I just spent the last 6 weeks of my life painstakingly going through a rare clear and vibrant digital 35mm print of this film The White Sister, which is now in the public domain and ripe for restoration, digitally improving title cards and frames with artifacts on them, multi-tinting several scenes, and I added a gorgeous custom musical soundtrack with a few sound effects like foghorns and church bells. Finally I could see the real beauty of this classic silent film, and trust me, it's one of Lillian's best, right up there with The Scarlet Letter and The Wind and Broken Blossoms.
It's the story about a girl of privilege in Naples, Italy whose father dies and her sister, played remarkably and intensely by Gail Kane, out of jealousy burns the will and inherits the father's money, then casts her sister out of her home. Lillian's soldier boyfriend goes on a mission faraway and is reported dead. Lillian's character Angela takes the veil in order to do something positive in his memory. However her soldier lover is not dead after all, and returns to find her wedded to Jesus Christ! What results after this must have been a logistical nightmare for Henry King to accomplish on location but he does an outstanding job.
I am only sharing my custom work with a handful of trusted friends who I know will never make copies of my beautiful work on this film because I simply don't want bootleggers to get a hold of it, but rest assured there really IS a better source print out there for this moving early Lillian Gish - Ronald Colman vehicle than the poor quality VHS tapes which have been floating around for 20 years. Just because a film is in the public domain does not mean it should get such shoddy treatment from others. In the PD prints that are out there on tape you literally cannot see Lillian and Ronald's faces, even in closeup. It's a terrible insult to the memory of Lillian Gish and Ronald Colman, not to mention director Henry King.
Most likely someday TCM America will air the better source print of this film with some kind of a decent soundtrack and more silent film fans will eventually be able to see its real beauty shine forth.
It's the story about a girl of privilege in Naples, Italy whose father dies and her sister, played remarkably and intensely by Gail Kane, out of jealousy burns the will and inherits the father's money, then casts her sister out of her home. Lillian's soldier boyfriend goes on a mission faraway and is reported dead. Lillian's character Angela takes the veil in order to do something positive in his memory. However her soldier lover is not dead after all, and returns to find her wedded to Jesus Christ! What results after this must have been a logistical nightmare for Henry King to accomplish on location but he does an outstanding job.
I am only sharing my custom work with a handful of trusted friends who I know will never make copies of my beautiful work on this film because I simply don't want bootleggers to get a hold of it, but rest assured there really IS a better source print out there for this moving early Lillian Gish - Ronald Colman vehicle than the poor quality VHS tapes which have been floating around for 20 years. Just because a film is in the public domain does not mean it should get such shoddy treatment from others. In the PD prints that are out there on tape you literally cannot see Lillian and Ronald's faces, even in closeup. It's a terrible insult to the memory of Lillian Gish and Ronald Colman, not to mention director Henry King.
Most likely someday TCM America will air the better source print of this film with some kind of a decent soundtrack and more silent film fans will eventually be able to see its real beauty shine forth.