Short Takes with THE DIVINE SISTER’s Charles Busch

Charles Busch is the author and star of THE DIVINE SISTER, the new comedy which begins performances Saturday, February 6 at Theater for the New City (155 First Avenue). Busch will play ‘Mother Superior’ in the production directed by Carl Andress. 

We asked Charles to lists his “Top Ten Favorite Hollywood Religious Movies,” some of which inspired his latest comic vehicle. Here are his picks along with some footage from the films he’s selected. 

CHARLES BUSCH: I was born Jewish, but didn’t grow up with any religious training. And yet I’ve always loooved movies that had any kind of religious element in them. I get all teary, even when I’m rolling my eyes at their camp value. Here is a list of my all-time favorites, in no particular order: 

1. “The Song of Bernadette” 

A lot of people make fun of this movie, but it really is beautifully produced.  I have always had a soft spot for the late Jennifer Jones. I think she’s one of the few Hollywood actresses who could have pulled off the kind of pure spiritual radiance required to play a saintly French peasant girl. On a camp note, I love that gorgeous Linda Darnell is the vision of the Virgin Mary. There are so many memorable moments in the movie, but I really love the part where the peasant woman runs with her dying child in her arms and heals him in the water in the grotto. I just fall to pieces. When Gladys Cooper, gimlet-eyed and tight-lipped, hisses to Bernadette that she herself is more deserving to see the vision of the Virgin, well, Hollywood religiosity doesn’t get better than that.   

2. “The Trouble With Angels”  

I love actresses who play nuns with that little twinkle in their eye when they look upward to the Lord. They have this sexy, secret communication going on with Jesus. No one does this better than Rosalind Russell in this movie. I adore when Roz, as Mother Superior, is asked how she could give up her early dream of being a fashion designer, like “The great Chanel,” and beatifically answers “I found something better.” The movie is filled with all sorts of marvelously kitsch details such as shots of Roz, with great nobility, brushing snow off a statue of the Virgin. The movie’s musical score, with its chirpy sixties school theme and syrupy music suggesting spirituality, is heavenly. And well, any movie that has Gypsy Rose Lee in a delicious cameo as a movement instructor is on my list of favorites. (I’ve read that Gypsy played “Auntie Mame” in several summer stock productions. What I’d give to have seen that!) Back to the movie. Like most kids of my generation, I worshipped at the shrine of Hayley Mills and she is terrific in this movie, which, I suppose, was one of her last films as a teen star. You can really sense her frustration at being locked in this youthful role. I may have this wrong, but I think she had a discreet nude scene in her next movie. Or maybe it was two movies after this…Shoot me! 

3. “The Bells of St. Mary’s” 

This movie is de rigueur viewing for anyone fascinated by Hollywood religiosity. This classic film has Bing Crosby, as a free-thinking priest, shaking things up at Catholic school. It’s a sequel to Bing’s Oscar-winning picture “Going My Way.” Ingrid Bergman, I suppose, wins the award for the screen’s most beautiful nun. (She may be neck and neck with Audrey Hepburn in ‘The Nun’s Story.”) But honestly, doesn’t everyone look beautiful in a wimple? A highlight: Mother Superior Ingrid teaching a little boy how to box. How I wish Ingrid had been around when I was growing up in Hartsdale. I sure could have used her help! 

4. “The Nun’s Story” 

A truly great movie. Don’t you think it may be Audrey Hepburn’s best performance? Certainly her least mannered, not that I don’t adore her mannerisms. Although I never could understand why she had to be a nun. Why couldn’t she just become a nurse in the Congo? This movie doesn’t make being a nun seem like the fun, giddy alternative lifestyle it’s portrayed as in other movies. Most of the time, in Hollywood films, a convent seems more like an adult sorority house where the grammar is better. In this movie, there is a gallery of brilliant actresses in supporting roles including Patricia Collinge, Beatrice Straight, Edith Evans, Peggy Ashcroft and a very young Colleen Dewhurst as a butch madwoman. Audrey Hepburn still manages to look gloriously chic in her white habit. No way you can hide those elegant bones.  I wonder if Givenchy came in and gave it a little tweak?     

