Change of Habit

Change of Habit
January 21, 1970
Universal
Comedy, Drama, Romance, Musical
VHS
B-

Welcome to the '70s, sort of.  Obviously, this movie was made at the tail end of the '60s although released at the dawn of the next decade, and movies wouldn't really stop feeling '60sish till I'd say '73.  Nonetheless, the punning title does indicate a shift, not just for Mary Tyler Moore and her two colleagues working as undercover nuns in the ghetto/barrio (more on ethnicity below), but also for Elvis, who, yes, sings four songs but does play a Vietnam vet and a doctor.  The movie is of course laughably dated in how it addresses serious issues, including autism, but there is a good movie buried inside this bad one.  There are too many genres, and too many writers (five), so it probably was not very good even at the time, but it is an interesting period piece.

Yes, the way that sex and race are handled are among the worst aspects.  While there's an attempted rape (of MTM) late in the film, Elvis makes a tasteless rape joke early on.  Another of the nuns, Sister Barbara (the activist one who says "groovy" and exchanges peace-sign fingers with a young priest), wears her dress off the shoulder to get neighborhood men to help her move furniture, and it looks like it's going to turn into a gang rape scene.   More benignly, a 17-year-old girl lusts after Elvis, who turns her down with gentle humor.  And, yes, this is the Elvis/nun romance movie, although that aspect isn't as tasteless as it sounds.  (They never kiss, but they do touch a few times, as when he teaches her to play the guitar.)  The open ending is tasteless, in a funny way, as the camera (offering Sister Michelle's POV) goes back and forth between The King and the King of Kings.

As for issues of race, Latinos and Negroes (I think those are the right period terms for the mainstream, correct me if I'm wrong) are presented both stereotypically and as overlapping groups.  The filmmakers never seem clear what the neighborhood's ethnic mix is, other than somewhat Catholic.  Interestingly, the main villains are white.  (The Hispanic rapist is presented as mentally ill and treated surprisingly sympathetically, although his attack is also taken seriously, if not seriously enough to press charges.)  The white Catholic characters are a mix of good and judgmental.  The most interesting scene that addresses race is marred by unintentionally hilarious dialogue, where two Black radicals ironically tell Sister Irene she "ain't no sister."  One of them says that around there, you're either part of the problem or part of the solution, and the other adds "And we have a feeling you're neither."  She replies, "I'm a Negro, I think that's pretty obvious."

A very late '60s film.  Ed Asner shows up as a reasonable, liberal policeman, but unfortunately he doesn't get any scenes with his soon to be TV costar.  As for Elvis, he was done with acting after this, and he'd be dead before the '70s were over.

Regis Toomey, who plays Father Gibbons, was Sanders in His Girl Friday and was 71 at this point but far from retirement. Timothy Carey, who was South Dakota Slim in a couple AIP Beach Party movies, is the Ajax Market manager.  Robert Emhardt was head of a corporation in Where Were You When the Lights Went Out? and he plays a more sinister "fat cat" here, as the "Banker" exploiting the poor.  Araceli Rey, who plays the elderly protesting Señora Gavilan, was the Italian cleaning lady in The Love God?  Darlene Love sang in that movie as well as this one.  Seventy-four-year-old Ruth McDevitt was Miss Keezy in that movie and plays Lily here.

Some of the kaleiodoscopic experience that this movie is

The Love God?

The Love God?

August 1969
Universal
Comedy
VHS
B

Written and directed by Nat Hiken, of Car 54 fame, this is both more risque and more satirical than your average Don Knotts movie.  (And I've seen my share, although I don't currently own any besides this one.)  Knotts is playing a typical character, in this case Abner Audubon Peacock IV, the fourth-generation publisher of a bird-watching magazine, but what happens to him is far from typical.  Abner is used by everyone from hippie protestors (including in France!) to pornographers to civil rights attorneys to horny women (including Anne Francis, as a tough career gal editor who sort of falls for him) to uphold the twin causes of free speech and the sexual revolution.  In one of the nicest pieces of stunt casting I've ever seen, Herb Voland, who looks so much like then new Vice-President Agnew that he'd play him in the Rich Little movie Another Fine Mess (1972, I've never seen it), plays the attorney general out to wipe out smut, and even he wants Abner to keep publishing the "dirty" version of his magazine.

