User Reviews

Assisted by luminous photography and Henry King's sympathetic direction, Lillian Gish delivers a most compelling performance in this lavish production, filmed entirely in Italy. True, she has excellent support from subdued yet charming Ronald Colman, chillingly malevolent Gail Kane, J. Barney Sherry and others, but it's Miss Gish's movie and she makes the most of it.

Camera-wise, King's direction is very static, but nonetheless engaging. He not only has an eye for the pictorial values of his sets and locations, but adroitly maintains audience interest at a high level through the various predictable turns of the plot, although the long-awaited climax proves somewhat disappointing and lacks spectacle.

In Italy, the Lordly volcano Vesuvius "waves his plume of peace to a smiling city in the valley". Of course, the volcano is, in actuality, "a seething ferment of unrest." The city is equally dominated by the wealthy Chiaromonte family, who live in a monstrous palace. Among them are half-sisters Lillian Gish (as Angela) and Gail Kane (as Marchesa). Ms. Gish is in love with young Ronald Colman (as Govanni Severini); and, they plan to marry. The sisters' father Charles Lane (as Prince Chiaromonte), when not focusing on his devotionals, likes to ride horses; unfortunately, he falls off his horse, and dies.

Wicked sister Kane destroys the Prince's will; and, in the eyes of The Law and The Church, inherits everything. Bad becomes worse when the Catholic church refuses to recognize the deceased Prince's second marriage, which produced Gish; so the wedding with Colman becomes a not-so-blessed event. Finally, Kane throws Gish out of the palace. Later, poverty-stricken Gish is reunited with her beloved Captain Colman. They plan to wed when he returns from a mission to Africa; but, he is reportedly killed, fighting Arab bandits. Then, Gish becomes a nun. When her more earthly intended turns up alive, Gish must choose between her spiritual husband, Jesus Christ, and the physical Ronald Colman…

Way too long, and directorially unfocused, Henry King's "The White Sister" does not reach its lofty expectations. There are, however, some extraordinarily beautiful scenes; and, the lead performances are excellent. The film seems relatively "reverential", considering the subject matter; though, Colman rails against, "The tyranny of the church - enslaving women who should be wives and mothers!" Undoubtedly, Gish and King were familiar with the original portrayal of "The White Sister", by Viola Allen, on stage (1909) and screen (1915), and sought to bring the story to more "epic" proportions. It appears as if water replaced the more difficult to film lava, for the less-than-climatic finish.

******* The White Sister (9/5/23) Henry King ~ Lillian Gish, Ronald Colman, Gail Kane, J. Barney Sherry

The video version now available is a totally inadequate representation of a beautiful film, with gorgeous photography. Furthermore, it is severely cut, missing important scenes that show Lillian Gish at her most inventive. Hopefully, someone will come up with a better source for a future release.

This second version of The White Sister, an earlier silent was done in 1915 was the first project of the Gish sisters after they had left the paternal care of D.W. Griffith. Lillian Gish spared no expense in this very long silent film, 123 minutes was quite a demand on the audience's attention. She and director Henry King took the principal cast members to Italy to film on location, something rarely done back in that day.

Gish and King also personally selected their leading man in Ronald Colman who had appeared in several British silents and one American feature before The White Sister. According to the Citadel Film series book, The Films of Ronald Colman, Gish and King saw him on the stage.

Now Ronald Colman had one of the greatest speaking voices in the English language, something we know since the advent of talkies and Colman's sound debut in Bulldog Drummond. But what attracted Gish and King to him was the swarthiness of his complexion, they thought he would pass convincingly for an Italian on the silent screen.

He and Gish made a fine screen team. The story today is rather old fashioned and Gish's saintliness is a bit much at times. Still the film does hold up well.

Gish is the younger half sister of Gail Kane and both are the daughters of Italian duke Charles Lane. When Lane is killed during a hunting accident, Kane quickly finds her father's will and burns it, effectively disinheriting Gish who was they used to say, born on the wrong side of the blanket.

Gish's Catholic faith sees her through the crisis and also the love of young officer Ronald Colman who originally was Kane's guy. Later on he's chosen to head a military mission to North Africa in what is now Libya. This was in the colonial expansionist period in the 19th century in a newly united Italy. But he's reported killed and Gish in her grief surrenders herself to her religion and becomes a nun.

