The Trouble With Angels

When Ida Lupino’s production company The Filmmakers shuttered its windows in the mid-50’s, Lupino moved to the burgeoning world of television to continue directing. Then (as now), TV was a much more open to female creators, and so Lupino flourished. She directed in a variety of genres, from comedy (GILLIGAN’S ISLAND) to thriller (ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS) to Westerns (HAVE GUN – WILL TRAVEL). In many ways, Lupino was already the ideal television director. TV shows were shot quickly, on a budget, and often on location – just like Lupino’s early pictures. What Lupino got from TV – besides creative control and consistent work – was a chance to expand and diversify her previously narrow (but successful) body of work. And all that new experience helped when her friend William Frye handed her the script to a catholic schoolgirl comedy in early 1965. THE TROUBLE WITH ANGELS (based on the book “Life With Mother Superior” by ad woman Jane Trahey) is a fluffy movie about adolescent rebellion at a parochial school. The film follows a fairly simple structure – the girls pull a prank, the Mother Superior pretends to punish them, the girls plot a bigger prank in detention. Far from repetitive, the entire thing comes off as a scathingly brilliant idea. (Nathaniel Rogers)