This is of course delightfully dated-- especially the proto-Ralph-Furley outfits that Abner has to wear as part of his Hefner-like image-- and sometimes very funny, mostly intentionally.  I like both the details of Abner's small town, including his bird calls at the annual concerts, and the big city, well, bigness, including Abner's lush penthouse.  Abner's old secretary Miss Pickering, played by Marjorie Bennett, takes to her new job in the wild world of New York publishing so much that she's soon wearing miniskirts and dying her hair.  There are some other nice cameos, like Jim Begg's as fellow bird-watcher Hotchkiss and James Gregory's as the crusading attorney disgusted by "the filthy little degenerate" but defending the degenerate's right to publish filth, while Edmond O'Brien and Maureen Arthur are perfectly cast as the initial pornographer and his covergirl wife.  When she says that Abner wanting to hold a press conference to confess his virginity (so he can marry the wholesome and loyal minister's daughter Rose Ellen back home) is the most disgusting thing she's ever heard, I just wish there were more of her and O'Brien.

They get pushed aside not so much by Knotts and Francis as by B. S. Pully as the mobster J. Charles Twilight, AKA Icepick Charlie.  Some of the stuff with Charlie is good, like his English lessons with elderly Miss Love, who turns out to be an FBI agent, but he brings too much violence to what is mostly a frothy comedy, Vic Mizzy music and all.  Not only does he slap around O'Brien's character, but he hits Francis when she prefers Abner to him.  And even Abner punches Rose Ellen!  Yes, it's to stop her from coming closer when Icepick and his goons show up at the village church, but it's still disturbing.  I mean, this is Don Knotts!  I'd probably give the movie a B+ if it were less violent.  The sexual content though, which earned an M (today's PG-13) rather than the usual G, is fine, pretty clean by today's standards, but a great contrast to Knotts's image.  Too great for the times apparently, as this was a flop.  (Hiken died before it was released.)
It seems to have a bit of a cult following now though, and I recommend it, albeit with reservations.

Oldest Choir Member Delos Jewkes (then 75) had performed in the Munchkin Medley of The Wizard of Oz.  Choir singer Betty Noyes ironically lip-synced for Debbie Reynolds lip-syncing on "Would You" for Jean Hagen in Singin' in the Rain.  Bob Harvey plays a photographer and had been Robert the Rat in the AIP Beach Party movies.  James McHale, a reporter here, was Shorty in Spinout.

Arthur Tovey had minor roles in earlier movies of mine, like The Graduate, and here plays a club patron.  Amber Smale played Sandra Dee as a little girl in Doctor, You've Got to Be Kidding!, and was 12 by the time of her appearance here.  Angelique Pettyjohn plays a model here and was a secretary in The Cool Ones and Gloria in Clambake.  Dal McKennon plays a bird caller here and was the old soldier in Did You Hear the One About the Traveling Saleslady?

Araceli Rey, who plays the Italian cleaning lady, would be Señora Gavilan in Change of Habit.  Darlene Love (of "He's a Rebel" fame) would be a backup singer in Change, while here she's prominently featured singing "Mr. Peacock."  Glenn Dixon, a family member here, would be a sponsor in The Barefoot Executive, while Leon Alton, a club patron here, would be a TV exec there.  Barbara Bosson would do Mame.  Al Dunlap, who's the mayor here, would be a deputy in Escape to Witch Mountain.  Ceil Cabot, who has a minor role here, would be Miss McGuirk in Freaky Friday and the landlady in The Nude Bomb, but I'm guessing she's probably been seen by more people as Buddy Hinton's mother on The Brady Bunch.  

Larry McCormick, the handsome young Black man playing Rich, also has a Brady credit, as the TV announcer on the episode where Bobby wants to run away, and he had other acting credits over the next 35 years, but to a Gen-X Southern Californian like me he is of course best known as a KTLA reporter/anchor.  (His earnestness adds to the hilarity of this movie.)  Bob Hastings plays Shrader, the other assistant attorney, a very different role than his in Did You Hear the One...?  Berniece Janssen would be an extra in Nine to Five.