Watch The Trouble with Angels For Free

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Mary Clancy (Hayley Mills) and Rachel Devery (June Harding) arrive at the same time to begin their sophomore year in St. Francis School for Girls, somewhere in Pennsylvania. Mother Superior (Rosalind Russell) has overseen the school run by her religious order for some time. She has met and learned to deal with all kinds. But she's in for new experiences with Mary and Rachel. Mother is a resolute person, wise with age and experience. The question is – can the school survive these two characters?This is a wonderful story with comedy galore. It's also a fair look at the running of a Catholic boarding school in the mid-20th century. The setting is somewhat unusual because the school is housed in an old estate that also serves as the mother house and convent for the order. If anything, the film is very light on the things Catholic. Except for a couple of short chapel scenes, and Mother Superior saying grace before their first meal, it leaves out much of the daily practices of prayer, adoration and the Mass. The movie is a good blend of the pranks and hijinks that are the work of the two girls, and the wisdom of a religious woman as she metes out justice to discipline the girls. All of the cast are very good. Russell is very believable as a religious and experienced mother superior. The actresses playing the roles of other nuns contribute to making this the fine movie that it is. Binnie Barnes, Marge Redmont, Camilla Sparv, Mary Wickes and others were superb in their roles.Other girls were very good in their roles, but Mary and Rachel were tops as the spark plugs of the story. As Mother Superior adroitly observed and told her associates, Rachel is a follower, so it's Mary the leader, who will be the greatest challenge. Most of the comedy is in various scenarios that the two girls cook up. They usually spring from "a scathingly brilliant idea" that Mary has. It's a fun film that the whole family should enjoy. The ending might sneak up on some, but I had a hunch of what might happen from a couple of late scenes in the film. Hayley Mills was 19 years old when this film was made, and she progresses three grades from ages 16 to 19 nicely. Mills, the daughter of British film star John Mills and British playwright Mary Hayley Bell, became a major youth star after two smash hit Walt Disney movies. She starred in "Pollyanna" in 1960, and then took the world by storm in "The Parent Trap" of 1961. She had a number of other hit movies through the mid-1960s. But her stardom and huge film success ended by the time she was 30. At age 20, after filming "The Family Way" in late 1966, she began an affair with the director, Roy Boulting. He was 53 years old. She lived with him for five years until he divorced in 1971, and then she and Boulting were married. That lasted just five years, and by the time of her divorce in 1976, her bad film choices had dropped her out of the spotlight for good. She has continued to make movies, including some TV films and shows, and she acts on stage. Does anyone wonder that her parents likely urged Mills not to get involved with Boulting? Besides being married, he almost was old enough to be her grandfather. Here are some sample humorous lines from this film.Mother Superior, "Sister LIguori is my assistant and teaches mathematics. You'll find her methods newer than new."Mr. Petrie (played by Tim Hutton), "The finest educated minds in the country happen to be on our side." Mother Superior, "God is on ours."Mother Superior, "Will you please, in the future, remember that St. Francis is not a training school for counter spies."

