THE TROUBLE WITH ANGELS
US, 1966, 112 minutes, Colour.
Rosalind Russell, Hayley Mills, June Harding, Binnie Barnes, Camilla Sparv, Mary Wicks, Marge Redmond.
Directed by Ida Lupino.
This film definitely belongs to the 1960s. However, enough time has passed for it not to seem too much out of date. In fact, it is a bright and breezy entertainment for now. If an audience wants to get some taste of what religious orders and Catholic education were like in those transition years of the 1960s, it is worth seeing. It was a star vehicle for Hayley Mills as a strong-minded schoolgirl and Rosalind Russell as the stern, kind but often exasperated superior. It also throws some light on why young people decided to become nuns in those days.
The sequel, where Angels Go Trouble Follows, showed more of the changes in the church and convent life with Stella Stevens an unlikely star for an up-to-date sister. The film ends with Mother Superior, Rosalind Russell, changing into the modified habit.
1. The popularity of the film at the time? Comedy? Religion?
2. The atmosphere of the mid-60s? The changes in the Catholic church? The changes in convent life? Changes in girls’ boarding schools? The spirit of the times, the troublesome teenagers, the role of the nuns?
3. The school, the old private school, the building wearing down? The interiors, dormitories, boiler rooms, refectories? Authentic atmosphere of a boarding school? The musical score and songs?
4. The focus on the two girls, Mary and Rachel, the train ride, the change of names, Mary in charge, Rachel as a follower? At school, always getting into trouble, playing pranks, the sugar in the bubble bath, the cigars? The pranks over the years? Their always being in trouble? Rachel and her doing whatever Mary suggested? Their characters, Mary as strong-minded, her uncle and his visits (and her seeing his ‘secretaries’)? Rachel and her parents, living up to expectations? The classes, the outings, the religious dimension? The interaction with the various sisters? With the mother superior, her reprimands, her appearing at the wrong moments? Mary and taking the girls on paid tours of the convent while the sisters were in chapel? The superior locking them in? The high-spirited children? The frustration of Mother Superior? The changes over the years, the build-up to the band playing in competition, the practices and the terrible music? The issue of the uniforms, the short skirts (and Mother Superior saying the other schools were French)? The pressure on the benefactor to provide the uniforms? The success of the band? Money for the boiler – and the various jokes about the boiler giving out?
5. Rosalind Russell as Mother Superior, her age and experience, her later revelation about her life, as a dressmaker, in Paris? Her decision to enter the convent? Her role with the community, the variety of sisters, her friend and her death? Managing the school, looking forward to the children, her continual exasperation with Mary and Rachel? The talks with each of them? Explaining to Rachel that she was a follower? Locking the girls after the tour of the convent? The issue of the uniforms for the band-playing? Her charm with the benefactors? Life in the community? Her helping Rachel with the dress, sewing, the achievement, up all night?
6. The other sisters, Sister Constance, young, the girls thinking she was leaving the convent, her going to the Philippines as a missionary? Sister Clarissa, physical ed (and Mary Wickes’s style)? The various other sisters – the introduction to them all in the dining room when the girls arrived? Life in the convent?
7. The end of the year, the graduation, the announcement that two of the girls would be staying to join the sisters, the fact that Mary Clancy was staying? Rachel and her being upset, not speaking to Mary? Was it credible that Mary would decide to stay? Mother Superior’s explanation of the kind of girl that was needed to join the convent, strong-spirited, an independence and thinking for herself? Rachel and the final reconciliation at the station?
8. The popularity of this kind of portrait of girls at school, life at school?
9. A portrait of nuns – the film tradition of nuns, Ingrid Bergman and The Bells of St Mary’s etc? This film following in its steps? Yet the changes in the mentality of the 1960s? Looking back, how does it seem in retrospect, in view of the changes in convent life and Catholic education over the last decades of the 20th century?
