Monday, March 31, 2014

Sister Showdown

Julie Andrews and Peggy Wood in The Sound of Music (20th Century Fox, 1965)

Greer Garson, Debbie Reynolds and Agnes Moorehead in The Singing Nun (MGM, 1966)

Anna Lee, Peggy Wood and Portia Nelson in The Sound of Music (20th Century Fox, 1965)

Greer Garson, Ed Sullivan, Agnes Moorehead and Debbie Reynolds in The Singing Nun (MGM, 1966)

Julie Andrews, Peggy Wood, Portia Nelson, Anna Lee, Marni Nixon, Evadne Baker and Doreen Tryden in The Sound of Music (20th Century Fox, 1965)

Debbie Reynolds and Juanita Moore in The Singing Nun (MGM, 1966)

Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music (20th Century Fox, 1965)

Debbie Reynolds in The Singing Nun (MGM, 1966)
Julie Andrews at the New York City premiere of The Sound of Music (20th Century Fox, 1965)
Agnes Moorehead and Debbie Reynolds at the Milwaukee premiere of The Singing Nun (MGM, 1966)


Ladies and gentlemen, pick your nuns.

12 comments:

  1. Glenda Jackson in Nasty Habits is my pick

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  2. Too many sisters, too little slapping!

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    1. For that, we need to watch Anita Ekberg's trash masterpiece, "Killer Nun" -- lotsa slapping, sapphic, serial sisters!

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  3. Some of my favorite movies, oddly, involve nuns: "The Bells of St. Mary's," "The Nun's Story," and I suppose "The Sound of Music" is also a favorite. "Nasty Habits-" definitely fun! And I believe the Blossoms played nuns in an Elvis picture… Arlene Dove's best scene was left on the cutting room floor… !

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  4. Julie and her sistahs for the win.

    My favorite Sister Act is Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen in White Christmas but that's a whole other post.

    And what, Idle and Coltrane as Nuns on the Run don't get a mention?

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  5. And nobody has mentioned the campest of the lot - Black Narcissus?! Jx

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  6. I'm going with Roz Russell and Mary Wickes in The Trouble With Angels...

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  7. Yay for Neely's answer! I loved Mary Wickes flooring the accelerator on the girl's school bus in her habit and Converse hi-tops!

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  8. Due surely to my own lack of imagination, I have never thought to look at these two performers in comparison. It is unfair to Ms Reynolds to compare them in terms of voice, but they each are firmly in the "move star" firmament. They are only 4-5 years apart in age and yet in mind for whatever reason I place them in two differing film eras.

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    1. You're quite right, of course; despite their being close in age (they're only three years apart, can you believe it?!), Julie and Debbie are of two completely different film eras, Julie having made her film debut in 1964, by which time Deb was already a veteran. And, really, this was a goofy, tongue-in-cheek "competition"; you could never compare The Sound of Music with The Singing Nun; I just always associate the latter with the former as the most obvious cash-in on SOM's success. I have a feeling MGM never would have green lighted the project (the real-life Singing Nun's brief pop star success was already in the past by 1966) had Julie not taken the world by storm as a guitar-strumming "nanny who flunked nun school," as one very funny meme put it.

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    2. I saw "The Singing Nun" for the first time about five years ago, and found it to be rather blah. I was not necessarily expecting a classic, but I did think it would be better. Sadly, the real life "Singing Nun" Jeanine Deckers aka SÅ“ur Sourire, did not have an MGM musical life, but who does? She also reportedly referred to the movie as "fiction." (Well, most biopics are.)

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