The White Sister Reviews

Loren plays a tramp of the Libyan oil fields, who becomes a nun when her lover is killed. Returning to Italy, she assumes a position as head nurse at a church-run hospital in a city where the entire administration is Communist. This inevitably leads to conflicts, particularly when a handsome young Marxist (Celentano) is admitted and sets to running things his way. Celentano is a crude workingman who constantly intrudes into hospital operations, and only with time does Loren understand that he is a frustrated doctor. Something like love begins to grow between the two, but Loren is loyal to her vows and when Celentano realizes that their relationship can never be, he finally allows himself to be discharged from the hospital, only to die in an accident. Loren is simply not convincing as a woman of God. Celentano, an Italian singer, is better, but the script is just too silly for any decent performances. Loren as a young girl is played by her niece, Alessandra Mussolini, the granddaughter of the Italian dictator (Loren's sister, Maria, married Mussolini's jazz pianist son, Romano).