Kathryn C Hulme's popular novel here makes a magnificent vehicle for the luminous Audrey Hepburn, who plays a young Belgian girl battling with her conscience and wondering if she is truly cut out for her religious calling. Hepburn is a marvel, whether flirting with passion in the Congo (in the guise of Peter Finch, who's terrific as an agnostic doctor) or discovering that some nuns (Dames Edith Evans and Peggy Ashcroft) are only human after all. This is arguably director Fred Zinnemann's finest movie; it gained eight nominations, but no Oscars, in the year of Ben-Hur. Unjust, really, as you watch Franz Planer's superb photography, listen to Franz Waxman's haunting score and wonder to what greater heights popular cinema can aspire.

After leaving a wealthy Belgian family to become a nun, Sister Luke struggles with her devotion to her vows during crisis, disappointment, and World War II.