Die weiße Schwester

You could say this is a sappy romantic picture, but it rises above that. I only know Helen Hayes from her later works on Broadway and contributions to smaller supporting roles. She has a theatre named after her on Broadway. So, it was a pleasure getting to see her talents in this film. Helen Hayes takes us on a journey from naïve girl to a full fleshed out mature woman torn with emotions.

Clark Gable is charming as her romantic leading man. You can easily see why she fell under his spell. Gable knows he has a tough role that other actors would have been annoying in, but Gable makes it his own and adds the boyish charm that brings it all together.

Obviously the title comes from Hayes' choice to become a nun and devote her life to God when she hears Gable has died in the war. After loving Gable, the only next best thing is God.

Lewis Stone is great as her over bearing father. May Robson has a small role and yet she garnered a high billing. This is a remake of the silent film from 1923 starring Lillian Gish that I also strongly recommended.

If you know Helen Hayes' works, you will love seeing her in this film. If you don't know Helen Hayes' work, you will fall for her in this film.

She, and the film, are true classics!

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.

This version of The White Sister is the third and final one to date that was brought to the big screen. This old fashioned drama with heavy religious overtones is not a likely candidate for a modern remake.

It's that second version that is the most known. Shot in Italy in 1923 it was the breakout picture for Ronald Colman as he starred with Lillian Gish and a cast of Italian players because the film was shot on location in Italy, a very unusual thing for the time.

In the Citadel Film Series book the Films of Ronald Colman, it was mentioned that Colman had a swarthy complexion and that was why this erudite man of the English speaking language was cast in the film. The same could be said for the casting of Clark Gable as the male lead opposite Helen Hayes in this sound version.

The story was updated from the 19th century and the Italian colonial wars in Libya to World War I. Gable is an air ace in the Italian Air Corps and he meets Helen Hayes who is the daughter of the local nobleman Lewis Stone. He's got an arranged marriage with wealthy Alan Edwards who will help this noble, but impoverished family out of debt. But Helen wants Clark after spending a little time with him.

But fates just keep them apart, especially after Lewis Stone is killed in an automobile crash and Gable goes off to World War I. Other than the updating of the time of the story and the elimination of a sister for Hayes, if you've seen the Colman-Gish silent version you know what happens here.

Someone like Tyrone Power who was a few years away from breaking into stardom at another studio would have been far better at handling the mushy romantic dialog. Certainly Ronald Colman might have done well with it even though he was British to the core. Gable is too American for the part though he does his best with it. The female lead is very suitable to Helen Hayes, especially with her Catholic background.

Fans of Clark Gable will still like The White Sister, but it will never be rated among his better films.

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.

THE WHITE SISTER (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1933), directed by Victor Fleming, stars Helen Hayes and Clark Gable for the first and only time (not counting separate scenes for the same movie titled NIGHT FLIGHT (1933) starring John and Lionel Barrymore). Based on the 1909 novel by F. Marion Crawford and dramatized by Walter Hackett, THE WHITE SISTER was used as the basis of two earlier silent screen treatments (Essanay, 1915) with Viola Allen and Richard Travers; and more famously (Metro, 1923) starring Lillian Gish and Ronald Colman. This 105 minute adaptation for the screen by Donald Ogden Stewart updates the story to the World War but remains true to form with material from which it is based.

Set in Italy, Angela Chiarmonte (Helen Hayes) is introduced as a religious woman whose closest friend is her parish priest, Father Saracinesca (Edward Arnold). Her father is Prince Guido (Lewis Stone). She is engaged to Ernesto Traversi (Alan Edwards), a man of her father's choosing. During the church festival, Angela's limousine is rear-ended by a car full of soldiers driven by Giovanni Severi (Clark Gable), who takes an immediate interest in her. After meeting him again at the carnival, Angela goes againstthe wishes of her her caretaker/companion, Mina (Louise Closser Hale) by spending time with this young soldier. After his visit to her home, and six days before her marriage to Ernesto, Angela and Giovanni are caught kissing by her father. With Giovanni forced to leave, Angela argues the fact she loves this soldier and refuses to marry a man she does not love. Not wanting Angela to suffer the same fate as his late wife, Guido follows Angela to the officer's club where she is to meet Giovanni, only to be killed in a car accident which leaves Angela in a state of shock. Only after Angela resumes her love with Giovanni, he is called off to war with hope of marriage upon his return. Receiving word of Giovanni killed in action, Angela chooses a new life by becoming a nun. With Giovanni having survived injuries and three years in prison camp, he makes his escape, searching for Angela, unaware she has already taken her final vows. Featuring May Robson (The Mother Superior); Nat Pendleton, Inez Palage and Gino Corrado in smaller roles.

Having first seen THE WHITE SISTER on New York City's WNEW, Channel 5 in 1970, aside from getting to see a much younger Helen Hayes, whose performance in AIRPORT (Universal, 1970) stole the show from it's all-star cast (winning an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actress), I was unaware this premise had been done twice before, making this one of the many sound remakes of material done during the silent film era. Regardless of American actors playing Italian characters, Helen Hayes and Clark Gable (with mustache) are believable enough to overlook these obstacles which thankfully did not have them attempt Italian accents. Memorable moments include behind the scenes in the nunnery with Angela taking vows to the supreme sacrifice for her love to the church and God. Though not strictly a religious movie, it's a love story bearing a religious theme. Tastefully done, well directed and acted by its principal players make this worth seeing.

Reportedly a success in 1933, THE WHITE SISTER never got home video distribution, but did become available on DVD with second disc being the 143 minute Lillian Gish edition, as well as occasional broadcasts on Turner Classic Movies cable channel. (***)