Where Angels Go Trouble Follows! (1968) User Reviews

Trippy fun

[jdollak · 7/10 · 17 October 2005]

I was pleasantly surprised that this movie still holds charm after all these years. I originally saw it when I was much younger, and the only things I remembered were the railroad tracks and the song that is played throughout the film. After watching it with a more mature film-viewing mind, it's still worthwhile. Extremely campy. Clearly dated, but very illuminating. The subject matter is probably more relevant if you have religious leanings, although they aren't required. And oddly, I felt like the song was very Monkees-esquire, but never knew that it had a direct connection. Search it out for a trippy, lovey time in 1968.

I wonder if the dance sequence was an inspiration for Austin Powers?

The Girls Of Saint Francis

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 23 November 2008]

In the first film of this series The Trouble With Angels the main focus of the film was on the students in particular Hayley Mills and the trouble she got into, always vexing Mother Superior Rosalind Russell. In Where Angels Go Trouble Follows the accent is on the nuns and in particular the generational dispute between Rosalind Russell and new nun on the faculty, Stella Stevens.

It's the same kind of fun that the previous film was. The girls at the Catholic Academy are all revved up by Stella Stevens to attend an interfaith youth rally cross country in California. She together with Bishop Arthur Godfrey persuade Rosalind Russell to take 3000 mile cross country bus trip with a picked group of the girls. One of them, Barbara Hunter gets to go via her dad William Lundigan donating the bus for the trip.

In fact Hunter and Susan Saint James are the troublesome pair of girls who take Hayley Mills's place in vexing Russell. Funniest scene is when after being ordered to wash the bus bumper to bumper by Russell, the two of them take the bus into a car wash they break into and try to use. Of course the two geniuses forget to close the bus windows before putting it through the wash.

Russell got to work with two of her former fellow contract players at MGM in this film. Robert Taylor plays the owner of a boys summer camp ranch and Van Johnson is a priest and head of a Catholic Boys School. Johnson and she never worked together at MGM and she and Taylor whom she said started the exact same day for Louis B. Mayer were both supporting players in a film West Point Of The Air and did not work together again until Where Angels Go Trouble Follows.

Dolores Sutton, Mary Wickes, and Binnie Barnes were all members of the convent in the previous film and repeat their roles here. Milton Berle is on hand as a movie director of a western on to whose set the bus stumbles on during an 'Indian' attack. With that eyepatch for affect and Berle makes you know it's for affect, it either suggests a spoof of John Ford or Raoul Walsh.

I liked the film because without condescension it shows the generational conflict between the two protagonists, Russell and Stevens. Neither is made to be a fool, both had very good points on their side.

Though it's set in the culture of the Sixties, the humor and wisdom in Where Angels Go Trouble Follows is timeless and will still be funny generations from now.

Yes indeed, it's good clean fun

[jse126 · 7/10 · 28 November 2006]

Why am I reviewing this? It's not typical of what I normally review , although that doesn't mean anything in particular because I don't review 99 percent of the movies that I see. I had never heard of this movie before but I was bored the other day and it happened to show up on cable on a channel with no commercials - and I'll watch just about anything that is sans commercials. Plus I'm a sucker for a road trip flick and I will take any chance that I can get to take a sixties road trip, even if it is with a bunch of nuns on a bus instead of freaks on motorcycles.

First of all, while fairly well made, this is not a great movie. It's mainly the story and plot, or rather the lack of them, that causes the problems here. Technically it looks fine and the shot on location photography is very nice. But the story is so incredibly thin and silly and riddled with the most over-the-top clichés and contrived plot devices that it becomes distracting. The entire film is nothing more than a series of connected scenes of the type that junior high drama students might come up with. The only progression in the film is the physical one of the bus travelling forward in time and space, because otherwise the scenes could be mixed and shuffled like cards and placed in any order and the end result would be about the same. This film has got to be one of the very last examples of well made but quickly written hack jobs written by old school Hollywood hack writers - except for a few of the "modern woman" touches gleaned from the swinging sixties optimism pre-Altamont this film could easily have been made in 1958 instead of 1968.

