Nasty Habits ** (1977, Glenda Jackson, Melina Mercouri, Geraldine Page, Sandy Dennis, Anne Jackson, Rip Torn, Susan Penhaligon) – Classic Movie Review 12,232

Glenda Jackson.

The 1977 British satirical comedy film Nasty Habits is based on Muriel Spark’s novel The Abbess of Crewe, and is an amusing satire of the Watergate scandal. Glenda Jackson is especially fine as the Abby’s mother superior.

Director Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s 1977 British satirical comedy film Nasty Habits is based on Muriel Spark’s novel The Abbess of Crewe, and stars Glenda Jackson, Melina Mercouri, Geraldine Page, Sandy Dennis, Anne Jackson. Rip Torn and Susan Penhaligon.

It satirises the presidency of Richard Nixon and the Watergate scandal, with its characters referencing the Nixon cabinet and Watergate conspirators. Sister Alexandra equals Richard Nixon, Sister Gertrude equals Henry Kissinger, Sister Winifred equals John Dean, Sister Walburga equals H R Haldeman, and so on.

At the Abbey of Philadelphia, the Abbess, Sister Hildegard (Edith Evans), is dying. She wants her favourite, Sister Alexandra (Glenda Jackson), to succeed but passes away just before she can announce her endorsement, and the convent fights over who will be her successor for the top job. Sister Alexandra conspires with Sister Gertrude (Melina Mercouri) and Sister Walburga (Geraldine Page) to win the election, defeating her rival, Sister Felicity (Susan Penhaligon), who is openly carrying on an affair with a Jesuit priest, Father Thomas (Anthony Forrest).

The outstandingly good cast makes quite a lot of a fairly amusing satire of the Watergate affair. Jackson is especially fine as the mother superior and Sandy Dennis is too as the John Dean character Sister Winifred. Muriel Spark’s novel is clever and producer Robert Enders’s screenplay is quite witty.

It is Edith Evans’s last film – she died before it was released on 18 March 1977.

Dame Edith Evans DBE (8 February 1888 – 14 October 1976).

The cast are Glenda Jackson as Sister Alexandra, Melina Mercouri as Sister Gertrude, Geraldine Page as Sister Prioress Walburga, Sandy Dennis as Sister Winifred, Anne Jackson as Sister Mildred, Mistress of Novices, Anne Meara as Sister Geraldine, Susan Penhaligon as Sister Felicity, Edith Evans as Sister Hildegard, Jerry Stiller as P R Priest, Rip Torn as Father Maximilian, Eli Wallach as Monsignor, Harry Ditson as Ambrose, Christopher Muncke as Gregory, Anthony Forrest as Father Thomas, and Mike Douglas, Bill Jorgensen, Jessica Savitch, and Howard K Smith as themselves.

Edinburgh-born Muriel Spark moved to Rome and met artist and sculptor Penelope Jardine in 1968 and they settled in Tuscany, in the village of Oliveto, near Civitella in Val di Chiana. Spark died in 2006, aged 88, and is buried in the cemetery of Sant’Andrea Apostolo in Oliveto. She left her entire estate to Jardine.

Glenda Jackson died at her Blackheath home in London on 15 June 2023, aged 87.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,232

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