That's as far as I'll go, the ending is not typical of Hollywood normally would give its audience. Still the loose ends of the plot are neatly tied together.

I'm surprised Gail Kane did not come out of this film with a bigger reputation. Her portrayal what might be called the Black Sister is really quite good.

The location cinematography in Italy is first rate and the special effects with Versuvius erupting and a dam bursting for its time are also nicely done. The White Sister is worth a look, I think it's better than the 1933 sound version with Clark Gable and Helen Hayes.

The 1920s were the golden age of the screen melodrama. As motion pictures became ever more elaborate in their expression and ever more legitimate as part of culture, so they became less of a picture show and took their cues more from stage and literature. The White Sister is a typical example. Derived from a book by F. Marion Crawford, like so many novels from the previous hundred years, it tells a tale of romantic love versus social convention, with fate, or rather bad luck, playing a hand. Crawford is all but forgotten today, but in 1923 he was still remembered as a popular author of the previous generation, and regarded worthy of this rather extravagant production.

The White Sister was directed by Henry King, another name not so familiar now, but a high profile one in Hollywood throughout his career. King was a firm believer in physical space as a psychological factor – a bit like Fritz Lang but not nearly as abstract. The large sets provide him with a lot of material, and he really allows them to dominate, emphasising both their height and depth, in the early scenes showing the disinherited Lillian Gish dwarfed within them. But he knows to keep focus on the characters by placing us inside the action, for example with the point-of-view shots of the musicians when Gish and Ronald Colman sit together on the wall. He is also able to move right in on a personal level, such as his memorable introduction to Gish, a face peeping through a barred window. Throughout the picture he is juxtaposing the big canvas with the little. For example, when Gish's carriage rides away after her goodbye to Colman, we get a close-up of her pulling down the blind, followed by the carriage receding away down a lonely looking street – the emptiness of the latter image complements the emotional moment of the former.

As for Miss Gish, this were first picture since parting ways with her mentor D.W. Griffith. Her recent performances for that great director had not been impressive. For one thing she had too often been cast as a teenager and encouraged to put on a twee girly act. Secondly in pictures like Broken Blossoms and Orphans of the Storm she had been unbearably hammy, throwing wild gestures and pulling faces in every scene. The White Sister finds her refreshingly understated, just as she was in her earliest Griffith pictures. In scenes such as the one where she meets Colman after being turfed out of her home, or the moment she takes her vows, her face is passive, her emotions stifled, but clearly burning below the surface. Of course, when she is lead to believe that her love has been killed her reaction is extreme, but this is natural given the context, and compared to the subtlety of the rest of her performance it has all the necessary impact. In some of her later Griffith movies Gish would have reacted like that if she heard the next-door neighbour had a cough.

Ultimately however The White Sister bears the traits of a movie industry seeking to become more literate and prestigious, in that its title cards are too long and too many. At 143 minutes this is not a short picture, and a lot of that runtime is accounted for by wordage that would be better left out. After all, King's images are so meaningful, and Gish's performance is so intelligent, there is no need to break them up with a lot of text. We even get a title pointing out that the portrait of Gish as a nun by her lovelorn admirer shows her as an unattainable ideal, forcing the symbolism upon the audience rather than allowing them to interpret it for themselves. Incidentally Henry King was also the producer, and while not actually responsible for writing the titles he certainly would have had final say over what was included, so perhaps to some extent he lacked confidence in his own ability to tell a story visually. Whatever the case, it makes what could be one of the more sophisticated melodramas of its era just a bit more boring than it ought to be.

Have for a long time had a very high appreciation for silent film, short and feature. DW Griffith favourite Lillian Gish was among the finest silent film stars and one of the few who translated well into talkies (see for example 'The Whales of August' at the end of her life). Ronald Colman did some great work in his career and it was interesting to see him in a silent film and so young. Have also liked some of Henry King's other work, with 'The Song of Bernadette' becoming an instant favourite on first watch four or so years ago.

'The White Sister' is a very interesting and well crafted film with a lot of excellently executed elements. Colman and King went on to do better, though it is one of King's better and more interesting early films and forays in silents, but Gish shows that she could work brilliantly with directors other than Griffith. The subject matter was a bold one for back then and it was unusual for any film to tackle religion against a contemporary background, which is done very well actually in 'The White Sister'.