Just a few examples of the above can be illustrated by the church's school bus. The basic "plot" of this film is that a group of girls from a Catholic school and their Mother Nuns take a road trip to California for a rally. That's pretty much it. They have an old broken down school bus, which in one of a seemingly endless line of contrivances (you'll have to watch to see what this particular contrivance is) gets replaced by a brand new one for the trip. A nice shiny yellow brand new bus with the school's name on it. Early on in the trip, the driving nun stalls the bus on some railroad tracks with a train coming (of course). The brand new bus won't start. They start to evacuate the bus and the door won't open. It's one of those bus doors with the handle that the driver pulls - when have you ever seen one get stuck, especially on a brand new bus? So they go to evacuate out of the back emergency door. That one is stuck too. What the heck is happening with this bus all of the sudden? A brand new, perfectly functioning bus turns into s teenage virgin and nun deathtrap all of the sudden. So the girls start clambering out of the windows - I was only surprised that all of the windows weren't stuck too. Well, of course they all got out and the nun was able to restart the bus just in the nick of time. And the scene just ends with a circle fadeout and that's that. No mention of how they were all able to reboard the bus with the stuck doors and all.

Further on down the line the bus suffers a blowout on on of the brand new tires, runs out of gas (not the bus's fault there, but leads to a great scene with ridiculous biker "toughs" roughing up nuns), gets filled with water and suds in a truck wash, and breaks an axle while evading a charge of Indians on the warpath (yes, you read that right). I think that they would have been better off with the old bus!

I'm sorry though, I must apologize. It's easy to find fault with the writing here, as it is atrocious. But at the end of the day I enjoyed this film. It's a period piece to be sure - in the extreme. Movies like this will NEVER be made again. It echoes a sentiment that was naive even in 1968. It was past its time before it was even made. But it is entertaining, and even if you do pick it apart by the clichés and contrivances, well that can add to the fun. The cinematography is pleasing and the scenery of late 1960's midwest is pleasing too. You are not going to watch this film and then get depressed, and there is something to be said for that.

So go ahead and watch this movie, and take a road trip yourself back to a more innocent age. Relax and enjoy it - there is also much to be said for taking a detour to a couple of hours away from the stressful mood of the planet Earth in the year 2006. And as hackneyed as they can be, I'd still prefer one movie like this to one hundred of the market analyzed, test audienced, product placed and merchandise marketed complete and total cr@p ones that ooze from Hollywood's rear end these days.

my dad is in this movie!

[willis-8 · 24 July 1999]

hay everyone! I've seen this movie and it's pretty good for a 1960 movie.Also my dad was in the movie.In The part where everyone is dancing to the band at the dance,My dad is the bass player wearing the red sweater( I think it was red)Well anyway,it's a cool movie.

Benign, Be-Nun

[EdMuldoon · 7/10 · 13 September 2003]

Cute film that holds some nostalgia for me perhaps only because of my 12-year Catholic school tenure or Sunday afternoon "Big Movie" reruns with Mom & Dad. Stella Stevens plays a nun that never existed (see my personal credentials above), but carries the "heavy" scenes without a heavy hand. Mary Wickes, on the other hand, is the every-nun that we all experienced growing up. Expect neither revelations nor real revelry, but mild entertainment throughout.

Fun movie with a few minor quirks

[BaseballRaysFan · 7/10 · 28 August 2010]

Basically, I love this movie. I especially like the Title Song.

In my opinion, it's a very enjoyable movie. It's a nostalgic flashback to the 60s. It's fun to see a very young Susan St. James, who later became famous in McMillan and Wife.

The movie deals with adolescent girls in a Catholic school who, at the urging of a young, liberal nun named Sister George, decide to attend a co-educational, Inter-denominational Christian Youth Rally in California. The movie never deals with the rally. It deals with the trip. During the trip, the girls deal with the usual problems of teenagers, including boys.

Sister George has several battles with the older, more stoic Mother Superior.

During the trip, the girls learn about themselves, Sister George has to come to terms with her own doubts about herself, and the Mother Superior is confronted with her own self-doubts.

