The Trouble with Angels
“I’ve got the most scathingly brilliant idea!”
It kind of amazes me I hadn’t heard of this one sooner – not only is it a Hayley Mills movie, but it also co-stars Rosalind Russell and, in an admittedly minor role, non other than Gypsy Rose Lee.
There are certainly elements of the even more thoroughly British “St. Trinian’s” series (soon to be revisited with Rupert Everett and Mischa Barton, I can’t wait), The Children’s Hour too comes to mind, basically it’s Hayley Mills and other young girls trying to retain their cool under the strict eye of nun Rosalind Russell. From the outset I found it a lot more fun than expected. The more wonderful moments concern Mills seeing a certain humanity in Russell – feeding the birds that regularly land on a statue in front of the school, or comforting an old lady whose grandchildren haven’t shown up to visit her – beautiful moments of realisation that are only abruptly shattered by her own adolescent inability to restrain her rebellious streak. It’s like she literally has no control over her own rudeness, and therein lies the key to a perfect anti-hero. They want to be good, god damn it, they do; but they just can’t! It’s like they’re almost aware of the movie they’re in – the fact it’s all pre-written – and every single bad thing they do, the more bad things they do, the more shocked they are. I don’t know, I just love this kind of thing, and you really can’t ask for a better cast than you get here. I was about to add “surprisingly modern-sounding score by …” and then I looked up by whom on the IMDb and it turns it’s by Jerry Goldsmith … so, not so surprising then 