the screenwriter for the white sister and donald ogden stewart and have an uncredited bit play the hind end of a horse while that pretty well sum up this picture . it an insipid and implausible and and uncompelling film that waste a lot of prime mgm talent . spoiler alert the story concern the ill fat love between a sheltered and aristocratic italian girl and angela chiaromonte and and a dashing soldier and giovanni severi . he pursue her despite the strenuous objection of her father and thwart her marriage to a wealthy bankeran alliance that apparently be mean to save the girl family from financial ruin . their romance lead indirectly to the death of angela father in a car crash . the affair go downhill from there . throughout the film and angela and giovanni keep get together only to be tear apartfirst by her father and then by the war and and then by god himself . their rotten luck and bad timing be almost comical . send off to battle and giovanni implausibly survive a horrific plane crash and then make a daring escape from a german prisoner of war camp and only to find that angela and believe him dead and have become a nun . at this point and there nothing leave for him to do but die an anticlimactic death with his white habit fiancée at his bedside . the two lead and helen hayes ( angela ) and clark gable ( giovanni ) and give it their best and but they can not overcome be both miscast and mismatch . come into his own just a film learn to talk and gable exemplify the new american male represent confident and brash and and openly sexual . the old fashioned piety of this movie fit him like a straight jacket . hayes be more plausible in the role of the spirited or spiritual young girl . while you can see how she would be carry away by gable charisma and animal magnetism and it hard to understand why he would be so attracted to this mousy little innocent . the whole enterprise might just have work with someone like leslie howard a giovanni while his restrained classical style would have be well suit to this date material . other welcome and familiar face include edward arnold a a sympathetic priest ( like gable and though and he see to good advantage in earthy or roguish part ) while louise closser hale a angela duenna or companion and and may robson a the mother superior . uncredited but recognizable be gino corrado a a chauffeur and nat pendleton a giovanni soldier buddy and and greta meyer a the italian german woman who nurse giovanni back to health after his plane crash . a minor quibble and but i find it hugely annoyingnone of the character can agree on how to pronounce giovanni . hayes and a angela and seem to say it differently ( and wrong ) every time and which be odd consider her character be suppose to be madly in love with him . worth watch mainly a an opportunity to catch helen hayes in one of her infrequent film role ( her reputation be primarily a a stage actress ) and for gable characteristically charm performance ( not to mention beefcake appeal . ) in an uncharacteristic role .