Les Ailes blanches (1943)
Directed by Robert Péguy

Film Review

Having triumphed in one shamelessly sentimental melodrama, Le Voile bleu (1942), Gaby Morlay was an easy shoe-in for this even more dismal round of gratuitous tear-jerking.  Les Ailes blanches deserves its place in obscurity, belonging as it does to that class of characterless French melodrama that ought to have been mercilessly culled before the mid 1930s.  Morlay's performance, one of the worst of her career, reveals how much the lead actress felt about this grade-A yawn-a-thon, and were it not for the presence of Saturnin Fabre (a pick-me-up if ever there was one) this film would be unbearable.  Jacqueline Bouvier (later to become Jacqueline Pagnol) also livens up a few scenes, bringing a touch of modernity the film desperately needs.

Film Synopsis

It was a disappointment in love that led Claire to discover her true vocation as a nun.  Now, in middle age, she takes an interest in three young women, who have been badly brought up by a widower.  When one of the women is abandoned by her lover, Sister Claire steps in to save her...