The Trouble with Angels
1966
Action / Comedy / Family

The Trouble with Angels
1966
Action / Comedy / Family
Plot summary
Mary and her friend, Rachel, are new students at St. Francis Academy, a boarding school run by the iron fist of Mother Superior. The immature teens grow bored and begin playing pranks on both the unsuspecting nuns and their unpleasant classmates, becoming a constant thorn in Mother Superior's side. However, as the years pass, Mary and Rachel slowly mature and begin to see the nuns in a different light.
Director
Top cast
Tech specs
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A Comedy that Evolves Into a Serious Drama
"Scathingly brilliant"
A tour de force for Hayley Mills, the most gifted juvenile actress of her generation. She makes the contrived material about adolescent escapades in a Catholic girls' boarding school look believable. It's a rarity for a Hollywood comedy to show a teenage girl who is intelligent and sensitive, and director Ida Lupino should be applauded for it.
Mills is ably assisted in her antics by her comrade-in-arms played by June Harding, who shows how to put the awkwardness in adolescence. They also have a truly touching scene together near the end.
The movie is also notable for the best latter-career work of high-strung movie star Rosalind Russell, who gives a restrained performance for a change as the Mother Superior. She uses quite a few arched eyebrows, however.
Watch for a rare cameo by the great Burlesque queen Gypsy Rose Lee, who plays a dotty instructor of dance and ladylike comportment.