The Little Nuns is a delightfully funny comedy, one of the best and brightest from Italy's golden age of comedy, the 1960's. Unfortunately it seems to be almost unknown now, at least in the English-speaking world.
The nuns in a rural Italian convent are being driven to distraction by the noisy commercial jet aircraft flying overhead, disrupting the classes in their orphans school. The vibrations are even damaging the ancient fresco of their patron saint. When it is discovered the convent owns a single share of stock in the offending airline, two nuns are dispatched to the airline's next stockholder's meeting in Rome. The naive sisters may not understand the worldly ways of the city, but they have very decided notions about the way things should be. Their innocent misadventures make life hilariously miserable for the sophisticated CEO of the airline (Amedeo Nazzari) just as effectively as if they had really intended it. International beauty Catherine Spaak, uncharacteristically well covered in a traditional nun's habit, shines as the formidable Sister Celeste. Nazzari, who seems to have been in every other Italian movie of this period, though in his fifties, was still a robust, handsome man with a remarkable resemblance to Errol Flynn. His suave, urbane demeanor made him the perfect straight man for this genteel farce.
I caught The Little Nuns a couple of times back in the 1980'a on something like the Late, Late, Late, Desperate Night Owl Theater. There appears to be no DVD of this minor classic, and that's a shame. The Little Nuns is a delightful, lively, charming, little madcap comedy from an Italian cinema industry which was turning out first class entertainment at a time when Hollywood had almost forgotten how.
The nuns in a rural Italian convent are being driven to distraction by the noisy commercial jet aircraft flying overhead, disrupting the classes in their orphans school. The vibrations are even damaging the ancient fresco of their patron saint. When it is discovered the convent owns a single share of stock in the offending airline, two nuns are dispatched to the airline's next stockholder's meeting in Rome. The naive sisters may not understand the worldly ways of the city, but they have very decided notions about the way things should be. Their innocent misadventures make life hilariously miserable for the sophisticated CEO of the airline (Amedeo Nazzari) just as effectively as if they had really intended it. International beauty Catherine Spaak, uncharacteristically well covered in a traditional nun's habit, shines as the formidable Sister Celeste. Nazzari, who seems to have been in every other Italian movie of this period, though in his fifties, was still a robust, handsome man with a remarkable resemblance to Errol Flynn. His suave, urbane demeanor made him the perfect straight man for this genteel farce.
I caught The Little Nuns a couple of times back in the 1980'a on something like the Late, Late, Late, Desperate Night Owl Theater. There appears to be no DVD of this minor classic, and that's a shame. The Little Nuns is a delightful, lively, charming, little madcap comedy from an Italian cinema industry which was turning out first class entertainment at a time when Hollywood had almost forgotten how.
