Memorable Movie Nuns

Posted on February 7, 2009 at 4:00 pm

I love Beliefnet’s gallery of Memorable Movie Nuns from Paul Asay. He includes some of my favorites like Lilies of the Field, with Sidney Poitier building a chapel under the direction of flinty Lilia Skala and Susan Sarandon as real-life Sister Helen Prejean, who befriends a condemned prisoner played by Sean Penn in Dead Man Walking.
black narcissus.jpg I would add to his list Come to the Stable, with Loretta Young and Celeste Holm as gentle nuns who hope to build a hospital. And of course there’s Debbie Reynolds as the spirited Singing Nun, a nun whose shoes provide a clue in The Lady Vanishes, and the sisters of Black Narcissus, who find unexpected challenges when they establish a new order on top of the Himalayas.

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5 Replies to “Memorable Movie Nuns”

I would like to add the Sister Act nuns.

As a Protestant my first exposure to nuns were those in the Disney / Haley Mills comedies from the 60’s. I also add my vote for the sisterly protectors of Whoopi Goldberg – though I like 1 far better than 2.

Thanks, Hamilton! I love Maggie Smith, Mary Wickes, and Kathy Najimy in those “Sister Act” movies.
And jestrfyl, the book and movie “The Trouble with Angels” are very dear to my heart. Thanks!

“Two Mules for Sister Sarah”: Though commonly derided as “the worst of Clint Eastwood’s movies” he and Shirley McLain represent accurately the archetypes of women as saint and sinner and of man as confused over whether he’s looking for a mother or a lover. Eastwood did a very good job of directing this film, whether or not he realized exactly what he was setting up in the plot line.

It’s a very good movie, MJD and in the Beliefnet gallery — though, strictly speaking, she doesn’t really qualify….

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