It's not perfect. It for my tastes a little too on the overlong side, which made for some stodgy over-stretched pacing here and there.

Did also find it melodramatic, with some of the support acting being theatrical. Some of the camera work is on the static side.

Most of it however is beautifully framed and elegant and makes the most of the atmospheric and never cheap backdrops. King directs with a very confident hand and there was never a sense of him being out of his depth or not knowing what he was doing. 'The White Sister' is thought provoking, often very moving and the religious element of the story doesn't preach surprisingly and is as bold as it sounds.

Gish is wonderful in a very expressive and nuanced performance that touched me deeply, she indeed did suffering better than a vast majority of silent film stars and to me she was one of the best. The role was the kind that could easily have been overacted, but Gish doesn't. Despite being robbed of his beautiful speaking voice, Colman shows even early in his career that he could do aristocratic suavity beautifully. The two smolder together.

Overall, liked it a good deal while not being in total love with it. 7/10.

Exciting story of two lovers of war torn Italy. Lillian Gish plays the daughter of a Prince whose sister hates her. Ronald Colman plays an army officer whose brother is a Professer determined to discover the secret of the volcano the town rests upon. When Lillian's father is killed when he falls off his horse her sister inherits everything, banishing Lillian from the palace. Ronald goes on an expedition to Africa only after Lillian promises to marry him when he return and is supposedly killed. This movie starts off a bit slow but then picks up rapidly. An excellent movie which I'd highly recommend to all silent movie buffs or Lillian Gish and Ronald Colman fans.

The White Sister (1923) : Brief Review -

A Great Tragic Romance on Catholism versus Eternal Love. The First Lady of America Cinema Lilian Gish had already done a lot of amazing work in Classics like 'Birth Of A Nation', 'Intolerance', 'Broken Blossoms' and 'Way Down East' and almost all the characters she played left people praising her like never before and never after. But even after so many memorable performances she still had a lot of talent left in her and The White Sister was one of those film where she showed it. I couldn't stop gushing over her cuteness even though i have already seen her in similar roles so many times. That's the magic and unearthy impact she had. The White Sister is tragic romantic drama away from the mainstream melodramatic love stories where the devotional ethics bids across the eternal love to put them in an unsolvable situation. A young woman becomes a nun when she believes her sweetheart has been killed, but things get complicated when he returns alive. Let's pay more attention to the writing of the film than other aspects because it was an unconventional approach to justify the tragedy and yet it simplifies things with the ease. Of course, most of the credit goes to the original novel for this mind-blowing thought of Catholism versus Love which might have turned controversial if not handled with correct sese. After that, it was all about Lilian Gish and her adorable cuteness which was nothing less than a treat. Ronald Colman was surprisingly good in his obsessive and passionate role. Director Henry King did a reasonable job pointing out every possible details within a short runtime, and the engaging factors were helmed very well too. Overall, a nice break from typical Tragic Romance which fulfills the general or should I say solid expectations.

RATING - 7/10*

By - #samthebestest

After reading pixie's review when she watched the 1923 or 1933 version of The White Sister, where she watched it at 3AM with her elderly grandmother, I brought it to my 90 year old mother to watch together today. We are both hard-of-hearing so we enjoy silent flicks very much. My mother could not get over the tenderness and pathos as we watched it twice. I highly recommend that you view this film next time it's on TCM, as it's not available in DVD. Colman does a superb job of sensitivity and frustration and Gish's conflict of spirit, soul and body are without peer.

It is interesting to note that the director who was cast to handle this film went to a Broadway play with Gish and saw Colman performing in a play. Immediately they scratched their intended leading man and whisked him away to Italy to star with Gish. Mussolini had just seized power in an unstable Italy after WWI. The scenery at Villa D'Este is spectacular! You won't be disappointed! (I look forward to TCM airing the 1933 version with Gable/Hayes. However, the silent one is an exemplary job of actors relying solely on their eyes and facial expressions.)

