1966 - THE SINGING NUN

I have a few movies to write about, but this week's entry will be about The Singing Nun a movie about a nun who sings.  Released in 1966, this is supposedly based on the life of an actual nun who was known as Soeur Sourire (Sister Smile). She had a hit song called "Dominique" and appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. Hollywood will be Hollywood, and it was decided to make a movie out of her life. Being that she was a Belgium nun living in Europe they put together an eclectic cast to say the least.

The perky Debbie Reynolds played Soeur Sourire zipping around Europe on her motor scooter with a guitar strapped to her back. The amazing supporting cast included Ricardo Montalban, Agnes Moorehead, Greer Garson, Chad Everett, Tom Drake, Ed Sullivan and Katherine Ross, probably not a group you would think of as particularly Belgium.

The movie was directed by Henry Koster and written by Sally Benson, two people who should have been good at presenting tripe like this. The plot had something to do with Sister Debbie having to decide between being a nun or taking up with a hunky old boyfriend, Chad Everett. This is the traditional trauma faced by every nun in the movies, pledging one's self to God or Chad Everett. It's not hard to guess who wins. By the end of the movie, Sister Debbie is in fantasy Africa inoculating little black babies while being surrounded by lots of black people. In her superhero nun outfit she looks very white. This struck me as a particularly tasteless white person's fantasy about another culture.

The climatic scene in The Singing Nun has Sister Debbie  appearing on a TV show where her song will be broadcast throughout the world. As she sings we see scenes of the various cultures grooving out to her song. It's an interesting scene because it's hard to believe that by the mid 1960's this kind of stuff could still be filmed with a straight face.

It's easy to sneer at junk like this 30 plus years later, but the real singing nun Jeannine Deckers' committed suicide with her lover Annie Pecher in 1985 which kind of takes the camp fun out of it.

97 minutes.