The Trouble with Angels (1966)

Rosalind Russell: Mother Superior

Quotes 

• Mother Superior : Rachel? Well, Rachel has a home and parents who love her. She's a follower, not a leader. She can be guided. But, Mary... oh, Mary has a will of iron. To bend but not to break... to yield but not capitulate... to have pride but also humility. This has always been my struggle, Sister. Can I be less tolerant of Mary than the Church has been of me?

• [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.

• Mother Superior : This is a Catholic school Mr. Gottschalk!

  Mr. Gottschalk : Band uniforms are non-sectarian.

• 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.

• Mother Superior : As for the social graces, I'm convinced that your school encourages barbarism and concerns itself only with free thinking, free wheeling and finger-painting.

  Mr. Petrie : The finest educational minds in the country happen to be on our side!

  Mother Superior : God is on ours!

• Mother Superior : [to Mary]  One of us may have to go. But I guarantee you, it won't be me!

• Mother Superior : Well, it is the point, not the vernacular, that is important.

• Mother Superior : Sister Liguori is my assistant and teaches mathematics. You'll find her methods newer than new.

• [Sister Clarissa rescues the girls from the pool, dressed in full habit] 

  Mother Superior : How's the water, sister?

• Mother Superior : Will you please, in the future, remember that St. Francis is not a training school for counter spies.

• Mother Superior : It may come as something of a surprise to you; but, smoking, drinking, and similar extracurricular activities are not permitted at St. Francis. Get rid of those things!

• Mother Superior : The only desperation around here, Mr. Petrie, is that of the Sisters who have to cope with that product of progressive education you have inflicted upon us - namely Rachel Devery.

  Mr. Petrie : Well, I hardly expect you to completely accept new trends, creative concepts of education.

  Mother Superior : It's an abomination.

• Sister Rose Marie : Reverend Mother, I can't do it. I just know I can't.

  Mother Superior : I must insist. There are no two ways about it, Sister. I'd do it myself; but, I have a meeting with Father Devlin and I have no idea what time I'll be free.

  Sister Rose Marie : Reverend Mother, please.

  Mother Superior : Besides, the outing will do you good.

  Sister Rose Marie : But, Reverend Mother, I don't know anything about - binders.

  Mother Superior : Brassieres, Sister, brassieres.

• Mother Superior : Those two! Get them!