The trip enlightens everyone - even Sister George. At the beginning, she is convinced that she alone is enlightened and all the other nuns are in the dark ages. She seems to take it upon herself to enlighten them. The girls at the school see her as a groovy nun. To them, she's a friend. That will hurt Sister George during the course of the trip.

The trip isn't an all-serious social study. There is a lot of comedy on the way. There are two partners in crime; girls who love Sister George are constantly causing headaches for themselves and Mother Superior. In an early scene, they blow up the lab. Sister George taught them the dangers of combining certain common household chemicals because a bomb could be the result and they tested the theory. In another scene, they collect money from the girls parties at St. Frances Academy at night. The party is complete with school-forbidden record players, speakers, and, of course, rock music. This forces Mother Superior to shut down what she calls St. Frances A Go-Go. The funniest scene is a punishment from Mother Superior for another one of the many problems the two girls cause during the trip. The punishment is for the two of them to wash the bus. The girls spot a truck wash on the property where they are and decide to use it - despite the fact that the attendant is out to lunch. One girl drives the bus while the other tries operating the machinery. Neither notice that the bus windows are all open.

The only thing that I thought was totally illogical was the scene where movie Indians attacked the bus. Why would they have attacked the bus? They knew they were doing a movie and only an idiot would know that the bus didn't belong in that scene. So why scare the girls half to death and risk your own life attacking it? The scene where the bus is stopped on the tracks with the train coming is predictable, but much more believable than the attacking Indians.

All-in-all, the movie is a fun romp through the 60s with girls who are trying to find out who they are and where they belong in the world. Oh, and there are also two nuns who discover that they too need to find out who they are and where they belong.

sequel

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 5 August 2023]

Old fashion Mother Superior (Rosalind Russell) is struggling to change with the times. Sister George (Stella Stevens) is the young rebellious nun. They take the girls of St. Francis Academy on a cross-country bus trip.

This is a sequel to the 1966 movie with Rosalind Russell returning. Hayley Mills didn't return. This one is missing her star power. Stella Stevens is perfectly fine, but not the same thing. Among the girls, I do recognize Susan Saint James despite her very short hair do. She is supposed to be the new Hayley Mills although that's asking a lot. With this one, they are trying to tap into the counter-culture and the changing times. The comedy is rather tame with some boy-crazy teen drama. The biker gang section is trying to do some interesting darkness. Milton Berle makes a short appearance as a John Ford type character. There are some interesting stops along the way, but it's not adding up to anything bigger.

Seriously weird

[film_ho · 4/10 · 16 March 2006]

Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows, the sequel to The Trouble with Angels, is in sad need of a skilled director like Ida Lupino at the helm. This is a seriously weird movie. It looked as if halfway through the making of the sequel, someone decided the film needed "relevant" elements. "Relevant" always turns out to look hopelessly dated a generation later. It begins with hip Sister George (I wonder if this was an in joke about The Killing of Sister George, a contemporary play about lesbians) picketing a large institution. You never get to see what she opposes, only that she is for Peace and Involvement. Nowadays, she'd be blocking abortion clinics, but in the 1960's nuns were hip and anti-war. Think Mary Tyler Moore and Sister Sourire.

Anyway, George really is a pain, constantly complaining about anything and everything that doesn't pass her standards for Contemporary Meaning. Clothes are a big problem. The sisters wear antiquated habits, while the girls' gym outfits are designed for use in the 1940's, which means they have to be tossed into the dustbin of history. By the end of the film, the girls are frugging in miniskirts, and the nuns are wearing knee length midis that enable them to stride about with a sense of purpose.

A moment of high camp is achieved on a desert highway similar to the one Captain America and Billy were to roar up and down the following year. The bus breaks down, and the first passersby turn out to be Hell's Angels. They seem to have been on every Interstate between California and the Mississippi in those days. One of the bikers insults Sister George by calling her a penguin, then threatens her with a switchblade. Later, the leader of the pack asks if she was frightened. "Let's just say I never feared for my immortal soul." To which the biker replies, "Crazy," and moved by her spiritual depth, fixes the bus for her. Presumably we are all seeking the same higher truths, only some do it on Harleys. When asked how she pulled the bikers over to her side, George smirks, "We communicated."

