Why so much hype?

Don't Believe the Hype

Absolutely the worst movie.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

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.

The screenwriter for "The White Sister," Donald Ogden Stewart, has an uncredited bit playing the hind end of a horse; that pretty well sums up this picture. It's an insipid, implausible, and uncompelling film that wastes a lot of prime MGM talent. ***SPOILER ALERT*** The story concerns the ill-fated love between a sheltered, aristocratic Italian girl, Angela Chiaromonte, and a dashing soldier, Giovanni Severi. He pursues her despite the strenuous objections of her father and thwarts her marriage to a wealthy banker—an alliance that apparently was meant to save the girl's family from financial ruin. Their romance leads indirectly to the death of Angela's father in a car crash. The affair goes downhill from there. Throughout the film, Angela and Giovanni keep getting together only to be torn apart—first by her father, then by the war, and then by God himself. Their rotten luck and bad timing are almost comical. Sent off to battle, Giovanni implausibly survives a horrific plane crash, then makes a daring escape from a German prisoner-of-war camp, only to find that Angela, believing him dead, has become a nun. At this point, there's nothing left for him to do but die an anticlimactic death with his white-habited fiancée at his bedside.The two leads, Helen Hayes (Angela) and Clark Gable (Giovanni), give it their best, but they can't overcome being both miscast and mismatched. Coming into his own just as films learned to talk, Gable exemplified the "new" American male: confident, brash, and openly sexual. The old-fashioned pieties of this movie fit him like a straight jacket. Hayes is more plausible in the role of the spirited/spiritual young girl. While you can see how she'd be carried away by Gable's charisma and animal magnetism, it's hard to understand why he'd be so attracted to this mousy little innocent. The whole enterprise might just have worked with someone like Leslie Howard as Giovanni; his restrained classical style would have been better suited to this dated material. Other welcome and familiar faces include Edward Arnold as a sympathetic priest (like Gable, though, he's seen to better advantage in earthy or roguish parts); Louise Closser Hale as Angela's duenna/companion, and May Robson as the Mother Superior. Uncredited but recognizable are Gino Corrado as a chauffeur, Nat Pendleton as Giovanni's soldier buddy, and Greta Meyer as the Italian-German woman who nurses Giovanni back to health after his plane crash.A minor quibble, but I found it hugely annoying—none of the characters can agree on how to pronounce "Giovanni." Hayes, as Angela, seems to say it differently (and wrong) every time, which is odd considering her character is supposed to be madly in love with him.Worth watching mainly as an opportunity to catch Helen Hayes in one of her infrequent film roles (her reputation was primarily as a stage actress) and for Gable's characteristically charming performance (not to mention beefcake appeal!) in an uncharacteristic role.

Throwing Clark Gable against God isn't exactly the best plot, but the movie is watchable. Giovanni (Gable) falls in love with Angela, a prince's daughter, after running into her at a festival. Complications arise for the two of them, including (spoilers ahead) Angela's fiancé Ernesto, her father's death, Giovanni's recruitment into war, and her eventual commitment to God.The first half of the film is pretty interesting as Gable wooing Helen Hayes is entertaining for the most part. Afterward, Hayes's indecisiveness about her way of life drags on a bit. In the beginning of the movie, she wishes to adventure out into the world and celebrate, then it takes her some time to realize she loves Giovanni, but a possible life with him is eventually put to an end as she becomes a nun.A movie worth catching on television on a rainy day.

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!