the audience applauded

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Debbie Reynolds had one more chance after her triumph as Molly Brown to sing in the movies, and even if the critics carped that this was simply a rip-off of "The Sound of Music" craze, she came off unscathed. Reynolds is Sister Anne, a Belgian nun who brings music into her new convent and turns it upside down. Like Sweet Apple Ohio in "Bye Bye Birdie", she gets "Mr. Showbiz" (Ed Sullivan) into the act, but unlike other sudden new stars cast into the limelight, she doesn't get into any "nasty habits". Sister Anne simply wants to praise God through her music, and thanks to the kindly Father Clementi (Ricardo Montalban), her Mother Superior (an overly chatty Greer Garson) agrees. A grouchy Agnes Moorehead and a sweet Juanita Moore are the other nuns in the order, and with Reynolds' charm working her over, it is no time at all before Moorehead actually cracks a smile. Like Angela Lansbury sings in "Dear World", it only takes one person to play a drum (in Sister Anne's case, it is her guitar, "Sister Adele") to get everybody marching.Sister Anne was famous for the hit song "Dominque", the only time in music history where a nun had music on the charts. The soundtrack is filled out with a few other small gems, which include the touching "Beyond the Stars" and the lively "It's a Miracle!". A group number, "Brother John", features all of the nuns, and is another highlight. With this music, you won't need "The Sound of Music's" Eleanor Parker promising that next time she will bring in her harmonica.There are some serious plot points in this sentimental tale, most sweetly Sister Anne's love for the young Dominic (Ricky Cordell), a feisty but lovable child she looks after when discovering the truth about his situation. When a young woman tells Reynolds of her intentions to have an abortion, Reynolds acts appropriately to the convictions of a Catholic nun, not judgmental, even if it appears she is being so. And when she hears "Dominique" being played to a (rather bad) rock beat, Sister Anne must find a new venue to continue to do her work for God.Reynolds is excellent, while Moorehead, Moore and Garson seem to be playing "types" of nuns than "characters". It is nice to see Moorehead switch from grouchy to kindly, but I found Garson's overly wise mother superior a bit pretentious, unlike Peggy Woods' serene Reverand Mother in "The Sound of Music". Of "Nun" films (there are many!), Reynolds' Sister Anne may not ever be compared to Deborah Kerr's ("Black Narcissus", "Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison") or Audrey Hepburn's ("The Nun's Story"), but she ain't no Sister Mary Clarence (Whoopie Goldberg, "Sister Act"), either. Too bad Mary Wickes wasn't available here to be the bus driver! The real life Sister Anne did not end up as lucky, having a rather tragic ending that is a movie of itself.

holy cow, what a lousy movie. but fascinating in its hideousness: Debbie Reynolds, a woman of obvious intelligence, talent and humor, forced to trudge through two hours of dreary piety and hollow mischief without vomiting all over her blinding-white habit; Katharine Ross turning up as Dominique's troubled older sister with the hidden cheesecake shots; Chad Everett's bizarro sexual attraction to his former sweetheart (and babysitter?) Debbie Reynolds (why didn't Sister Ann set him up w/ Katharine Ross? at least they were born in the same millennium); Greer Garson parading around like Little Nellie of Holy God; Agnes Moorehead, long rumored to be Debbie Reynolds' lover (whose appearance in this dog might offer the most substantive proof of same) as Sister Sourpuss (avec requisite heart of gold); Juanita Hall as Sister St. Mammy, the token Negro (and therefore inhumanly bland) nun; Ricardo Montalban feigning sweaty, desperate cheer; and the kid playing Dominique so sickening the Von Trapp family would truss him up and roast him alive.don't get me wrong: i ADORE nun movies, particularly the guitar-playing, motorcycle-riding, occasionally flying nuns of the post-Vatican II era; only "change of habit" (Sister Mary Tyler Moore wooed by Dr. Elvis Presley) rivals "the singing nun" for face-scalding embarrassment. everyone who likes nun movies should see both of these—though if you're a diabetic, not as a double feature.

As I've been told, when the big boys at 20th Century Fox first saw The Sound of Music in their studio projection room, they said, "This is going to bomb all over the place, so let's get it out in the theaters, make as much money as we can off this fiasco and pull it back in. So, remember that in those days, you didn't know what the preview would be until the film started rolling in the movie theater, and if my memory serves me correct, it was given a sneak preview in Minneapolis, and after the first half played, everyone screamed, clapped and whistled, and after the second half it sounded like the roof of theater was caving in because of the positive response, so Fox said, "Now wait a minute! Maybe we've got something here that we're not aware of, so they released The Sound of Music nationwide on a Reserve Seat basis, and when the critics saw it, they all reported that it would put everyone in a diabetic comma and would last a year, but they were wrong, and the rest is history! O.K., so "The Singing Nun" is not The Sound of Music! Big deal! So, The Sound of Music was just about playing out its 3 year run in most theaters, and as usual, someone in Hollywood says, "Let's cash in on the popularity of the movie and do our own musical about a bunch of Nuns, and Metro Goldwyn Mayers effort was "The Singing Nun" with Jewish convert Debbie Reynolds playing a Nun; that sings as well as Debbie Reynolds, and in all fairness, the movie might not be what the big boys at M.G.M. wanted, but it gave Debbie Reynolds the chance to do her finest singing ever! Her vocals in the movie, as far as I'm concerned, are superb! So, what about the cast and the film itself. Here's Greer Garson at the end of her career, Marshall Thompson, at the end of his, Ricardo Montalban famous for swimming with Esther Williams in her swimming musicals, Agnes Moorehead still looking like she'd like to cast a nasty on Darrin in Bewitched, and Chad Everett still looking like Doctor Gannon who claimed more animism's in his hospital T.V. show than would ever see on T.V. Soap General Hospital or Greay's Anatomy! The Singing Nun is not a good movie, but it's not a bad one either, and in ways it's very entertaining, but once again, it does afford Debbie Reynolds to do her finest singing ever in any of her films! Her singing in The Singing Nun is superb and spiritually uplifting, and fulfilling!

She sings, she's feisty, she rides a scooter, she plays guitar! Debbie Reynolds dimples her way through super simplistic comedy-drama about a nun who inadvertently becomes a pop star. Based on a real-life Belgian nun who had a hit with "Dominique" (and subsequently left the church and took her own life), the film is so forgettable, your mind may flush it away before it is even over. Solid cast includes Katharine Ross, Chad Everett and Agnes Moorehead, but the "spiritual notes" are terribly phony--phonier than those in "The Sound of Music" (which it hopes to emulate). It's obviously not as good as that film, nor "The Trouble With Angels", nor TV's "The Flying Nun". ** from ****