THE WHITE SISTER
US, 1933, 110 minutes, Black and white.
Helen Hayes, Clark Gable, Lewis Stone, May Robson, Edward Arnold.
Directed by Victor Fleming.
The White Sister was a silent film with Lilian Gish and Ronald Coleman. it was remade in the early '30s as a Clark Gable vehicle and he was cast opposite recent Oscar-winner and stage actress Helen Hayes. The film is reminiscent of Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms - it had been filmed by Frank Borzage with Gary Cooper and Helen Hayes at this time. The film focuses on worldly love and religious vocation and puts a strong clash between the two, even though the human love is passionately felt by Helen Hayes as the nun. A comparison of this time might be The Garden of Allah with Marlene Dietrich and Charles Boyer as a runaway monk. Religion is highly idealised ~ far too much out of this world. The film had a big budget, was directed by Victor Fleming (Red Dust, Captains Courageous, The Wizard of Oz, Gone With The Wind). It seems rather dated now - although it has the perennial ingredients of the romantic melodrama and even of the soap opera.
1. An entertaining romance? War story? Picture of Italian high society? Military? The focus on religion and love - and self-sacrifice? The perennial ingredients of popular melodrama and soap opera?
2. Production values: M.G.M. gloss, black and white photography, prestige cast and director? Sets, decor, score? The atmosphere of World War One in Italy?
3. The adaptation of a romantic novel? Remake of a popular silent film? The Clark Gable-style hero and romance? The restrained and modest heroine and the talents of Helen Hayes? The conventional setting up of the romance. the war, misunderstandings? The conventions of Hollywood for the presentation of religion - upturned eyes, halo-lighting. heavenly choirs etc.? How credible?
4. The World War One atmosphere? The opening day, carnival, the traditions of the nobility, the soldiers? Each of the main characters breaking out of the environment? The chance meetings? The falling in love? The cross-purposes. the separation of war, grief, injury, news of death? Religious dedication? The temptation to leave the convent, the temptation of marriage? The final heroics on the part of the main characters? The plausibility of the plot - in melodramatic and soap opera terms?
5. Angela as heroine? Helen Hayes' presence and style? Pampered daughter, nobility? Her relationship with Mina? The carnival, the accident the meeting of Giovanni? The happiness together? A basis for romance? Her breaking out of her world? The separation and the war? Her relationship with her father? His sternness? War, disruption, injury? Her decision to enter the convent? The severity of the training? Her skill and compassion at her work? The new encounter with Giovanni? The torment, the decision, her heroism in accepting Christ and rejecting Giovanni? How correct was the decision she made?
6. Giovanni and the Clark Gable hero? Cavalier and dapper, the chance encounters, his friends and comrades, the atmosphere of the soldier, the carnival? His entertaining Angela and his falling in love with her? The impossibility of the marriage? His military service, heroism, injury, the long convalescence? His going to the hospital, discovering Angela? His pleading, his response to her rejection? How accepting? The pain of separation?
7. The Chiaramonti family - the father and his aristocratic ways, Angela and her restrictions and her need to break out of these? Pre-World? War One traditions? Italian style? The attention to detail, to manner? The expectation for her to enter the convent? The influence of her aristocratic ways on her decision to stay in the convent?
8. The presentation of the religious life: strict, other-worldly? Her cell, the habit, the ceremonies, prayer? Angela's reliance on prayer? Her ministry in the hospital? Her skill at her work, her compassion? The credibility of her decision to stay?
9. The sketching in of the supporting characters? mina and her support? Giovanni's friends and comrades in the war? Nuns, nurses?
10. An entertaining film of the '30s - illustrating Hollywood film-making of the times?