THE WHITE SISTER was a pretty decent silent film. However, when it made its way to sound in 1933, the film seemed overly melodramatic and silly. It's amazing what only a decade can do for the same plot. Part of this was the timing and part of it was the casting. While Ronald Colman sounds nothing like an Italian officer, in the silent it didn't matter. However, Clark Gable was too hard to believe in the sound version, as he seemed about as Italian as Chop Suey.

In addition to Colman, the film starred Lillian Gish in her prime. She was one of the biggest stars of the era and had made a career out of playing virginal types of characters. Because of this, she's a good choice for the film though occasionally she does lay it on a bit thick with the sentiment.

Thefilm is about two lovers, Colman and Gish. She is quite rich and he is a dashing young officer in the Italian army. However, when it appears that he's been killed in action in Africa, she is despondent. In addition, he father has just died and her evil half-sister destroyed the will. By Italian law, the older sister is the sole beneficiary, so now Lillian not only thinks she's lost her lover but is penniless and without a home--while the half sister gains a title and a magnificent estate.

Naturally, Colman is found three years later and he returns to Gish--only to find that she's now married...to God!!! Can this sweet nun somehow STILL find happiness? Tune in to see.

The overall plot of the two versions are similar, however, a couple subplots which are in the silent version have been excised in the latter. There was no evil half-sister or being homeless and the final climactic scenes about the volcano were deleted as well. This did tend to give the film more focus and romance in the later film, but it also tended to make it a bit less interesting--especially since with only the love story, there isn't enough to merit watching. So, my advice is to see this original--it's a darn good silent though it's also very, very hard to believe. And, if possible, avoid the 1933 film. it's just not particularly good in any way--though Helen Hayes tries her best.

By the way, in the original version that was NOT filmed, in the end Gish's character DID renounce her vows and marry Coleman. It sure would have been interesting had they done it that way.

Actress Lillian Gish had been under the directorial wing of D. W. Griffith since 1912 when she was offered by director Henry King the lead in a remake of Francis Marion Crawford's 1909 novel about a mean half-sister who cuts Lillian's character out of her rightful inheritance. She teamed up with English actor Ronald Colman, whose United States resume included playing in just one minor role.

Gish didn't take the decision to leave Griffith lightly. Her departure from a well-established director for a small independent studio, Inspiration Pictures, was a bold move for the actress. An incentive of $1,500 salary and more importantly a percentage of the movie's profits persuaded her to leave Griffith. The September 1923 released film, "The White Sister" gave her a new-found independence to her career as well as providing a big boost to Colman's, who ended up being one of Hollywood's more active actors.

Since Crawford's novel takes place in Italy, the entire production for "The White Sister" was shipped over to that country. Using Naples as a backdrop, the production crew shot the interiors in a Rome studio before journeying over to the Algeria desert to film the Colman sequences where his character was with the Army on an African expedition. Gish, enjoying her newly-gained influence under Henry King's direction, was involved in every aspect of the production, including her role as the shunned half-sister who ends up in the nunnery, hence the ironic name "Sister" in the movie's title.

For English stage performer turned film actor Colman, "The White Sister" introduced him to the American public. He had enlisted with the British Army at the outbreak of The Great War in 1914 and was wounded in the ankle during October 1914's Battle of Messines, ending his participation in the war. He walked with a limp throughout his life because of the injury, but would admirably hide the gimp while on set.

Colman became popular on both the British and the American stage following the war and appeared in small parts in English movies. Director King saw him in a New York play and immediately hired him for the lead in "The White Sister." Critics loved his performance and he ultimately gave up the theatre for the big screen.

Metro Pictures, shortly before it merged with Samuel Goldwyn and Louis B. Mayer to become MGM Studios, picked up "The White Sister" six months later for national distribution. The 1923 version of the novel of the same name was its second adaptation. Essanay Studios was the first to bring the story to the screen in 1915 starring Viola Allen while Helen Hays and Clark Gable teamed up in 1933 in a talkie version of "The White Sister.

This commendable silent has now apparently been restored by Turner and is available for sale - though not as yet for Netflix rental, so I can't comment on the image quality. Even given the less-than-luminous print I saw some years ago, the film deserves to be seen. Lillian Gish is brilliant. And Ronald Colman gives an emotionally charged, subtle performance unlike anything else I've seen of his work in film. The story is not to my taste: it is old-fashioned, sentimental melodrama, heavily laced with Catholic religious fervor. The real attractions, besides these two glorious stars, are the wonderful Italian locations, and - presumably - some beautiful black and white photography.

