The Trouble With Angels
(1966)
Pioneering female director Ida Lupino gave comedy a try with this one, starring Hatley Mills and June Harding as impish girls in a convent school, driving mother superior Rosalind Russell up the wall with endless practical jokes. Lupino adds warmth to what could have been a Disney sitcom movie.
Gypsy Rose Lee, Mary Wickes (Father Dowling Mysteries). This was Hayley's final film as a child star. In 1967 she did a nude scene in a movie and had an affair with a producer-director over twice her age (they were married in 1971), though she later returned to Disney as an adult for three TV-movie sequels to The Parent Trap (1986-1989). 112 minutes rated PG, color. Film locations: Eaves Movie Ranch in Santa Fe, New Mexico; Southern Pacific Station at 400 W. Cerritos Avenue, Glendale, California (train station scenes); St. Mary's Home for Children, 701 S. Bethlehem Pike, Ambler, Pennsylvania. Followed by disappointing sequel:
Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows
(1968)
This time around, Rosalind Russell is bugged by liberal young nun Stella Stevens (the beautiful firlfriend who drives Jerry Lewis to turn into Buddy Love in The Nutty Professor). Since this isn't 1965's The Sound Of Music, the mother superior gives in and by lets her drive the students to California for a peace rally(?), encountering a biker gang, a millionaire (Taylor), a movie director (Berle), and other hilarious adventures. The Flying Nun was more believable.
Mary Wickes, cameos by Van Johnson as Father Chase, Arthur Godfrey, Milton Berle, Robert Taylor and Susan St. James (as one of the teenage students). Robert Taylor died before making another movie. 95 minutes rated G. Filmed at Dorney Amusement Park in Allentown, Pennsylvania; Eaves Movie Ranch in Santa Fe, New Mexico; Independence National Historical Park, Philadelphia; and along the Pennsylvania Turnpike
Trivia courtesy IMDB.com (the Internet Movie Data Base)
* The exterior shots were filmed at St. Mary's Home, an orphanage, in Ambler, Pennsylvania. The main building looks like a stone castle and is still standing. It was featured prominently in the film but all the interior shots were done in a studio in California.
* The first feature film to be directed by Ida Lupino since The Hitch-Hiker (1953) and The Bigamist (1953) over a decade earlier.
* Producer William Frye personally offered his friend Greta Garbo $1 million to play the Mother Superior in the film. When she declined, he offered the role to Rosalind Russell at a much lower salary.
* According to Rosalind Russell, she and Hayley Mills did not get along during filming. She claimed that every time she turned around or walked away from Mills, she would stick her tongue out at her.
* Rosalind Russell appears in this movie alongside Gypsy Rose Lee, whose real-life mother Russell portrayed in her most famous previous movie role, that of Rose Hovick in Gypsy (1962)
* A halo appears over the A when the "Columbia" name appears on the torch lady logo. Then, Hayley Mills' "Angel" cartoon appears from behind the A, flies around the screen a bit, then blows out the Columbia torch.
* The roller coaster the girls go on is "Thunderhawk", the last remaining wooden roller coaster at Dorney Park
© Bill Laidlaw. All Rights Reserved. That's my 2½¢ worth
