It is not often that the producers of a motion picture dare to probe mercilessly into the validity of assumed Christian concepts, and therefore it is hardly surprising that although "Black Narcissus" finds a deeply religious answer to its own questions, American religious groups have unanimously blasted it. The picture places a group of Anglican nuns in a remote part of the Himalayas, where Western morality and religion simply do not exist. Their convent has once been a local emperor's harem, their patron is the conscience-stricken emperor, who pays his subjects to go the convent, and the nuns are a group of mortals, frightened by the strange place but determined to fulfill their duties and to care for the people. The lascivious atmosphere works steadily to erode their layer of self-imposed piety until their passions come to the surface. In the strong it fails, and in the weak it succeeds; will power alone determines.

Much of the film's forthright power has been lost through the work of the censor's scissors, and scenes that were honest and strong have become merely smutty. Admitting that there is temptation everywhere, the picture questions whether anyone can be truly religious, and finally states that one can. The Sister Superior, after a fierce struggle with her passion, defeats it, and discovers a humility that she did not have before the experience in the mountains. The conflict is a real one, for every year the nuns can leave the order if they want to.

Deborah Kerr makes an entirely credible sister, devoid of the sentimentality that usually befouls religious characters in the movies. David Farrar and Flora Robson play with skill and vitality, while Jean Simmons, the Estella of "Great Expectations," is magnificent as a sensuous Indian girl. Technicolor is made the most of, with some splendid photographic effects, and the only serious fault to be found is that the pace is sometimes too slow. It is a great pity that a picture so excellent in execution and so religious in theme should be chopped up by the censors.