THE WHITE SISTER (Inspiration Pictures, 1923), distributed through Metro Pictures, directed by Henry King, stars Miss Lillian Gish (as credited) in one of her most successful melodramas of the silent film era. Following her many years under the direction of D. W. Griffith, with such milestones as THE BIRTH OF A NATION (1915), BROKEN BLOSSOMS (1919), WAY DOWN EAST (1920) and ORPHANS OF THE STORM (1921), Gish continues the tradition of her earlier films, with no disappointment to her fans. Reportedly produced on location in Italy, and taken from the 1909 story by Francis Marion Crawford, under fine direction and well-acted performances, THE WHITE SISTER is not only dominated by Gish, but also grants great attention to a young rising star by the name of Ronald Colman, with whom Gish would reunite again in RAMOLA (1924).

Set in Italy, the story introduces Prince Chiaromonte (Charles Lane), a devout knight of Malta, father of two daughters, Marchesa De Mola (Gale Kane) from his first marriage, and Angela Chiaromonte (Lillian Gish) from his second. Marchesa loves Captain Giovanni Severi (Ronald Colman) of the Italian Army. His sole interest is Angela, whom he wants to marry. Angela's father, however, has plans for Angela to marry Count Del Ferice (Roman Ibanez). After Chiaromonte succumbing from falling off his horse during a hunt, his will is then read that's to have possessions divided between his two daughters. Instead, due to Chiarmonte having married his second wife, but never registered with the civil registry, has both title and estate going to Marchesa, who then evicts Angela from the palace. Angela finds refuge in the home of the kindly Madame Bernard (Juliette La Violette). After Giovanni receives orders to command an expedition in Africa, Angela promises to marry him upon his return. Receiving news that Giovanni has been killed, Angela goes into a state of shock and placed in the hospital of the White Sisters. With the painted portrait of Giovanni left to her by artist, Fillmore Durant (Alfredo Bertone), Angela comes to her senses and slowly recovers. With Giovanni gone, Angela chooses her new life as a hospital nun. Two years later, she takes her final vows while at the same time, Giovanni, having been held prisoner in an Arab camp, makes his daring escape, hoping to be reunited with Angela again.

Other than J. Barney Sherry as Monsignor Saracinesca, the supporting players consist of Italian born actors as Sig Serena (Professor Ugo Serveri, Giovanni's older brother); Corloni Talli (Mother Superior); Giovanni Viccola (General Mazzini) and Giuseppe Pavoni (The Archbishop). Aside from the romantic angle, THE WHITE SISTER also consists natural disasters including the Mount Vesuvius volcano eruption and gigantic flood. Regardless of its extreme length (133 minutes), THE WHITE SISTER never lacks interest thanks to its pleasing soundtrack scoring credited to Garth Neustadter. Gish's sensitive performance and angelic portrayal gives the story a great uplift. Nice added touches include color tinting scenes and intercuts between Angela's final vows and Giovanni's voyage home.

Previously filmed in 1915 (Essanay) starring Viola Allen and Richard Travers (currently lost), THE WHITE SISTER was remade again by MGM (1933) starring Helen Hayes and Clark Gable. With the sound edition revamped, shorter and eliminating the evil sister and natural disasters, proved favorable thanks to its new leading players. Having played at the Museum of Modern Art film department in New York City in the 1970s, THE WHITE SISTER is also available on video cassette, and in two formats on DVD (individually and double feature edition with the 1933 talkie on its flip side). The 1923 edition can be seen on Turner Classic Movies cable channel (TCM premiere: October 14, 2009). (***1/2)

(1923) White Sister SILENT ROMANCE

Basic plot which takes place in Italy has Ronald Coleman (Lost Horizon) as a top war soldier, Capt. Giovanni Severini going off to war asking his fiance Angela played by Lillian Gish to wait for him after an assignment somewhere in Africa! A massacre happens with the assumption that the soldiers from that particular unit are all killed in action, motivating Angela to find solitude as a nun for the local church that took care of her after her devastating shock! Plot becomes very emotionally effective once he returns! At one time or another, the only print that was available was the 67 minute version which is an avoid, and it wasn't until 2009 is when the lost footage was finally restored again with the correct running time of 143 minutes with a resonating musical score! As a realist, I have to say this is one of the most realistic portrayals of natural people I had ever seen in terms of it's situations, especially about nuns- I thought the first 3/4 was an absolute masterpiece. However, I wish the final 30 minutes had a better resolution! Also, if you're going to see a romance film involving love ones going off to war- see this one instead of "Dear John" which is unrealistic trash.

