The White Sister
About The White Sister
Prince Chiaromonte dies in an accident before his daughter Angela (Lillian Gish) can be married to the son of Count del Ferice. Her half-sister, the Marchesa di Mola (Gail Kane), burns the will, and because the prince's second marriage was never entered with the civil authorities, Angela is turned out with nothing. Captain Giovanni Severini (Ronald Colman) sails on an African expedition and is reported massacred, so she takes final vows as a white sister. He has been a captive for two years. He escapes, finds her at the Santa Giovanna d'Aza hospital, and, when Mount Vesuvius erupts, warns the town and drowns saving a mother and her children, after the dying Marchesa has confessed the burned will.
Cast & crew
More about The White Sister
In November 1922 a crew of 24 sailed for Naples on the SS Providence, expecting three months of work. They used studios in Rome, exteriors in Rome and Naples, and desert locations in Algeria, and poorly equipped studios nearly doubled the schedule. Charles H. Duell presented Henry King's production for Inspiration Pictures, which Metro Pictures distributed.
Themes
Reviews
A New York Times reviewer wrote that the film starts as one of the strongest love stories filmed and then weakens with Giovanni's death and the last stretch of the story, while calling the cast excellent and Gish's acting restrained. Reviewing the 1933 remake, Mordaunt Hall wrote in the New York Times that its scenes never seem as real as those of the silent picture.
Look
Roy F. Overbaugh, William Schurr, and Fernando Risi photographed it. Gish said the scene of her final vows took 25 hours to film, with a break of two and a half hours.
Music
Joseph Carl Breil wrote the score. The film is silent, with English intertitles.
Notes
- Gish turned down $3,500 a week from Tiffany Pictures and signed with Inspiration for $1,500 plus a share of the profits. Inspiration paid $16,000 for the novel. The Catholic Church advised on the religious scenes.
- It premiered at the 44th Street Theatre in New York on September 5, 1923, at 13 reels (13,147 feet), before a national distribution deal. A February 1924 cut ran 10,055 feet. The April 1924 general release was 9,361 feet and opened at the Capitol Theatre in New York on April 20.
- Silent Era spells Colman's role Giovanni Severi. The Wikipedia cast list uses Giovanni Severini. Gustavo Serena, billed as Signor Serena, plays Professor Ugo Severi. J. Barney Sherry is Monsignor Saracinesca. Charles Lane is the prince. Juliette La Violette is Madame Bernard.
- George V. Hobart and Charles E. Whittaker wrote the scenario. Wikipedia also credits Will M. Ritchey and Don Bartlett. W. Duncan Mansfield edited.
- It is the second filming of F. Marion Crawford's 1909 novel and of the play Crawford wrote with Walter Hackett, after a 1915 picture and before the 1933 film with Helen Hayes and Clark Gable and the 1960 Mexican film La hermana blanca.
Scenes
- Angela kisses a portrait of Giovanni that the painter Durand has brought to the hospital, then realizes it is only paint.
- She takes her final vows.
- The dying Marchesa, unrecognized, confesses in an empty church that she burned the will, and Angela forgives her.
- After the eruption breaks a reservoir, Giovanni drowns while helping a mother and her children.
Influenced by
- F. Marion Crawford's 1909 novel The White Sister
- The 1909 play by F. Marion Crawford and Walter Hackett
Also available
- Internet Archive (ptp_the-white-sister_henry-king_dvd_x264_mkv_716x480_252423)
