in Hong Kong, where East literally met West and had to interact every day. There's also a scene that is probably the best example of the longstanding Hollywood-under-the-Code tradition of smoking cigarettes as a stand-in for sex. On the beach, glistening with water and exchanging words of love, Jones and Holden lean in close, cigarettes in their mouths, Holden's lit and Jones's unlit. The ends touch; Jones's cigarette flares to life. Fade out. It doesn't get any better than that.

It's not a terrible movie by any means. It's certainly competent filmmaking; it's just from a tradition that doesn't date very well, and it has William Holden as a romantic lead. The film is based on what is probably an autobiographical novel by Han Suyin. I feel a little bad saying that it's pretty clichéd, since a lot of it probably happened to her. It's better than Picnic, but I wouldn't call it a good movie.

The film was nominated for eight Oscars including Best Picture; it won a deserved award for Best Costume Design and two undeserved ones for the ever-present title song and the score. Remarking on the film's Costume Design win, perennial nominee Edith Head said, "All the costumes... could have been purchased in Chinatown. That loss was the single greatest disappointment of my costume-design career."