First a word about the two pseudo-categories "fans of silent film" and "the modern viewer". In so far as they exist, the two categories are not equal. Someone who appreciate silent film is also perfectly capable (and probably more capable) of appreciating later film while, evidently the reverse is not true. In other words, the former category is that of the cinematically fully literate while "the modern viewer" is simply another way of saying that someone is only cinematically semi-literate. The reflex response that a film is "too long" or "too slow" is usually a real give-away but is obviously easier to say than to admit that, by dint of bad viewing habits, one lacks the necessary powers of concentration to appreciate the film.

The twenties is the golden era of European film and the time at which it is briefly most influential on the US film. The two traditions had already developed a strongly different character, both in terms of style and content, but, in the early twenties, while in many seemingly at the height of its glory, US cinema found itself in something of a bind. One sees this very clearly if one looks at its biggest stars - Pickford, Fairbanks, Chaplin and even Valentino. They were all in a sense victims of the system they had helped to develop, typecast by the emergent star-system in roles and in films whose style was increasingly conventional and whose content was frankly puerile. And all four were acutely aware of the problem and all four sought (with equal lack of success) to try and remedy the situation.

While US cinema was to some extent blocked, European cinema was developing apace in several different directions at once and had (in Italy, Germany, Scandinavia and France) developed a mature style of film-making that the captive US stars could only admire. One esult was a sustained attempt to encourage European directors (and stars) to the US (Lubitsch invited by Pickford in 1923, Murnau in 1926.Stller, Sjöström, Christensen,Duvivier etc) For the rest of the decade, European films and European film-makers exerted an influence in the US.

The two prime features of the European tradition were "naturalism" (and "impressionism") and the various forms of non-realist cinema associated variously with "expressionism" (in Russia and Germany) or "surrealism" (in France). All these things had an important influence on film-making style - emphasis on mise en scène and context - by comparison with the conventions - back-lighting, rapid continuity editing - that dominated US cinema.

Nevertheless in the 1920s one sees a certain elements of "expressionism" in US films, particularly those associated with the actor Lon Chaney and "naturalism" begins to make an appearance in the films of the Yugoslav Paul Fejos and, most remarkably, in King Vidor's 1928 film The Crowd.

King, like Borzage, is an intermediate figure. His four major films of the period, Tola'ble David, Stella Dallas, The White Sister and Romola are all relatively melodramatic in tendency and can hardly be considered "naturalistic". Although the cinematography is often interesting it could not really be described as "expressionistic". Nonetheless King shows in these films an important European influence in the importance given to mise en scène and in the strongly "contextual" nature of the drama (this is what makes the films seem "too long" to our "modern viewer" and which makes the film appear "static" to another).

With the advent of sound, the formal realism of US film was strongly confirmed, coinciding with the dominance of the giant studios and the high point of the star system. US film style abandons any attempt at naturalism in favour of a complete concentration on what is often euphemistically described as "character" (in fact, stylistically, it involves an obliteration of context to focus on the stars, the use of "glamour" photography and a highly conventionalised form of continuity editing driven increasingly - ping-pong - by the rhythm of the dialogue).

Interestingly Vidor's The Crowd, although not a popular success, and King's Tol'able David were two of the rare "serious" films of the silent era to remain in the memory at least of the next generation of film-makers but they represented a style of film that could no longer easily be made in the US.

King is particularly interesting in having made three classic films at this period that were the subject of 1930 remakes. As regards Tol'able David, I have not seen the 1930 remake but I have never heard a good word said about it. As for The White Sister, most opinions agree that King's film is better than Fleming's 1933 remake. I also think his Stella Dallas better than the much better 1937 version by King Vidor with Barbara Stanwyck. And in each case the reason is the same. King in both his films provides a wealth of context that renders the stories believable. The later films sacrifice "context" for "character". Belle Bennett plays a part in King's version of Stella Dallas (so convincingly that she found herself often typecast as such characters in the few remaining years of her life - she died in 1932); Stanwyck does a star turn and there are all manner of inconsistencies in the role as a result.

