Two nuns from a French convent arrive in a small New England town with a plan to build a children's hospital.Nominated for 7 Oscars:
Best Actress in a Leading Role: Loretta Young
Best Supporting Actress: Celeste Holm
Best Supporting Actress: Elsa Lanchester
Best Writing, Motion Picture Story
Best Cinematography, Black-and-White
Best Original Song
Best Art Direction, Black-and-White
This is a film I've also been searching for a long time. And found it on youtube, among many others. I wanted to see it not because I thought it was gonna be real good, but because I was very curious about it, especially about the performances.
It's a very quiet, drama but not dramatic, very 40s, catholic movie. It has a very simple storyline (the screenplay was probably written in a week) and I guess it could be boring for some, though it wasn't for me.
The 7 nominations are too much. The leading performance (for those not familiar, in the picture she's the one on the right) is good, but nothing spectacular. But Loretta Young looks soooo beautiful here and she's kind, delicate, pure, warm, so it makes it a perfect casting and a very lovable character. Elsa Lanchester is just awful (!!!) and poor Celeste Holm (the other nun) has no material to work with.
My rating for the film: 6.5/10. In an objective manner, it probably deserves less. But it didn't bother me, it was quite relaxing and there's a scene (just before the last one) that I found to be quite emotional.
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Miss Lanchester loudly complained, after her husband's death, of having lived "under Charles' Shadow", when actually, Laughton would usually push and try to have Elsa playing a role in many of his films (proof of it may be that she's not in many important films after Laughton's death, and certainly not in big parts).
ReplyDeleteWhile I'pm rather fond of her, I'm feel that... well, how wouldn't she live under Laughton's shadow? his was a gigantic talent, after all.