The Trouble with Angels (1966)

Hayley Mills: Mary Clancy

Photos 

Quotes 

• Mary Clancy : I've got the most scathingly brilliant idea!

• [last lines] 

  Mary Clancy : Who knows, Reverend Mother, maybe someday Rachel will come back and join the order.

  Mother Superior : If she does, I quit!

• Mary Clancy : [looking at the Mother Superior's dress]  Oh! It looks beautiful!

  Mother Superior : It is nice, isn't it? I used to do a great deal a great deal of sewing when I was a girl. I'd always blessed my mother for insisting that I learn to how to handle a needle. When my parents died, I was sixteen then. My uncle, who'd lived in Paris...

  Mary Clancy : Paris?

  Mother Superior : Paris was my mother's home before she'd immigrated to Quebec and married my father. I'd lost my parents within three months of each other. The flu epidemic. Well, I went to live in Paris. My uncle arranged for my apprenticeship with a well known couterier. Of course, I was only a seamstress, but I had visions of creating my own designs and the house of Madeline Rousch challenging the great Channel. That was my name, Madeline Rousch. I remember standing behind the curtains with the fitters when the collections were shown. The buyers came from all over the world. Many times as I watched the models display the gowns, I'd think "Now I would have done that one differently. Used a different fabric. Something that had more movement, more mystery." Oh, I know it's vanity, of course. But I think I could have made a success of it.

  Mary Clancy : But how could you give it up?

  Mother Superior : I found something better.

• Rachel Devery : Couldn't we have uniforms, too, Reverend Mother?

  Mother Superior : Most certainly not. The band will perform in their gym suits.

  Rachel Devery : Our gym suits?

  Mother Superior : Yes.

  Mary Clancy : But, they're awful! I mean, it's not as if they were like Sacred Heart's. At Sacred Heart they wear short-shorts for gym.

  Mother Superior : They're French.

• Mary Clancy : Hi, Marvel-Ann!

  Marvel-Ann Clancy : Drop dead!

  Rachel Devery : Who's that?

  Mary Clancy : Marvel-Ann. My uncle George is her father. He's been sending her to the nuns since she was six. I told her she was illegitimate, so she hates me.

  Rachel Devery : Is she?

  Mary Clancy : Lord, no! Uncle George is very careful about that kind of thing.

• [upon their first arrival at St. Francis] 

  Mary Clancy : Ohhh! It's positively medieval!

  Rachel Devery : All that's missing is the dragon!

  [cut to the Mother Superior] 

• Mother Superior : Evidently, Sister Ursula's German accent amuses you.

  Mary Clancy : I didn't know she was German, Reverend Mother.

  Mother Superior : Then surely you didn't know that during the war, Sister Ursula kept 34 Jewish children hidden for more than two years in the cellar of a destroyed convent outside of Munich. And that when this was finally discovered she was imprisoned. She suffered untold indignities, and she... she...

  [choking up, then turning away] 

  Mary Clancy : Are we dismissed, Reverend Mother?

  Mother Superior : [quietly]  Yes.

• Mary Clancy : Rache! I need something to stuff in the window. The snow's coming in.

  [Rachel gives Mary a magazine] 

  Mary Clancy : I can't stuff His Holiness in the window!

  Rachel Devery : Well, I'm not going to give you Burt Lancaster!

• Exasperated Lady on Train : Really! A child your age smoking!

  Mary Clancy : I'm not a child, madam; I'm a midget with bad habits.

• Rachel Devery : You going to St. Francis, too?

  Mary Clancy : [indicating her school uniform]  Would I be caught dead in this Dior creation otherwise?

  Rachel Devery : That's a fact.

  Mary Clancy : What's your name?

  Rachel Devery : Rachel Devery.

  Mary Clancy : No it's not!

  Rachel Devery : Huh?

  Mary Clancy : It's Fleur de Lis. You're half French.

  Rachel Devery : How about that! What's your name?

  Mary Clancy : Kim Novak?

  Rachel Devery : I like it.

  Mary Clancy : So do I. But I'm stuck with "Mary Clancy"!

• Rachel Devery : She said I'm the devil's agent.

  Mary Clancy : [laughs]  She meant you were my stooge.

• Mary Clancy : [modeling a black corset]  Jayne Mansfield.

  Rachel Devery : [modeling a plain Jane, beige bra]  Rock Hudson.

  Mary Clancy : Come on, let's find you a better one.

• Rachel Devery : I think I'm gonna kill myself!

  Mary Clancy : Catholics aren't allowed to.

• Sister Clarissa : All right, girls, form a line.

  Mary Clancy : We already have, Sister.

  Sister Clarissa : Oh. Well then, throw out your chests - and breathe in the fresh air. Out! Out with your chest!

  Rachel Devery : It's as out as it will go.

• Rachel Devery : He's a doll. Sort of like, Jack Lemmon, only younger. I *love* Jack Lemmon.

  Mary Clancy : Naturally.

• Rachel Devery : What did Mother Superior say to you?

  Mary Clancy : I wouldn't repeat it in this sacred place.

• Rachel Devery : [smoking cigars]  Where'd you get these?

  Mary Clancy : The plumber left them.

  [Rachel starts coughing] 

  Mary Clancy : What's the matter?

  Rachel Devery : I'm not sure I like 'em.

  Mary Clancy : So you have something you hate that you can give up for Lent.

  Rachel Devery : Yeah! Good thinking.