The strangest part is that the object of the nuns' cross-country trip, a "youth rally" in Santa Barbara, is never actually shown. The girls do turn on in a psychedelically lit gymnasium at an all boys' school, and perform this weird tribal dance with the boys that looked group frottage. The producers may have worried that the rally would require too many extras, but the zillions of Indians in the Milton Berle sequence could have easily been converted to Catholic hippies. Anyway, the film ends with the bus roaring down the highway, and a cut to the sisters' "Change of Habit," those knee length skirts which they show off crossing a campus that now looks like The Harrad Experiment. What a disappointment.

Total Groovy Movie!

[dgordon-1 · 9/10 · 18 February 2002]

This was the sequel to "The Trouble with Angels", which was an excellent mid-'60s teen movie. To some, "Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows" was a disappointing follow-up. To me, I have always liked both very much, but I always preferred this one a little more out of the two. The reason being, it reflects the late '60s so much, it's so dated and borderline campy. This is what is appealing about the movie. The plotline is basic: a cross country trek to a religious convention, and all of the trials and tribulations the girls go through while they are on route. What 'makes' this movie is Stella Stevens as the hip & groovy liberated Nun that pickets against "the man", stands up to bikers, and later finds out what role she plays is in her students life. If you go in expecting this movie to be like the original, then you are setting yourself up for a big disappointment. If you liked other late '60s movies like "How Sweet It Is", "Impossible Years","Divorce, American Style", "Yours, Mine, and Ours" and "The Love God?", then you will definitely enjoy this late '60s groovy movie.

Sequel to the marginally better "The Trouble With Angels"

[dfloro · 6/10 · 4 August 2023]

Rosalind Russell returns as the Mother Superior, as do Binnie Barnes & the great Mary Wickes as Sister Celestine & Sister Clarissa, respectively. Other elder actors like Arthur Godfrey, Van Johnson and Robert Taylor make appearances (embarrassing ones, as is noted here by others). And Hayley Mills' character in the orginal 1966 movie is (OK, ahem, not exactly) replaced by the new Sister George character, played by Stella Stevens. Ms. Russell looked a bit uncomfortable before, but appears positively pained in this one. I wanted to swoop in to whisper in her ear: We still remember Auntie Mame and His Girl Friday! Don't you worry one bit, because we always will.

Wise viewers won't follow for long...

[moonspinner55 · 2/10 · 4 April 2008]

Dismal follow-up to "The Trouble With Angels" from 1966 has mod colors and pseudo-hip chatter, but plays like bottom-drawer Disney. Rosalind Russell returns to her role as the uptight Mother Superior at an all-girls religious boarding school, faced with newly-radicalized students and a rebellious nun (played by Stella Stevens, treading water). Family-oriented nonsense wants to be commercial, a 'today' picture for all ages, yet features some unbelievable sequences (a crowded school-bus stalling on the railroad tracks, Sister Stevens facing down a menacing group of Hell's Angels, etc.). Russell manages to give this scenario some class. Directed by Disney mainstay James Neilson, who might have benefited from a snappier sense of pacing. * from ****

This is about Fun, not heavy drama, so calm down..

[timemayer · 8/10 · 21 March 2016]

I prefer this movie to it's predecessor, because it is campy, nostalgic and has favorite actors like Rosalind Russell, Stella Stevens and Susan Saint James. I also went to parochial school in the seventies but enjoy the sixties references. Yes, this movie is a sequel, but evaluate it on it's own merits. I love the entire charming soundtrack by Lalo Schifrin and the title song lyrics and vocals by Boyce & Hart but am very disappointed that it is not available. I actually first saw it as a young adult in my church's school auditorium and found it highly amusing. It doesn't shock, create belly-laughs or extended philosophical pondering and if you are looking for those things, then choose another movie. One reviewer actually said that this plays like a "low-drawer Disney movie", to which I say absolutely not. The current Disney television shows and movies for kids often pander with extremely corny overacting, silly overused slang and idiotic dialogue. This movie does not take itself too seriously. It has dramatic moments but is NOT Shakespeare, SO MELLOW-OUT, YOU SQUARES! IT IS, HOWEVER, A LOT OF INNOCENT FUN.

