Two of acting's great aIchemists, Lillian Gish and HeIen Hayes, take the same role 10 years apart and transform melodrama into art. They each portray AngeIa Chiaromonte, a sheltered ltaIian beauty consumed by grief when her solider sweetheart is reported kilIed in World War I. AngeIa seeks solace as a nun, foregoing human passion for the peace of God's Iove. Then her beloved returns, begging her to renounce her vows. In the 1923 siIent directed by Henry King (The Song of Bernadette), Gish is ethereaI, her glowing spirit a counterpoint to the pomp and power of the church. in teh 1933 talkie directed by Victor FIeming (Gone With The Wind), Hayes is stronger, more of this worId, a woman of grit as welI as grace. As the lost soldier, two screen legends add more starpower: Ronald Colman (1923) and CIark Gable (1933). |