The Singing Nun (1966)

Debbie Reynolds portrays the Singing Nun based on a true story, Ricardo Montalban also stars. The music is light and lilting and completely enjoyable with Debbie Reynolds singing many songs throughout the film. At several points you question whether the order is the right place for Sister Ann as several intriguing opportunities are available. Enjoyable music and film.

Actually, this is not really as bad a movie as some would say it is. I think that it would have been more appreciated if it hadn't come out on the heels of the super-money maker "Sound of Music" which saved 20th Century Fox from going down-under into bankruptcy because of the very flopish Cleopatra which starred Liz and Dicky-Boy! We, here we have the Aba Daba Honeymoon girl Debbie Reynolds, who converted to the Jewish Religion because of her marriage to Eddie Fisher, playing a Christian Catholic Nun! Debbie Reynolds had really come a long way in there career from the days of playing Maureen the sister of the Daughter of Rosie O'Grady with June Haver to playing Helen Kane in Three Little Words; Three Weeks With Love, with Jane Powell who was also born on April Fools Day same as Debbie was, having a record hit with her and Carleton Carpenter singing Aba Daba Honeymoon. Then she later went to game in Singing in the Rain, playing a dog reincarnated into a female human form, and later in the wonderful Unsinkable Molly Brown, but to Debbies credit, n The Singing Nun she does some of her finest singing and it's incredible to hear her since she really never had one singing lesson exact for some coaching in her M.G.M. days, and coaching is not the same as taking singing lessons. Her singing is wonderful to hear! Then we have the rest of the cast trying to not look embarrassed for agreeing to appear in this film. You sometimes think that Ricardo Montalban is looking around thinking, "Where's Esther Williams to throw me in a swimming pool to do a water ballet to save this turkey!" Agnes Moorehead looks like she's trying to still play Endora on Bewitched. Tom Drake looks like he's looking around to see if Judy Garland will save him by doing some kind of singing duet. Greer Garson is playing the Mother Superior trying to still be Mrs. Minever. Chad Everett is still acting like Dr. Gannon in which he could say, as he did almost every Medical Hospiital show he was on "It's an aneurysm!" I wonder if that's what he thought of the movie? Debbie Reynolds was in an interview on Turner Classics and even though she and Gene Kelly hated each other in the making of Singing In The Rain, she did say that if it wasn't for what she learned from him she wouldn't have lasted in this business for 60 years. So, put it all together, The Singing Nun is not that bad of a movie, and you should see it in a movie theater with it's wide-screen and stereophonic sound to really appreciate it for what it is which is a great entertainment package for the whole family to enjoy together. Wonder what ever happened to that kind of movie? But, again, to give her credit, Debbie Reynolds does her finest singing ever, and she is a real joy to watch in this film!

Despite the best efforts of the actors, this movie is awful. The screenplay can only be described as moronic. I appreciate that it is the songs that draw people to watch it, but if so, do stick to the record.It's a shame too because Debbie Reynolds, Greer Garson, Ricardo Montelban, Katherine Ross, Agnes Moorehead, Chad Everett all do as well as can be expected - and I am reminded of how wonderful a singing voice Debbie Reynolds has. Moreover, Montelban is truly believable as a priest - as are Garson and Reynolds as nuns. Ross is just fine.But this is more saccharine than most of the Flying Nun episodes. It's strange too - because most movies about nuns have for some reason been quite good - Black Narcissus, Heaven Knows Mr. Allison, The Nun's Story, The French movie, Therese, The Song of Bernadette, even The Trouble with Angels (which bowled me over with how affectingly it evolved).Most movies succeed in the writing - this one had a great real story to tell - even without emphasizing the astonishingly grim post-convent life of its protagonist -- from her family's life in Paris during W.W.II (her father a figure in the Resistance) to the fascinating relationship with music. (Think of how fantastically the movie Hilary and Jackie showed a woman's conflicts about having her life revolve around music).When I was a boy, Sister Soeur's songs were the leitmotif of our Catholic grade school - we all had to learn them in French, sing them in Christmas concerts for our parents, etc. It's such a shame that such an awful movie celebrates such light, cheery music. It's truly not worth watching.

In the early 60's, a nun, calling herself The Singing Nun, released an album of musical hymns and religious songs that turned out to strike a chord with the public. Just about everyone alive in that era still can recognize the strains of Dominique. Naturally, Hollywood chose to make her story into a movie. What they actually did was make an idealized story into a movie, pretending it is the true story. As such, the story comes off as syrupy and too much everyone's fantasy of the perfect nun. She wants only to work with children; she thinks of nothing but her service to the church, she actually rails against abortion in the film. This makes the movie plodding and very boring in places. It also projects a too-virginal image that gets old very quickly. And, for some reason they felt the need to have an old flame to the pre-habit days around to spice things up just a bit, though she remains true to her faith throughout. The true story is of Jeanine Deckers, known to the world mostly at Soeur Sourire ("Sister Smile"), who called the film "a film of fiction". In the convent she was known as Sister Luc-Gabrielle and did not like the Sister Smile moniker the record company came up with. In contrast to the perfection of the movie, Jeanine Deckers was a very conflicted personality who did not like the attention of the world and definitely did not hold an attraction to a male record producer as shown in the film. In fact, she left the order in 1965, accompanied by her lover, Annie Pescher, whom she stayed with until their mutual suicide pact in 1985. Gee, if you were an old Dominique fan, I probably burst a few bubbles there. What I think is interesting is that the true story would probably be the Hollywood choice were it made today. The 1965 film portrayed perfection and idealism. I'm sure a 2002 film would search for the seediest of details and revel in her contradictions. What is sad is that neither version would make a very good film. The excessively sweet Debbie Reynolds/Recardo Montalban version is mostly pretty dull and the true story would undoubtedly resemble yet anther VH1 Behind the Music.Watch for Katherine Ross in her first year as an actress as about the only real character in the film. The Ed Sullivan cameo is rather interesting as well.