Twelve dollars and forty cents! My old bus wouldn't use that much gas in a month!

[lastliberal-853-253708 · 6/10 · 22 April 2012]

Who wouldn't like seeing the voluptuous Playboy Playmate Stella Stevens as a nun that gives Mother Superior (Rosalind Russell) fits. Russell is no slouch either, Her performance in His Girl Friday is one of the best comedic performances of all times.

The film also features Mary Wickes, who played a lovable nun in the Sister Act films.

It's corny, of course, and the main thrust of the adventure is the clash of civilizations between the old nun and the young one, but it was interesting nonetheless, and there were some really great points to ponder throughout.

Just the thing on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Disappointing Sequel

[gilmoregirl314 · 4/10 · 22 July 2008]

I much enjoyed "The Trouble With Angels," however, I found the sequel to be quite disappointing. For one thing, the movie was composed of two main elements: 1) serious conversations between Sister George and Mother Superior that were very boring and 2) silly and stupid episodes of the girls' pranks and misadventures. While similar episodes were quite fun and humorous in "The Trouble With Angels," none of the scenes in this movie are nearly as entertaining, and none of the actresses are as good as the original two. One example is when "Indians" from a movie shoot start attacking their bus, and the girls and sisters throw bags at them and fight them off. Another problem is that the song, "Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows" is played not only at the beginning and end of the movie, but also is the only song played throughout the entire score and the only song the band plays at a dance the St. Francis girls attend. The main problem, however, is that the entire movie revolves around a road trip that Mother Superior, the Sisters, and select St. Francis girls take, to get to a youth rally. Nearly all the conversation in the movie is about the rally, however, we never see them actually get to the rally. The movie ends with a voice-over saying "Yes, we made it to the rally, and it was quite the beneficial experience for all of us," or something along those lines. All in all, Trouble With Angels fans may get a few smiles from this sequel, but do not expect a family classic!

Good Clean Fun!

[jsfmt99 · 4 June 2004]

My family and I always loved this movie. Since I am a Catholic school survivor I can relate to it. I was 7 years old when I first saw it at the drive in (remember drive ins?) and it always brings back good memories.

A clean wholesome movie and funny too! Whatever happened to clean and wholesome movies? Parts of this movie were filmed in Ambler Pennsylvania and the Castle in the movie is still there and it hasn't changed at all.

The plot of the movie was reflective of the times and the times represented change and the acceptance of change. This change was interwoven throughout the movie in the interactions and conflicting views between the modern sister George (Stella Stevens) and the old fashioned and reserved mother superior (Rosalind Russell). The moral of the story is: "A cloister can be a place but it can also be a state of mind."

Boyce and Hart (who wrote many hit songs for the Monkees) supplied the musical score which provided the groovy beat of the movie.

I loved Susan St James in this movie. She was such a bright young actress at the time. I loved the scene where she was caught riding on top of the bus. That scene was shot on a farm near my hometown.

I also appreciated the views of the Philadelphia art museum as well as city hall along with the center of the Ambler Pennsylvania town. Those views have changed over the years.

Those who were sent through the Catholic School system (voluntarily or not)will get a kick out of this movie.

You can buy the movie on Ebay and I think that a DVD version has been released.

A Road Trip That Drags

[gftbiloxi · 2/10 · 30 April 2005]

Although this sequel to THE TROUBLE WITH ANGELS offers Rosalind Russell reprising her role as the Mother Superior of St. Francis and head of the convent's girls school, WHERE ANGELS GO TROUBLE FOLLOWS is a dismal film.

This time around the conservative Mother Superior finds herself at odds with the liberal Sister George (a very strident Stella Stevens) as the sisters shepherd the schools girls on a a cross-country outing to a youth rally. The girls are a handful, particularly when they somehow manage to attract some unsavory and dangerous road-type characters along the way.

Unlike its predecessor, the movie never strikes a good balance between comic and dramatic elements and the production values seem more akin to a television movie-of-the-week effort than a big-screen production. Russell is the saving grace of the film, a very young Susan St. James proves very attractive, and several supporting performances (including Binnie Barnes) are quite engaging--but they cannot overcome this film's many inadequacies. Miss it.

