The White Sister

One of the reviews on this site talks about the good old days when, if you wanted to see a film, you had to set your alarm for 3 a.m., or stay up past 11 p.m. in order to see it. And most of the time, five minutes into it, you fell asleep.

"White Sister" is a remake of a film starring Lillian Gish and Ronald Coleman. Studios often did this, making one an A-film, and remaking it as a B-film. I am thinking this was a B film since I don't think Clark Gable had quite made it big yet; he was still being "groomed." Helen Hayes, of course, was from the stage, and while she made some films, she never became a superstar.

Hayes plays Angela, the daughter of a Prince (Lewis Stone). She is betrothed to a banker, Ernesto Traversi. He's boring; Angela has a lot of verve and is interested in fun, as young people are.

She meets Lt. Giovanni Severi (Gable) at a carnival, and they fall in love. When she tells her father, he is furious. Angela rushes to Giovanni's barracks, but he isn't there; she is sent to the Officer's Club. Meanwhile, her father had the same idea and is en route to the barracks when the cars crash, and her father is killed. Angela is injured.

She feels terribly guilty and, at any rate, she can't marry him while she is in mourning. He goes into battle, and it seems that he has been killed.

Devastated, Angela enters a convent and takes her vows as a nun.

Some time passes, and it turns out that Giovanni escaped from a prison camp and is being cared for on a farm. With his captors on his trail, he takes off and eventually gets home and goes looking for Angela.

This is a well-acted story, schlocky by today's standards, but still moving. I think it's because of the sincerity of the performances. Helen Hayes as a young woman was pretty. I notice she was never photographed full face, perhaps because her eyes were so far apart. I'm just guessing.

One would think that by today's standards, the acting would be melodramatic and seem over the top, but it doesn't. Hayes was a great actress - today there is a theater, a hospital, and an award named for her. She gives a lovely performance, soft and fragile.

Clark Gable here is young and handsome and does a solid job. He isn't smooth like Ronald Colman; he has a toughness and a ruggedness that would serve him well over his career.

I really enjoyed the movie. It has a sweetness about it not found in today's films.

This is my all-time favorite film. A lovely romantic love story with Helen Hayes & Clark Gable. It is not on video so, your only chance to see it is if you get TCM (Turner Classic Movies). They sometimes air it. If it is on...be sure to catch it!

I guess if you are someone who really gets off on crying at the movies then you'll enjoy this outpouring of sentimental slop. But for the vast legions of the relatively dry (and clear) eyed it's fairly insufferable stuff. Plus, it features one of my all time least favorite actresses in the lead. I realize that Ms. Hayes is considered a brilliant theatre thesp, and maybe she was, but to watch her in sound films is to watch someone who might as well have a bumper sticker on her limo that reads "I'd rather Be Doing Silent Pics". I guess if I had a voice that sounds like Gracie Allen I'd feel the same way. Add complete and utter lack of chem between her and Gable and you can see how this movie quickly descends into boredom and is only briefly lifted out of the ennui pit by some good aerial battle action that, alas, is too little and way too late. C minus.

PS...Hayes, Gable and Lewis Stone are about as Italian as the 4th of July in Indianapolis.

Over the top melodrama isn't a bad antique but it is an antique.

Overwrought emotions dominate from almost the first frame and only become more hard to swallow as the picture unspools.

Part of the problem lies with Helen Hayes. Perhaps it's partially my own perception having become familiar with her when she had moved into her highly entertaining old lady phase but she seems too old for her part or her pairing with Clark Gable. It doesn't help that she was never completely comfortable on the screen in her youth relying on stage techniques that don't translate well to the movie screen. Her method and Gable's do not mesh and while she's playing to the back row he is his usual low key self, they share little chemistry.

The film has its moments and a decent supporting cast but the lack of rapport between the two leads in what is basically a story of great unrequited love makes this a struggle to get through at times.

Back in the days before VCR's I set my alarm clock to 3:00 Am to watch this film. If you were a film buff back then you had no choice, the TV told you when to watch something. I was a big Clark Gable fan and this was a pretty obscure film that I was keen on seeing.

My grandmother wandered in and sat down with me to watch. She not only knew the film immediately but remembered every moment in the film like she had just seen it. She remembered what she wore and what she had for lunch that day in 1934. This movie was like a time machine for her. She cried at the end like a little girl.

I lost my grandmother not long after that and this memory has stayed with me for 30 years.

I haven't seen the film since but I remember it being a very old fashioned melodrama. It will never get to DVD I suppose.