The Five Best Movies About Nuns

There are a number of memorable films about nuns or featuring nuns in prominent roles. They include warbling nuns (e.g., The Sound of Music, The Singing Nun, Airport 1975), maternal nuns (The Trouble With Angels), and nuns who play sports (Come to the Stables, The Bells of St. Mary's). There are serious films (Black Narcissus, The Nun's Story), comedies (Bedazzled), and biographies (Song of Bernadette, Therese). There's even an Elvis Presely movie with nuns (Change of Habit). Of course, one must be careful in listing nun movies, because in some cases the nuns turned out not to be nuns at all (Two Mules for Sister Sara). The list below is limited to films from the classic era only. As with all the "Five Best" lists, recommended additions are welcomed!

Sister Ruth, not looking like a nun here,
approaching the bells.

1.  Black Narcissus - This Powell & Pressberger masterpiece stars Deborah Kerr as a nun sent to a remote village in the Himalayas to start a hospital and a school. A thematically rich film, it features brilliant performances and is enhanced by the most glorious color photography ever captured on celluloid.

2.  Lilies of the Field - A group of German nuns in a small Arizona town convince a wanderer (Sidney Poitier) to do a roof repair—which eventually results in him building a chapel for them. Yes, Poitier won the Oscar for this and he’s terrific—but he’s matched by Lilia Skala as the Mother Superior. The language difference is the source of much unexpected humor. This is a lovely little film about faith and perseverance.

Ingrid Bergman earned a Best Actress
nomintation for her performance.

3.  The Bells of St. Mary’s - Bing Crosby recreated his Oscar-winning role as Father O’Malley (“Just dial ‘O’ for O’Malley”) in this sequel to Going My Way. But this film belongs to Ingrid Bergman, who anchors it with her captivating, warm performance as Sister Mary Benedict. It’s an incredibly natural performance and her climatic scene with Crosby may be Ingrid’s finest moment on film.

4.  Come to the Stable - Loretta Young and Celeste Holm play French nuns who settle in the New England town of Bethlehem with the goal of building a children’s hospital—but they have no money, no land, and no one to help. A charming film that works its magic in subtle ways, even if the outcome is never in doubt.

Audrey Hepburn was also
nominated for Best Actress.

5.  The Nun’s Story - Aubrey Hepburn gives one of her best performances in this tale of the hardships faced by a young nun. The heart of the film takes place in the Belgian Congo, where Sister Luke assists a physician (Peter Finch) in treating lepers. However, it’s the opening and closing scenes that linger the longest with me.


Honorable Mentions: The Sound of Music (a culture phenomenon in the 1960s...it played for my hometown for a year!); The Trouble With Angels (with Rosalind Russell plays Mother Superior of a girls’ boarding girl and Hayley Mills as the resident troublemaker, and Bedazzled (with Dudley Moore as a nun).

12 Days of Christmas: Come to the Stable

In the opening minutes we watch two French nuns in black habits walking over hills cloaked in pristine white snow when they see a sign post that shows the directions to Jordan, Galilee, Nazareth, and Bethlehem. The sisters walk towards Bethlehem and hear a lovely voice singing in Latin, “Oh Come All Ye Faithful.” They Come to the Stable and see a living nativity, complete with singing and flying angels. When the camera moves back, we realize that this scene is being captured on the canvas of artist Amelia Potts, as endearingly portrayed by Elsa Lanchester. Before Miss Potts realizes it, Sisters Margaret and Scholastica have taken up residence with her. These are nuns on a mission to fulfill a promise made to God to build a hospital in America after World War II.

Loretta Young and Celeste Holm are radiant as sisters of the Order of Holy Endeavor. They have to work with three men who each provide obstacles to their purpose: a composer and neighbor, Robert Mason (Hugh Marlowe), a Bishop (Basil Ruysdael) with no money to assist them and the power to stop their effort, and a wealthy “bookie” in New York named Luigi Rossi (Thomas Gomez) who owns the land on which they want to build.

The screenplay was written in 1949 by Clare Boothe Luce and was quite different from her previous works, including The Women. In 1944, Luce’s only child, Ann, died at the age of 19 in an automobile accident. Part of Luce’s healing from this tragedy included her conversion to Roman Catholicism. Come to the Stable was her first written work after these events.

There is a charming quality to this film that is reflected in unlikely happenstances and the luminescent countenances of Loretta Young and Celeste Holm. Dooley Wilson is delightful as Anthony James, an employee of Mason who, along with Miss Potts, provides consistent support for the sisters, despite the challenges they encounter.

Interesting note: The four areas named on the sign post exist in Israel. Pennsylvania appears to have all four areas although Jordan is a township. The box containing my videotape copy of the movie identifies the location as Bethlehem, Connecticut. There are, however, several dozen cities by that name in the U.S. The location would seem to need to be in close proximity to New York because the nuns travel there in a jeep that is open at the top.