Gary F. Taylor, aka GFT, Amazon Reviewer

Roz, Stella, In a Fine Family Film

[williwaw · 9/10 · 6 April 2011]

Columbia and Roz Russell had a huge hit in Trouble With Angels and this film is the sequel. While Roz Russell's peers had to do horror films to stay in the public eye, Roz -along with Kate Hepburn and Lucille Ball-remained top of he bill movie stars. Ms. Russell repeats her role as Mother Superior and this film is cast with a lot of great character actors including Mary Wickes and Milton Berle. I am pleased this film casts the Catholic religion in a positive light, and why not? Ms. Russell was a devout Church going Catholic.

Ms.Russell is likely the most glaring example of a major star and actress that never won an Oscar.

Stella Stevens appears as a young modern thinking nun sometimes at odds with Mother Superior. Ms. Stevens is to me the most under appreciated star I have ever seen pass thru Hollywood with a gallery of great performances where she played Hookers, Tramps, Drug Addicts and also delightful in comedy such as this one and a two movies with Dean Martin, The Silencers and How To Save A Marriage and Ruin Your Life. A lovely actress, who somehow never reached the true levels of super-stardom Ms. Stevens deserved and I feel earned. I suggest film students study Stevens work in Synanon, The Silencers, The Ballad of Cable Hogue, The Nutty Professor, The Poisedon Adventure, et al. A great actress who let her work speak for itself. In Stevens' heyday Stella Stevens worked with Gene Hackman, Roz Russell, Glenn Ford, Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Elvis Presley, Jeffrey Hunter, and film makers such as Hal Wallis, and Sam Peckinpah. I wish Stella Stevens had worked with Billy Wilder who would have surely gotten an Oscar nomination for this fine Actress.

As Sequels Go, you could do worse...

[Gideon24 · 5/10 · 30 November 2015]

Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows is a 1968 sequel to the 1966 classic The Trouble with Angels, but lightening definitely did not strike twice here.

Rosalind Russell reprises her role as the Mother Superior who heads up St. Francis Academy, a convent school for teenage girls. In this film, the Reverend Mother finds herself at odds with a new nun at the Academy named Sister George, exuberantly played by Stella Stevens, whose radical ideas about education and everything else excites her young charges but works Reverend Mother's nerves into a frazzle. The conflict between old and new reach a fever pitch when Reverend Mother and Sister George take several of the girls on a cross-country bus trip.

The film attempts to recapture t he spirit of the first film, but the conflict that Russell and Stevens' characters create here just aren't as interesting as the conflict between Russell and Hayley Mills in the first film. The adventures presented here include the bus breaking down and an encounter with a movie star (Robert Taylor) filming on location.

Russell and Stevens work very hard to sustain interest here and Binnie Barnes and Mary Wickes also recreate their roles from the first film and provide sporadic laughs. Van Johnson appears as a priest and one of the St. Francis girls is played by a very young Susan Saint James.

It's a pleasant time-filler, nothing more, but Hayley Mills is sorely missed.

hope to able to watch it many more times with my grandchildren

[rwelch2163 · 10/10 · 13 April 2006]

I,have this movie and the trouble with angels, it brings back so many memories i lived in that castle for 5 years and spent most of my childhood there.I left right before they started to film it. It was made in ambler pa and is still there it was a home for children that were placed there for many reasons some from broken homes and under other reason i have gone back once and since the movies there have been many changes no one lives in the castle anymore it it use for office but really hasn't changed much except they have built a new chapel which was in the castle and some of the girls live there on the third floor i do remember swimming in the lake there it was our swimming spot at that time. but i watch it a few times a years with my grandchildren wow what a long time but i have so many memories good and bad

Sad way for great actors to end their careers

[JBThackery · 2/10 · 14 July 2008]

This film is so schlocky, I cannot imagine how they lined up such a great cast. Film giants Rosalind Russell, Robert Taylor, Van Johnson, Milton Berle, and Arthur Godfrey must have wanted to go hide when this was released.

