Seraphic Secret

Robert J. Avrech: Emmy Award winning screenwriter. Movie fanatic. Helplessly and hopelessly in love with my wife since age nine.

Nuns in Hollywood

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Still from “Marketa Lazarova,” 1967, a Czechoslovakian film I have screened about half a dozen times and have yet to understand what the heck is going on. But the imagery is haunting and spectacular.

Hollywood has always been fascinated by trashy vamps and holy nuns. Obviously, these polar opposites provoke strong reactions in audiences. Actresses are invariably drawn to playing these roles for both trade in extremes of  sexuality: promiscuity and celibacy, great showcases for any thespian.

Over the past few months, just by chance, I’ve screened several movies that tell the story of a nun. Invariably, each film is a love story, supporting Seraphic Secret’s Rule #1 of Hollywood narrative: Every great movie is a love story.

“The White Sister,” 1923. Lillian Gish takes her vows after learning that her lover, Ronald Colman, has been killed in war. Naturally, the report of Colman’s death is incorrect. Unhappiness ensues. Spectacular film. The scene where Gish’s hair is shorn on a silver platter is deeply moving.

 

“Black Narcissus,” 1947. Deborah Kerr leads a band of Anglican Nuns on a windswept mountain top in Tibet. Nearly every frame of this film is a work of art. Kathleen Byron as Sister Philippa steals the film as a nun in the throes of sexual hysteria. Not surprising as Byron was having a torrid affair with director Michael Powell during production.

 

“The Nuns’s Story,” 1959. Perhaps the best performance of Audrey Hepburn’s career as a young nun who is also a talented nurse. Her love interest is Peter Finch, a cynical alcoholic physician. But they never so much as touch or acknowledge their feelings. Theirs is one of the most profound love stories ever filmed. I’ve read quite a few memoirs by ex-nuns whose decision to become nuns were made after seeing this film. Oddly, these young girls didn’t seem to notice that the ending of the movie has Hepburn, as Sister Luke, leaving her order. A very great film.

 

“The Miracle,” 1959. Carroll Baker is best remembered for “Baby Doll,” 1956 a pretentious movie that seems to find pedophilia amusing. Later, Baker played Jean Harlow in the deeply stupid biopic whose relation to the truth is zero. Here, Baker turns in an amazing performance as a young nun who loves Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Yet her love for Jesus is just as powerful. Of course, she falls for British officer Roger Moore just as he’s about to march off to Waterloo. The miracle of the movie is unexpected and moving. A wonderful film that is rarely seen.

 

Dolores Hart, one of the most beautiful and compelling actresses of the late 50’s and early 60’s played Elvis Presley’s love interest in “King Creole,” 1958. Rocketing to fame after “Where the Boys Are,” 1960, Hart was deeply unhappy in Hollywood. A Catholic, she never got to play a nun—

 

—Instead, Hart took a studio limousine to a convent in Connecticut where, eventually, she took her vows. The Reverend Mother Dolores Hart is Prioress of her abbey, but she remains the only nun who is a voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The world lost a wonderful actress but gained a pious and excellent role model.

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Comments

  1. Re: your piece on Black Narcissus. It wasn’t Flora Robson as Sister Philippa who was “a nun in the throes of sexual hysteria”, it was Kathleen Byron as Sister Ruth. It was also Kathleen Byron who Michael Powell was having an affair with – he had previously had an affair with Deborah Kerr so he had the current girlfriend and the ex on the set together.
     
    Oh, and it was nothing to do with Hollywood either. It was all made in England.
     
    But I agree with the statement that “Nearly every frame of this film is a work of art.”
     

  2. Lots to like in this posting Robert, but the last point about a Mother Superior who votes for Oscars is priceless.

    I mean, just guessing which, if any, of the past dozen Best Film winners would get the holy nod is fun. 

  3. The miracle of the movie is unexpected and moving.

    The miracle of the picture is that the nun goes off to have a good time and the statue of the Virgin Mary comes to life and covers for her. I don’t think that’s moving. I think that’s funny.

      • Didn’t you just ruin the surprise for anyone who might have been interested in seeing the film?

          kishke

        Dear Kishke: It’s on the Internet Movie Database and anyone familiar with Medieval legends about the Virgin Mary will see it coming a mile away. Sorry.

        • Most people who look up a movie on IMDB with a thought toward watching it will avoid spoilers that reveal the ending. In fact, in the advisory section, spoilers are blocked out with a “spoiler alert” that you have to click on to bypass. Besides, there are any number of people – likely most of the population – who are not familiar with medieval legends of the Virgin Mary. Why punish them by ruining the film for them?

  5. It has been decades since I watched Two Mules For Sister Sarah, but didn’t they combine both the nun and the vamp into one in that movie?  It wasn’t Clint Eastwood’s best work, as I recall.  I think the female lead was Shirley MacLaine.  

    • GW:

      Your memory is correct. Shirley is a prostitute disguised as a nun. It’s actually a very good film. Original story was by the talented but erratic and alcoholic Budd Boetticher. This might be my favorite Eastwood movie, a true gem.

  6. Dear Robert: Shabbat Shalom. Why don’t you screen GREEN DOLPHIN STREET? One of the subplots involves Donna Reed’s character becoming a nun. That film got me started on the novels of Elizabeth Goudge, and I’ve loved nearly all of them.

      • Dear Robert: Shavuah Tov. Hodesh Tov. Do screen GREEN DOLPHIN STREET. You’ll enjoy it. The book is even better than the film. You might want to read some of Elizabeth Goudge’s novels and think about adapting them.

    • Bill:

      Heaven Knows is a opretty good film, though I haven’t seen it in a long time. And yes, much tension between Kerr and the rugged Robert Mitchum.

  8. The photograph of Dolores Hart and Elvis Presley is wonderful.  Elvis at his sexy, smouldering best, cheek to cheek with Dolores, but she’s looking past the camera, perhaps toward a convent.

    • Earl:

      Dolores Hart was always a bit distant in her roles, as if she were floating above the character and trying to undertsand simple human motives. She was… unearthly.

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