Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows


Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows is a 1968 American comedy film directed by James Neilson and starring Rosalind Russell, Stella Stevens and Binnie Barnes. Written by Blanche Hanalis, the film is based on a story by Jane Trahey about an orthodox mother superior who is challenged by a progressive younger nun when they take the girls of St. Francis Academy on a bus trip across the United States. The film is a sequel to The [Trouble with Angels (film)|The Trouble with Angels]. Russell, Barnes, Mary Wickes and Dolores Sutton all reprise their roles as nuns from the original film.

Plot

The conservative Mother Superior and the glamorous, progressive young Sister George shepherd a busload of Catholic high-school girls from Pennsylvania to an interfaith youth rally in California. As they debate expressions of faith and the role of the church during the tumultuous 1960s, they must also contend with the various antics of two rebellious, troublemaking students, Rosabelle and Marvel Anne.
During their long drive to California, the group experiences fun in the amusement park and swimming pool, various difficulties including spending the night at an all-boys Catholic school, encountering hostile bikers and blundering onto an outdoor Western movie set, anachronistically ruining an important scene
and reducing the excitable director to apoplexy.

Cast

Development

The film was announced in May 1967.

Casting

Along with Russell, the three featured nuns from The Trouble with Angels returned for the sequel. Barbara Hunter also reprised her role as Marvel Anne, the cousin of Mary Clancy, Hayley Mills' character. The character of Sister George was originally written as Sister Mary Clancy, but after Mills declined to appear in the film, the part was rewritten. Susan Oliver and Connie Stevens were also considered for the role of Sister George. Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows features the penultimate film appearance of Robert Taylor; he died in June 1969 at age 57. Susan Saint James made an early film appearance, gaining her wider attention beyond television guest shots.

Filming locations

Principal photography began on July 17, 1967, in Philadelphia, where many scenes in the first half of the movie were filmed, including Market Street near 13th Street and City Hall, and a protest scene at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Other scenes were filmed in the Lehigh Valley at Dorney Park and at St. Mary's Villa, a Catholic home for troubled youths on Bethlehem Pike in Ambler, Pennsylvania.
The Catholic boys boarding school where the group spends the night was actually Germantown Academy, about south of St. Mary's Villa. The church shown just prior to the boarding school is Ft. Washington Baptist Church, which is only about northeast of St. Mary's Villa.
The early scenes on the bus en route to California were filmed in nearby Fort Washington, Pennsylvania and along the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

Soundtrack

The theme song was written and performed by singer-songwriter duo Boyce and Hart. Composer Lalo Schifrin, best known for his work on the television series Mission: Impossible, collaborated with Boyce and Hart on the title song and supplied the incidental score.
  • "Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows" performed by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart – 1:59
  • "Goodbye Baby " performed by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart – 2:57

    Reception

In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic Vincent Canby called the film a "cute-as-a-button comedy" and wrote: "Considering the apparent success of the original film, to say nothing of the immense popularity of other fantasies about nuns who fly and sing, there is probably a large audience waiting to be gulled into somnambulistic complacency by these new slapsticky and sentimental antics...The film must rely on the inventiveness of its comic situations and on the appeal of its players. The comedy, however, is strictly up-dated 'Junior Miss,' and the performances right out of Hollywood stock..."