A Irmã Branca

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!

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.

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.

Uggh! Apart from the wonderful acting of Helen Hayes and Clark Gable, this is a very silly and forgettable romance. Clark plays a young soldier than falls for a princess. They know that their love is doomed due to the difference in their social status, but despite everything their love seems unavoidable. Later, when she thinks Gable dies, she drops everything to become a,....NUN!!! Then, when Gable returns it is too late,...she's married to God and cannot renounce her vows (though exactly WHY I couldn't figure out). If you haven't guessed, the plot just seems really hokey and silly. And, unfortunately, it is just that and nothing more. I only recommend it for fans of Hollywood's Golden Age and Clark Gable. All others, I'm afraid, will see it and be turned off older movies and that would be a shame.

By the way, this is a remake of a silent film which starred Lillian Gish and Ronald Coleman. In many ways, the film was better than this 1933 remake and the old fashioned plot seems more suited for a silent.

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. (***)