About the only good quality in this film is continuity. There was at least a consistency of filming, lighting, plot, etc. I did not see any bloopers. And of course, it casts some pretty girls who, in their 20's, were very skilled at playing teenagers. But it does not qualify as a viewable film. It is just an airhead convention, and presents nothing to captivate the attention or to make you want to see it through to the end.

I can be merciful with most films. I can describe much more, usually, about a film's directing, acting, photography, script, etc. I regret that I am disappointed to see so many of my favorite actors and actresses wrap up their illustrious careers with this empty film.

Poor Rosalind

[treeline1 · 16 December 2010]

The year is 1968, and protest marches are all the rage. Sister George (Stella Stevens), a young teacher at St. Francis Academy, encourages her students to join her in sign-carrying and chanting, much to the concern of the Mother Superior (Rosalind Russell). When the sisters take a busload of girls across country to attend a peace rally in California, chaos reigns as they encounter endless car troubles, lots of boys, and even some cowboys and Indians.

This sequel to "The Trouble With Angels" is a really bad movie. The original had a funny script, the spunk and charisma of Hayley Mills, and an energetic Rosalind Russell. This time around, the plot is ludicrous, Stella Stevens' hip-nun act gets old after five minutes, and poor Miss Russell just looks tired and worn-out. There are awkward cameos by Van Johnson, Arthur Godfrey, Milton Berle, and Robert Taylor but they do have the good taste to look embarrassed. None of the students' characters are developed (even though a very young and cute Susan Saint James shows promise) so we don't care about them. All of the boys and most of the girl students were played by non-professionals who can't act. And the worst part is *SPOILER* - after suffering through every possible road trip cliché - there's no California and no rally.

Ever-dependable Mary Wickes reprises her role as a quirky nun from the first movie and she's always watchable, but when an Indian war party attacked the bus in New Mexico, I rolled my eyes in disbelief. Terrible movie.

Sort of like a TV sitcom in its style and subtlety.

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 19 August 2020]

"Where Angels Go Trouble Follows!" is an unusual film for me. It's the sequel for "The Trouble With Angels" yet I never saw this first picture. So why would I watch only the sequel? Well, it's Robert Taylor's penultimate film as he died prematurely in 1969 at age 57 due to lung cancer. And, I generally enjoy his pictures and would love to one day say I've seen all of them (I have 10 more, mostly obscure films, to go).

The film begins with the Reverend Mother (Rosalind Russell) announcing that the best students at the St. Francis Academy will get to go on a cross-country trip. However, it's obvious that even the 'best' girls are a handful and there will be all sorts of kooky adventures. The kooky one, however, turned out to be a young and 'with it' nun (Stella Stevens) and she and the more traditional nuns see things quite differently. In fact, the with-it nun seems to have little interest in much of anything concerning a nun's life...which makes you wonder WHY she would ever become a nun in the first place. So, you aren't sure who will get in more trouble...the horny, trouble-making teenage girls of the kooky nun.

In so many ways, this film felt like an extended sitcom episode. The music sounded almost exactly like songs from "Love American Style" or a Disney live-action film of the era. But what felt more like a sitcom was the writing. There were a lot of cliched moments...such as the BRAND NEW bus that, out of the blue, stalled on the railroad tracks AND the doors were stuck closed!! The dialog consisted of mostly one-liners and zingers....just like real people talk..but not on this planet! And, the problems that occurred seemed mostly like the sort of kooky stuff you'd see on 60s TV. To say the film lacks subtlety is a HUGE understatement!

So, despite all this, is it any good? No. And, sadly, a waste of talent from the likes of Taylor, Russell, Van Johnson and Mary Wickes (I always liked this feisty supporting actress). Undemanding kids might like it but the film is just too poorly written and silly to be taken seriously. It tries WAY too hard to be funny and hip...and really achieves neither.

Great Roz, Great Stella

[adventure-21903 · 9/10 · 16 November 2019]

Rosalind Russell remained one of the top stars in Hollywood until the early 1970s a career that lasted nearly 50 years. This is specially noted as many of her peers such as Joan Crawford, Betty Davis, Jennifer Jones, Lana Turner, Joan Fontaine while relegated into appearing into what was described as " horror movies". only Katherine Hepburn, Lucille Ball, and Miss Russell were able to avoid the horror film route.

