Directed by Mark Robson, the 1958 film The Inn of the Sixth Happiness tells the true story of Gladys Aylward (played by Ingrid Bergman), an English servant girl who, against the advice of her family and friends, becomes a missionary at a remote mountain village in China in the 1930s. Malcolm Arnold wrote approximately an hour of music for the film, scored for a relatively small orchestra, and performed in the soundtrack by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under his direction. In the score, Arnold assigns Gladys two different musical themes, both of which are heard early in the film and recur often. One, an imposing fanfare-like figure, symbolizes her strength of character. The other is a big love theme, generally heard in the strings, which is particularly associated with her romance later in the film with Lin Nan (Curt Jürgens), an officer in the Chinese army.

Arnold's music for this film has become one of the best known of his hundred-or-so movie scores, largely on the basis of his use of the famous children's song "This Old Man," which subsequently became a popular hit and was published in several different arrangements. It appears in the climax of the film, when Japan invades China and Gladys leads a group of children away from the village and the fighting and over the mountains to safety. Arnold's music for this extended scene begins with Gladys' "strong" theme, with the heavy tread of a march rhythm underneath it. Dissonances add a note of anxiety. Over a distant snare drum, the "This Old Man" melody is heard piping away. The tune repeats several times, gradually gaining strength as Gladys and the children continue their march. Then Gladys' "love" theme is heard in one last, lush statement, leading into a grand, very cinematic coda to the film.

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