brefane Dated, pointless and dull with one particularly fatal flaw; the leads have no chemistry. Jennifer Jones and William Holden are usually attractive and appealing, but they have no characters to play and their scenes together are dull, awkward and unpersuasive. The romance never ignites despite the ever present title tune. The dialog is too explanatory, the word Eurasian is used as insistently as the theme song and the supporting characters are waxworks. Jones and Holden keep going around and around the issue of their relationship with a great deal of running up to the hilltop and looking across the harbor. Filmed on location, the setting never really shapes or has any real effect on the story itself. Shockingly this banal film was nominated for 8 Oscars including Best Picture with film's score and song both winning. Films like this are made to promote understanding, but Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing is more likely to promote a good night's sleep.

sol- Love blossoms between a half-Chinese doctor and an American correspondent in late 1940s Hong Kong in this glossy Hollywood romance starring Jennifer Jones and William Holden. The film looks exquisite with lots of mobile camera-work and dazzling Oscar winning costumes; Alfred Newman's rousing score also won an Oscar and is arguably the film's best feature, adding atmosphere throughout and never overbearing. While the film looks and sounds great though, the story is pretty bare bones. The only hindrances to the central romance are Jones considering her Chinese roots (something a little awkward since she never looks Chinese) and the question of whether or not Holden is genuine in his intentions since he does, after all, have a wife at home. It is not quite enough though to support a feature length film and while subplots involving a sister's romance and a sick little girl carry some interest, they ultimate add up to little. Indeed, once it becomes clear that Holden does in fact genuinely love her, little else in the way of suspense or mystery exists to drive the plot. The film was quite popular back in its day, winning a third Oscar for its theme song and receiving a Best Picture nomination (over Best Director nominee 'Bad Day at Black Rock'!) and the appeal is certainly understandable. The locations are great, the technical credits are top notch and Jones offers an appealing performance, but whether the film has much more to offer is highly questionable. It all depends upon what one is looking for in a film.

Dalbert Pringle After patiently sitting through this 1955, star-vehicle, meant solely to showcase the likes of Jennifer Jones and William Holden, I'm now convinced that love is a many-demented thing. It really is. As on-screen lovers, I found Jones and Holden had as much chemistry going between them as do two, cross-eyed slugs meeting for the first time.I think - The only audience that this trite, mixed-race tale of semi-forbidden romance could ever appeal to would be those who (within watching the first 10 minutes of this film) still cannot figure out where this one's story is inevitably heading. (Yes. This picture's story was really that predictable) This film also lost itself some significant points because director Henry King did not see the importance (as I do) of taking lots of close-ups of the actors' faces as they deliver their dialogue, pretending to emote real feelings of passion, anger, sorrow, etc., etc. King held the camera back so far that I couldn't tell, a good part of the time, what the real expression was on these people's faces.*Note* - Be prepared to end up hating (like I did) this film's title song "Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing" by the time the story is over, due to repeated strains of this popular tune being constantly recycled throughout the entire course of its 102-minute running time.

MartinHafer This film is set in Hong Kong during the final days of the Chinese Communist Revolution and the beginning of the Korean War. William Holden is a correspondent who falls for a half-Chinese doctor (Jennifer Jones) and many things seem to be conspiring against their love."Love is a Many-Splendored Thing" is a lovely film. It's very glossy, colorful, filled with tremendous locations and a nice theme song. However, it also is filled with very sappy dialog, characters who are difficult to really like and that #^$@ theme song, as they play it INCESSANTLY!!! It not only wells up when the two lovers are in a clinch, but when they turn on the record player and, well, ALL THE TIME! While pretty, it becomes pretty insufferable after a while. It's really a shame, as Jennifer Jones and William Holden are nice actors--but the film really could have used a re-write. While some reviewers loved the romance, I couldn't get over the fact that Holden's character was already married--making him an adulterer. For me, adultery isn't romantic--it's just kind of sleazy. This, combined with the sappy dialog (some of which made no sense at all) and the theme song made this a chore--a very pretty chore, but a chore nevertheless. And don't even get me started on the casting of Jones as a half-Chinese lady (who mentions it every 35 seconds--as if trying VERY hard to convince us of something that is really hard to swallow). Not wonderful...but pretty.By the way, if you are wondering about the dialog that makes no sense at all, here's an example: When Holden is away covering the Korean War, Jones comments how 'it feels like he's more with me now than when he's really here with me' as she reads his letter to her. Huh?!