I just love this movie. I have it on tape and I've watched over and over numerous times! Rosalind Russell was just excellent as the Mother Superior!I'm surprised that Hayley Mills' and June Harding's characters weren't kicked out as the Mother Superior had planned to do. Smoking in the girls' bathroom. Putting Marvel Ann's bubble bath into the nuns' sugar bowls. Plastering Marvel Ann's (Marvel Ann was Hayley Mills' character's grumpy cousin; also a student at St. Francis) face with plaster from the art room, where the nuns had to use pliers in order to take it off. Showing the other girls around the nuns' living quarters; despite being told that it was "off limits to the entire student body." Cutting swimming classes. Smoking in another building that sent the fire company rushing to the main building, where everybody was evacuated, and the Mother Superior had had it with Mary and Rachel's pranks. They should have been kicked out much sooner.I think that they were just rebelling because they didn't want to be there in the first place. Hayley Mills' character, Mary Clancy, was an orphan. Her uncle (Marvel Ann's father) was just too busy with his own life to take care of her. And June Harding's character, Rachel Devery, missed the progressive school that she went too. She tells Mr. Petrie, the headmaster, in a note that she was "trapped in a nunnery", and that she would commit an "act of desperation" if she didn't get out of St. Francis. The Mother Superior wasn't pleased with this when Mr Petrie was in her office. She didn't even like what the progressive school. taught. No wonder Rachel's father took her out of there.I believe that Hayley Mills' character decided to become a nun because the Mother Superior found that being a nun was better than being a fashion designer; as well as the death of Sister Ligouri; the school's math teacher and assistant to the Mother Superior.It's a shame that Hayley Mills didn't appear in the sequel, "Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows; which was just as good. I wonder how she would have handled those girls, including Marvel Ann, when they went on a bus trip to a youth rally in California.This movie did not make fun of the Catholic Church and nuns. Even though it was a comedy, it treated religion with respect and dignity. Sadly, too many movies and TV shows today make fun of religion; especially Christianity and Judaism.I was only in third grade when this movie first came out. For years, I heard that this movie was filmed right here in the Philadelphia area; where I was born and raised (and I still live here today), but I wasn't so sure. I later learned that it was filmed on the grounds of the St. Mary's Villa for Children in suburban Ambler, Montgomery County. In fact, I worked not too far from where this movie was filmed in neighboring Fort Washington. The Fort Washington Fire Company supplied the fire trucks that rushed to the academy when Sister Prudence, Judith Lowry's character (she also played Mother Dexter on Phyllis) saw smoke coming from the area where Mary and Rachel were smoking. I sometimes went home that way and every time I go by there, I think to myself "This is where The Trouble With Angels" was filmed.

I enjoyed this film because as a Catholic it portrays Catholics in a positive light. Rosalind Russell shines as the Mother Superior. She is stern but compassionate. Mother Superior is devoted to her calling. She is not unsure or confused about it. The other Sisters appear to be happy in their calling too. I liked the scene where Hayley Mills peers out her window one night and sees Mother Superior walking the grounds and standing in front of a statue presumably praying. I also like the scene where Hayley and her friend are outside by the river and see Mother Superior pray the Rosary. This movie sadly cannot be made today. In our culture the sisters would be caricatures. One Sister would be a lesbian and another would decide that abortion is just fine. Another Sister would molest the girls and so on.... I watched this movie on utube and missed some of the scenes but I saw enough to say that it was well done and a touching piece. I read that Rosalind Russell was a Catholic and she had made another Catholic movie before. So I appreciated her respect for the Church in this movie.

Directed by actress Ida Lupino(best known for directing crime thrillers)The Trouble With Angels showed that she could turn her hand to all round family entertainment as well.With an all star cast including Roasalind Russell and Hayley Mills(now outgrowing her time as the Disney darling)a beautiful score by Jerry Goldsmith and a nice mix of comedy and seriousness,this is a film that has something for everyone.Based on the novel by Jane Trahey,The Trouble With Angels tells the story of two young teenagers Mary Clancy(Hayley Mills)and Rachel Devery(June Harding)who become pupils at the St Francis Catholic boarding schools for girls.Both girls get into a series of mishaps which lead them to the office of the strict but fair,Reverand Mother(Rosalind Russell)on more than one occasion.Hayley is brilliant(but then when is she not?)as the feisty young troublemaker who may have found just what she's been searching for all her life.Prehaps a little predictable at times(after all we've seen this sort of thing on many other occasions)there's more to this though than just girls disobeying rules and rebelling in true 60's style.It's a touching and affecting coming of age tale,and there is also the almost heartbreaking subplot regarding Mary's growing realisation that she wants to become a Nun(despite how this will upset Rachel who grows to depend on Mary very much).There's also solid support from the great Mary Wickes as P.E teacher Sister Clarissa and Marge Redmond as the fragile Sister Liguori.Funny and entertaining you could do a lot worse than spend almost two hours in this company.