Miss Russell a devout Catholic had a big hit in Columbia's Trouble with Angels in this film was a sequel. Miss Russell had as a costar this time Stella Stevens who was one of the finest actresses of her day but never was recognized. Sexy Stella played a Nun and was given over the title billing along side Ms Russell, Stella was confused with two other beautiful blondes Connie Stevens and Inger Stevens. This film was done under a Columbia contract which had Stella do The Silences and How to Save a Marriage and Ruin Your Life both with Dean Martin

This is a fun movie with a great array of character actors/actresses.

Dull comedy of the sort that gives the '60s a bad name...

[Doylenf · 5/10 · 13 July 2008]

After a series of misadventures on the road with a broken down bus and screaming girl students, ROSALIND RUSSELL toward the end of the film states: "It proved to be a wonderful experience." That she says it with so much conviction is a testament to her acting skill--because it's another matter for the audience.

This is one of those strained comedies where a series of seemingly disconnected incidents on the road are supposed to be hilarious, but are more likely to provide just a few chuckles. Most enjoyable of all is the scene where two of the more rebellious girls are asked to wash the bus and instead, send it through the car-washer apparatus with disastrous results. Most of the other attempts at humor are less successful and even more improbable, especially the sequence involving an Indian chase with a cameo by Milton Berle as a film director wearing an eye patch (a la Raoul Walsh).

STELLA STEVENS is the modern nun who has a run-in with some knife wielding bikers and is able to keep her cool and seem impervious to their threats. The dialog in this scene has to be heard to be believed. Let's just say it is about as far removed from reality as the script gets, and that's pretty far.

ROSALIND RUSSELL is stern and amusing as the head nun, ready with a quip whenever circumstances demand it. STELLA STEVENS, BINNIE BARNES and MARY WICKES are capable as the other sisters, but SUSAN ST. JAMES and a few of the other girls in the cast have irritating roles.

One of the best features: Lalo Schifrin's bouncy background score, but the whole film reflects the '60s to such an extent that it appears dated in the extreme. It's the sort of film that must have seemed dated even in '68.

Summing up: The only surprises were nice cameos by Van Johnson and Robert Taylor, both giving amiable performances.

They Should Have Filmed the Rally Scenes

[lisa195719082 · 9/10 · 1 April 2012]

I used to work in Fort Washington, not too far from where these movies were filmed at. Every time I went by the St. Mary's Villa either on my way to or back home from work, I always thought to myself "That's where they filmed The Trouble With Angels." I first saw this movie when I was in school in back in '73; just five years after it was first released. But then I saw it again on TV thirteen years later (in 1986), and I just kept on watching it over and over again. I also have some of the dialogue from this movie memorized as well.

Since the story was about them going to California for a youth rally, what they should have done was this: Show them arriving at the rally and filming the rally scenes as well. Continue filming the rest of the journey to California instead of leaving them off somewhere in the desert Southwest, and then returning to St. Francis showing the nuns in their shorter habits. They made it to the rally, but they should have showed them actually being there; not just talk about it.

Also, after they left Mr. Farriday's (Robert Taylor) ranch, were they still in New Mexico when they got caught in an Indian attack that was part of a Western movie being filmed on location there, and the bus's axle broke? ) How about when they came across a detour where they wouldn't make the rally in time? Or when they stopped at a museum to pick up some Indian souvenirs? Since Sister Clarissa told the Mother Superior that the detour would take them 125 miles out of their way, were they in Arizona? Since Sister Clarissa (Mary Wickes) drove the bus, she should have taken a highway route to Chicago. Then drive out Route 66 all the way to Los Angeles, and then up the Pacific Coast Highway to Santa Barbara. Instead, she took a lot of back roads; including the one what was detoured. At least they made it to the rally.

It's a shame that Haley Mills wasn't in this. If she had, how would she handle Sister George (Stella Stevens) and her liberal ideas; as well as her grumpy cousin, Marvel Ann (Barbara Hunter)? After all, her character in The Trouble With Angels, Mary Clancy, decided to stay at St. Francis and become a nun after she graduated from there.

But at least this movie was just as good as The Trouble With Angels.