Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows (1968)

The Worst Film Ever

One of my all time favorites.

Memorable, crazy movie

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

This comedy has little to recommend it. Whatever drama might be generated by an intergenerational conflict (represented by Mother Superior and the upstart younger nun) was very tame and broadly played. Whatever comedy might have come from the various situations the nuns and their students encounter was rather clichéd and hardly knee-slapping.Where Angels Go is an over-the-road story that could have been about real truths discovered and personal revelations, but--like sixties conventions themselves--it's mostly about surface issues. Easy Rider would soon redefine the genre and create film's new anti-heroes, challenging the status quo in more profound ways. Some reviewers who are Catholic have correctly pointed out that one can see examples of the church's struggle to modernize itself in this film, but the church was struggling with issues already addressed by society decades before, as is always the case.Rosalind Russell turns in a creditable performance as the Mother Superior. Stella Stevens is a worthy antagonist. The other actors were not asked to stretch much. The story just is not that compelling.

I used to work in Fort Washington, not too far from where these movies were filmed at. Every time I went by the St. Mary's Villa either on my way to or back home from work, I always thought to myself "That's where they filmed The Trouble With Angels." I first saw this movie when I was in school in back in '73; just five years after it was first released. But then I saw it again on TV thirteen years later (in 1986), and I just kept on watching it over and over again. I also have some of the dialogue from this movie memorized as well.Since the story was about them going to California for a youth rally, what they should have done was this: Show them arriving at the rally and filming the rally scenes as well. Continue filming the rest of the journey to California instead of leaving them off somewhere in the desert Southwest, and then returning to St. Francis showing the nuns in their shorter habits. They made it to the rally, but they should have showed them actually being there; not just talk about it.Also, after they left Mr. Farriday's (Robert Taylor) ranch, were they still in New Mexico when they got caught in an Indian attack that was part of a Western movie being filmed on location there, and the bus's axle broke? ) How about when they came across a detour where they wouldn't make the rally in time? Or when they stopped at a museum to pick up some Indian souvenirs? Since Sister Clarissa told the Mother Superior that the detour would take them 125 miles out of their way, were they in Arizona? Since Sister Clarissa (Mary Wickes) drove the bus, she should have taken a highway route to Chicago. Then drive out Route 66 all the way to Los Angeles, and then up the Pacific Coast Highway to Santa Barbara. Instead, she took a lot of back roads; including the one what was detoured. At least they made it to the rally.It's a shame that Haley Mills wasn't in this. If she had, how would she handle Sister George (Stella Stevens) and her liberal ideas; as well as her grumpy cousin, Marvel Ann (Barbara Hunter)? After all, her character in The Trouble With Angels, Mary Clancy, decided to stay at St. Francis and become a nun after she graduated from there.But at least this movie was just as good as The Trouble With Angels.

Basically, I love this movie. I especially like the Title Song.In my opinion, it's a very enjoyable movie. It's a nostalgic flashback to the 60s. It's fun to see a very young Susan St. James, who later became famous in McMillan and Wife.The movie deals with adolescent girls in a Catholic school who, at the urging of a young, liberal nun named Sister George, decide to attend a co-educational, Inter-denominational Christian Youth Rally in California. The movie never deals with the rally. It deals with the trip. During the trip, the girls deal with the usual problems of teenagers, including boys.Sister George has several battles with the older, more stoic Mother Superior.During the trip, the girls learn about themselves, Sister George has to come to terms with her own doubts about herself, and the Mother Superior is confronted with her own self-doubts.The trip enlightens everyone - even Sister George. At the beginning, she is convinced that she alone is enlightened and all the other nuns are in the dark ages. She seems to take it upon herself to enlighten them. The girls at the school see her as a groovy nun. To them, she's a friend. That will hurt Sister George during the course of the trip.The trip isn't an all-serious social study. There is a lot of comedy on the way. There are two partners in crime; girls who love Sister George are constantly causing headaches for themselves and Mother Superior. In an early scene, they blow up the lab. Sister George taught them the dangers of combining certain common household chemicals because a bomb could be the result and they tested the theory. In another scene, they collect money from the girls parties at St. Frances Academy at night. The party is complete with school-forbidden record players, speakers, and, of course, rock music. This forces Mother Superior to shut down what she calls St. Frances A Go-Go. The funniest scene is a punishment from Mother Superior for another one of the many problems the two girls cause during the trip. The punishment is for the two of them to wash the bus. The girls spot a truck wash on the property where they are and decide to use it - despite the fact that the attendant is out to lunch. One girl drives the bus while the other tries operating the machinery. Neither notice that the bus windows are all open.The only thing that I thought was totally illogical was the scene where movie Indians attacked the bus. Why would they have attacked the bus? They knew they were doing a movie and only an idiot would know that the bus didn't belong in that scene. So why scare the girls half to death and risk your own life attacking it? The scene where the bus is stopped on the tracks with the train coming is predictable, but much more believable than the attacking Indians.All-in-all, the movie is a fun romp through the 60s with girls who are trying to find out who they are and where they belong in the world. Oh, and there are also two nuns who discover that they too need to find out who they are and where they belong.

After a series of misadventures on the road with a broken down bus and screaming girl students, ROSALIND RUSSELL toward the end of the film states: "It proved to be a wonderful experience." That she says it with so much conviction is a testament to her acting skill--because it's another matter for the audience.This is one of those strained comedies where a series of seemingly disconnected incidents on the road are supposed to be hilarious, but are more likely to provide just a few chuckles. Most enjoyable of all is the scene where two of the more rebellious girls are asked to wash the bus and instead, send it through the car-washer apparatus with disastrous results. Most of the other attempts at humor are less successful and even more improbable, especially the sequence involving an Indian chase with a cameo by Milton Berle as a film director wearing an eye patch (a la Raoul Walsh). STELLA STEVENS is the modern nun who has a run-in with some knife wielding bikers and is able to keep her cool and seem impervious to their threats. The dialog in this scene has to be heard to be believed. Let's just say it is about as far removed from reality as the script gets, and that's pretty far.ROSALIND RUSSELL is stern and amusing as the head nun, ready with a quip whenever circumstances demand it. STELLA STEVENS, BINNIE BARNES and MARY WICKES are capable as the other sisters, but SUSAN ST. JAMES and a few of the other girls in the cast have irritating roles.One of the best features: Lalo Schifrin's bouncy background score, but the whole film reflects the '60s to such an extent that it appears dated in the extreme. It's the sort of film that must have seemed dated even in '68.Summing up: The only surprises were nice cameos by Van Johnson and Robert Taylor, both giving amiable performances.