It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals.
In 2010, I revealed that I had seen 400 film musicals over eight years. Now that quantity is over 600. To rejoice and share this musical love, right here is my weekly function about musicals.
This week’s musical:
The Singing Nun (1966) – Musical #47
Studio:
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Director:
Henry Koster
Starring:
Debbie Reynolds, Ricardo Montalbán, Greer Garson, Agnes Moorehead, Juanita Moore, Katharine Ross, Chad Everett, Tom Drake, Ricky Cordell, Michael Pate, Charles Robinson, Monique Montaigne, Joyce Vanderveen, Anne Wakefield, Pam Peterson, Marina Koshetz, Nancy Walters, Violet Rensing, Inez Pedroza, Jon Lorimer (uncredited), Dorothy Patrick (uncredited)
Themselves: Ed Sullivan
Plot:
A nun, Sister Ann Reynolds, loves music and enjoys singing. Father Clementi (Montalban) thinks Sister Ann ought to make a song, and he or she writes a tune that turns into a success. The file is properly sold, and he or she even makes an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. As she rises to fame, Sister Ann realizes that the recognition might conflict with the vows she took. The movie is a fictionalized biographical musical on the life and profession of Jeannine Deckers (who served within the church as Sister Luc Gabriel and was recognized as Soeur Sourire), a nun who rose to fame along with her hit song “Dominque.”
Trivia:
• Director Henry Koster’s final film. He mentioned this was a troublesome movie to make, which made him resolve to retire.
• The Catholic Church was not happy with the movie and solely agreed to it if the story was fictionalized.
• First movie or television look at Ricky Cordell
• In her autobiography, Debbie Reynolds wrote that she accepted the movie so she could stay in Los Angeles with her kids. Scenes have even been scheduled so she may attend Carrie’s Lady Scout conferences.
• In 2009, an up-to-date biographical movie was launched on Jeannine Deckers known as “Soeur Sourire,” or “Sister Smile.”
Highlights:
• The scene is the place where the nuns are in the recording studio.
• “Dominque” sped up for a discothèque
Notable Songs:
• “Brother John” carried out by Ricardo Montalban, Debbie Reynolds, and the sisters
• “Sister Adele” carried out by Debbie Reynolds
• “Past the Stars” carried out by Debbie Reynolds and Monique Montaigne
• “Put On Your Fairly Skirt” carried out by Debbie Reynolds
• “Dominque” carried out by Debbie Reynolds
My assessment:
As a fictional, narrative movie, “The Singing Nun” (1966) is pleasant. However, considering it as a biopic on an individual, all of it makes me unhappy. The movie was a sanitized model of a narrative that, in actual life, was way more advanced and unhappy.
“Sadly, her actual life was tougher than what we portrayed in our model,” Reynolds wrote in her autobiography of the actual Singing Nun.
Within the movie, Sister Ann Reynolds arrives at her new project at the Samaritan Home in Brussels. She’s spirited and arrives on a scooter with a guitar. Mom Prioress (Garson) thinks Sister Ann might need the power and positivity that they want, whereas Sister Cluny (Moorehead) isn’t too positive at first. However, when the sisters and Father Clementi (Montalban) hear her sing for the first time, Father Clementi has the notion that she ought to file an album of hymns. Sister Ann says that her songs are prayers set to music. When she makes it to the file—the place she meets a previous pal (Everett) who’s now a music director—the film turns into a success. Sister Ann finds fame, even appearing on “The Ed Sullivan Present.” However, she finds that the celebrity, while she enjoys it, will additionally get in the way of her work, like attempting to assist Dominic (Cordell) and his sister Nicole (Ross).
The movie is known as a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer reunion with a forged cast boasting Debbie Reynolds, Greer Garson, Ricardo Montalban, and Tom Drake.
“The Singing Nun” is a joyful movie and has some beautiful songs, but it’s surely unhappy as a result of the actual life story being slightly grim.
The identical year the movie was launched, the actual Singing Nun, Jeannine Deckers, left the order, noting clashes between herself and her superiors when it got to her fame. Her life came to a tragic end in 1985, when Deckers was hit with $63,000 in back taxes by the Belgian authorities, and he or she committed suicide. One other movie was later made about Deckers’ life in 2009, known as “Soeur Sourire.”
Making the film “The Singing Nun” was also not a pleasant experience. While making the movie, director Henry Koster determined it would be his final movie—and it was. Tensions between Debbie Reynolds and producer John Beck made filming disagreeable, particularly for Koster, who was caught in the middle.
Reynolds doesn’t hide any of her artistic achievements in her autobiography, only discussing the film in two pages and gushing over Greer Garson and Carrie’s Lady Scout troop.
Whereas this movie was perhaps impressed by the success of “The Sound of Music,” I believe it stands on its own two feet as an entertaining musical. The movie is essentially a fictional biopic, which was the only way the Catholic Church agreed to the making of the movie.
The songs within the movie are beautiful, and there are some enjoyable moments. I particularly enjoy the scene in which the nuns are filing in the music studio, as well as the contrast between them and the other Sixties singers. I like it when the digital camera switches between the nuns singing hymns and a rock band in ridiculous costumes singing how they “love my child!”
The whole cast is a delight, particularly Greer Garson, Ricardo Montalban, and Juanita Moore, although I sadly felt like Moore wasn’t given a lot to do. I used to be nearly stunned that a romance wasn’t cooked up between the characters performed by Katharine Ross and Chad Everett, who didn’t play any scenes collectively. My only other complaint was that I would have liked to see more of Tom Drake. I needed to snigger at Drake for complaining about the nuns’ outfits being too white and asking if they had anything else to put on. I’ve been on several filming crews, including this one.
Funnily enough, Nancy Walters, who performs as a nun in the movie, ended up being a minister for a while.
I hadn’t watched The Singing Nun since I was a teenager, and I primarily remembered the tune “Dominque,” a tune that simply will get caught in your head. I loved this revisit, even when the actual story makes me unhappy.
