The Nun’s Story **** (1959, Audrey Hepburn, Peter Finch, Edith Evans) – Classic Movie Review 8127

‘He that shall lose his life for me shall find it.’ Director Fred Zinnemann’s 1959 The Nun’s Story stars the always beautiful Audrey Hepburn, who disguises her usual chic beauty and shines in a strong Oscar nominated star acting performance as Sister Luke, a nun who serves in the Belgian Congo and rebels against her vows.

This skilful, painstaking and sensitive film from Kathryn Hulme’s bestseller also boasts fine performances too from Peter Finch as the atheist doctor to whom she is attracted, Colleen Dewhurst as a murderous patient, and from Dames Edith Evans and Peggy Ashcroft as nuns, respectively the reverend mothers in Belgium and Africa.

It seems unlikely now, but The Nun’s Story was one of the big hits of the Fifties, when nuns seemed to be in vogue on screen and hold a fascination for audiences. It was nominated for eight Oscars and won none. Hepburn won a BAFTA Film Award as Best British Actress.

Also in the cast are Dean Jagger, Mildred Dunnock, Patricia Collinge, Beatrice Straight, Rosalie Crutchley, Ruth White, Barbara O’Neil, Margaret Phillips, Patricia Bosworth, Stephen Murray, Lionel Jeffries, Niall MacGinnis, Eva Kotthaus, Molly Urquhart, Dorothy Alison, Jeanette Sterke, Errol John, Diana Lambert, Orlando Martins, Charles Lamb, Richard O’Sullivan, Penelope Horner and Ave Ninchi.

The Nun’s Story is directed by Fred Zinnemann, runs 150 minutes, is made and released by Warner Bros, is written by Robert Anderson, based on Kathryn Hulme’s book, is shot in Technicolor by Franz Planer, is produced by Henry Blanke, is scored by Franz Waxman and is designed by Alexander Trauner. It was shot on location in Rome, Bruges, Stanleyville and a real leper colony in the Belgian Congo.

Hepburn was a five time Oscar nominee as Best Actress in total, and won for Roman Holiday (1953).

Patricia Bosworth, former actress, magazine editor and biographer of Montgomery Clift, Diane Arbus, Marlon Brando and Jane Fonda, died of Covid-19 at 86 on April 2, 2020. She plays Simone (postulant who changed her mind) in The Nun’s Story.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8127

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