The Singing Nun (1966)

Set in Belgium, a young nun (Debbie Reynolds) leaves her convent in Antwerp for a convent in a poverty stricken area in Brussels. When it is discovered she plays guitar and has a lovely singing voice, the parish priest (Ricardo Montalban) arranges to have her songs recorded. A fictionalized version of the life of Jeannine Deckers, who briefly found fame as Sister Sourire aka The Singing Nun and directed by Henry Koster (THE ROBE). A throwback to those saccharine priest/nun films of the 1940s (GOING MY WAY, BELLS OF ST. MARY'S, COME TO THE STABLE etc.), this film creaked even in 1966. It's not as bad as GOING MY WAY (what could be?) but it's a calculated "wholesome" family movie (it was the Easter attraction at Radio City Music Hall) with not an honest moment in the whole movie. None of it the fault of Debbie Reynolds who gives it her spunky all but this mawkish mishmash was doomed from the start. Actually, the story of the real singing nun would make a fascinating film: she never saw a penny from her hit album, left the convent and lived in poverty and eventually committed suicide with her longtime companion. With Greer Garson, Katharine Ross, Chad Everett, Agnes Moorehead, Juanita Moore and Michael Pate.