It is not the passage of ten years that makes the 1933 remake of The White Sister seem "silly"; it is simply the inappropriate way in which the second film has been made. The New York Times said of it: "It is a beautiful production, but its scenes never seem as real as those of the old mute work." One could say the same in my view of the King Vidor Stella Dallas. And it will be found to be very often the case where a twenties film was remade in the thirties (King himself was guilty of at least two ill-advised thirties remakes - Way Down east and Seventh Heaven).

White Sister, The (1923)

*** (out of 4)

Adaptation of the Francis Marion Crawford novel, this screen version has Lillian Gish playing Angela Chiaromonte, the woman who gets cut out of her rightful inheritance by her evil step sister (Gail Kane). She then suffers a second heartache when the man she loves (Ronald Colman) is reported dead. With nowhere else to turn she decides to become a nun since they were the ones who saved her from the streets but soon the man she loved comes back but can she break her vow to God to take him back? This is a very handsome production of a novel that was filmed quite a few times including a remake ten years later with Clark Gable. This version is certainly very easy on the eyes and it features some very good performances but clocking it at nearly 140-minutes, the running time certainly doesn't do it any favors. The biggest problem is the running time as many scenes just seem to go on and on and on when they could have been cut down and it probably would have made the film float a lot better. Just take a look at the first thirty-minutes and everything that happens could have been told just as well with about ten or more minutes cut down. With that said, the film is still worth viewing for several reasons with the performances being one. Gish does her usual great job and really digs deep into this character and brings it to life as someone we really do care for and feel sorry for. As expected, we have some wonderful close ups of Gish's brilliant eyes that have no problem showing her sadness. Also, Gish is given another sequence where they were clearly trying to recapture the "terror" sequence from BROKEN BLOSSOMS but it doesn't work nearly as well here. The scene involves her learning that the man she loves is dead. Colman, in his screen debut, turns in a very good performance as well as he too really delivers in terms of the character's emotions and the pain he's going through as the woman he loves might not be able to love him. The direction by King is very good throughout and especially towards the end when the climax features a large volcano erupting and causing major panic in the streets. Fans of Gish and silent films will certainly want to check this out but I'm sure others will probably be bothered by the long running time. I know some versions are out there running nearly forty-minutes shorter and I actually checked a bootleg I had bought before watching the restored version on TCM and it actually only runs 66-minutes!!! One day I might try watching that version just to see how the film plays with more than fifty-percent of its time missing.

An excess of old-fashioned hokum prevents THE WHITE SISTER from being taken as a serious melodrama when seen today. Henry King's direction is so rambling that the film goes on for more than two hours during which time every conceivable melodramatic cliché is turned on its head.

LILLIAN GISH spends most of her time gazing reverently either at thirty-one-year-old RONALD COLMAN (as an Italian soldier Giovanni, in his first film) or heavenward toward the God she has married when she thinks that her soldier lover is dead, killed in Africa. Meanwhile, she has lost all her property when her cruel half-sister destroys their father's will, thus inheriting his entire estate and leaving her penniless to fend on her own.

And just when you think Gish has suffered enough, along comes Colman back from the dead, imploring her to cast away her vows so they can be reunited as lovers. The saintly Gish spends most of her scenes with Colman gazing toward a heavenly ceiling with tears in her eyes, unable to return his earthly passion. "God is love," she tells him.

The human suffering increases once the story reaches its climax, with Mt. Vesuvius erupting on a sleeping village, saved from hot lava by Colman who wakens the townspeople in time but who ends up swallowed by rising waters. Gish is left to contemplate her lost love, hoping to be reunited when her time comes.

It's a thoroughly old-fashioned story only partially redeemed by good camera work, a good score (on the TCM print), and Ronald Colman's earnest performance as the young man deeply in love.

Recommended only for fans of silent films who will undoubtedly enjoy all 145 minutes of the original version. Modern viewers will find it all terribly dated and overwrought.