NUNS ON THE RUN

UK, 1990, 89 minutes, Colour.
Robbie Coltrane, Eric Idle, Janet Suzman, Camille Coduri.
Directed by Jonathan Lynn.

Nuns on the Run is a bit of Monty Python style comedy, memories of the Ealing Studios comedies with a touch of Carry On. Charlie and Brian (Robbie Coltrane (Henry V, Mona Lisa) and Eric Idle (of the Monty Pythons)) are old fashioned hold-up men who rebel against the young hoodlums and the Hong Kong triads who are giving London robbers a bad name with their violence. After a bungled taking of the loot, they find themselves in a convent/college and adapt to being nuns (old style then new style) with more ease than you might imagine. Obviously there are echoes of Some Like It Hot.

Not wildly funny, but enough of a continuous giggle to entertain and for Catholics the dialogue (by Yes, Minister's Jonathan Lynn, the director) has enough enjoyable echoes of familiar doctrines (especially the Trinity and the Shamrock), customs (in convents) and rituals to entertain all but the most grim believer.

Released two years before Sister Act.

1. British comedy? British style, the 80s? The traditions of British comedy, social comment, farce? Comedy on religion!

2. The title, expectations? Religious sensibilities? Catholics enjoying jokes about themselves?

3. London settings, the robberies, the convent, the hospital, flats? Editing and pace? The musical score and the range of songs?

4. Farce, comedy of disguise, comedy of errors, visual humour, verbal humour? Memories of Some Like It Hot?

5. Brian and Charlie and their jobs, traditions, comic style? Age, experience? On the job and the caper going wrong, the ricochet bullet and the death? The meal and their regrets, Casey and his brutality? The pressures on them, the plan, the triads? Faith and her warning? The execution of the robbery, the plan for the getaway, getting stuck without petrol?

6. Charlie and Brian in the convent: Farce, men in a women's world, men in a school for young girls? The nuns? The men in habits, comedy in drag? Their styles of comedy? Jokes about make-up, women's clothes? The talk with the superior? Friendship with Sister Mary and her problems? The harsh nun at the desk? The comedy (expected) at the gymnasium, basket ball, the showers? The party in the girls' rooms? Religion and the explanation of the doctrine of the Trinity, Brian trying to give the class and getting confounded? Sister Mary and her betting, the accountant, the loss of the money? The men and their getting out of the habit to go to the laundry, to collect the money? Bad timing? Faith wandering into the convent? Having to deceive her, pretend they were nuns? Brian hearing her confession and guiding her? His being in love with her? In the hospital, Charlie and the encounters with the flirtatious Fr Shamus? Faith's flat, the pursuit, the chase? The suitcase and the money, benefiting the nuns? The happy ending on the plane and the joke about the stewardesses?

7. Faith, at work, smitten by Brian, overhearing the plan, the warning, at the site of the crime, her glasses, short-sightedness, in the convent, their trying to keep her quiet? Walking into the pole, in hospital? The escape, the chase, the happy ending?

8. Sister Liz as the tough minded superior, her style in communicating with people, jobs for the sisters, coping with the newcomers, getting them to supervise sport, give classes? The discussions with the accountant? The need for the money? Prayer? The farce of the chase? The happy ending with the money?

8. Sister Mary, her drinking, betting? Helping the newcomers? In bed with the whiskey bottle? Her dreams? Trouble with the accountant? The happy ending?

9. Casey and the portrait of British thugs, young and brutal? The Hong Kong triads and their muscling in on British crime? The robberies, the hold-ups, the violence and the attacks? The thugs being blocked?

10. The chases, the police - enjoyable farce?

10. Religious jokes: the class on the trinity, Brian hearing Faith's confession, Fr Shamus and his flirting? Jokes about nuns?

12. A farcical caper, good humoured, good natured?