5. “Ben-Hur” 

We don’t reference this movie in “The Divine Sister,” but I just adore the part of the film when Christ has just died on the cross and Ben-Hur’s mother and sister, who have previously become lepers, find that their fingers grow back, their sores miraculously heal, and get their false eyelashes glued back on.  Whenever it’s on TV, I DVR it and fast-forward just to see that moment and I always cry. I grew up in New York City, and I remember cutting school one afternoon to sit in a movie theatre for four hours to watch a reissue of “Ben-Hur.” Of course, I didn’t need much provocation to cut school. I suppose this is Charlton Heston’s sexiest role. His thighs steal the picture. 

6. “The Singing Nun” 

Well, I can’t actually get through this movie, but I love the makeup. Debbie Reynolds has almost as much eyeliner on as Elizabeth Taylor in “Cleopatra.” Check out her close-ups when she lowers her eyes in beatification – it might as well be an ad for Maybelline. And Greer Garson is so marvelously affected as the Reverend Mother, you kind of wanna throw the holy water in her face. This movie does make convent life seem awfully fun and cozy:  Ricardo Montalban shows up as a sexy high-spirited Monsignor who leads “the girls” in toe-tapping sing-a-longs. And Agnes Moorehead plays the proverbial tight-lipped, disapproving, by-the-books nun, but even she seems like she might indulge in a few high kicks after a second glass of wine. 

7. “Black Narcissus” 

A wonderful film. A group of nuns settle in a remote castle in the Himalayas. The most beautiful color and art design. Gorgeous matte shots and special effects that somehow seem more spectacular than our current CGI art. Deborah Kerr has never been photographed so beautifully and gives a lovely, haunting performance. And a wonderful British actress named Kathleen Byron plays a kooky nun who goes insane from repressed sexual desire. I’ve given this sort of scene to Julie Halston to play in “The Divine Sister.” I can’t wait to see her spin on it.  I mean, her “take on it.” Not literally spinning on “it,” if you know what I mean.    

8. “Come To The Stable” – You’ve gotta check out Loretta Young and Celeste Holm as two French nuns who travel by foot to Bethlehem, NH, to convince the locals to build them a hospital. One of the rare movies where you hope the heroines will fail at their mission.  Hugh Marlowe, (“Lloyd” from “All About Eve,”) plays another Broadway playwright, whose beautiful home is unfortunately in the gals’ way. My memory is a bit fuzzy on this one. He may be a musical comedy composer. Either way, he’s no match for Loretta. She’s sooo lovely, serene and determined that she’s downright scary.      

9. “Yentl” 

I have a great and genuine fondness for this movie. A rare, up-beat, commercial movie with a Jewish historic background. The anti-Streisand faction would like to poke fun at it and diminish its brilliance, but it really is a heart-felt and touching movie. I’ve never read the original Isaac Bashevis Singer short story, so I couldn’t care less about the liberties Barbra took with it. “Yentl” is a very satisfying screen musical and perhaps the last time we saw a great performer do a musical number onscreen that wasn’t over-edited to give one seizures. There is, however, a campy moment, when Barbra, who’s been posing as a boy, is alone in her room. She is overcome with her mad passion for Mandy Patinkin, and begins to undress in front of the mirror. She sings a beautiful song by Marilyn and Alan Bergman, “The Way He Makes Me Feel.” At a certain point in the song, there is a quick cut and suddenly Barbra has on a full glamour makeup beat, and her short, boy wig is adjusted to look more feminine. Unfortunately, it all makes her look a bit like a tough woman executive at Tri-Star. When the song finishes, she gets back to her regular boy look.  All right, enough! I like this movie. So there. 

BBB NOTE: We tried to find a Youtube clip from the film of  Barbra singing “The Way He Makes Me Feel,” but all we could find was this. It’s not the exact scene, but we hope Charles will forgive us. 

10.  “The Bishop’s Wife”  

I’ve never seen the Whitney Houston remake all the way through, but I do get a kick out of the 1940’s original. World War II spawned a whole genre of fantasy films involving helpful angels; the most famous of which was “It’s A Wonderful Life.” “The Bishop’s Wife” isn’t nearly as good, but Cary Grant is a much sexier angel than Clarence. There’s always a slightly dark and even sinister side to Cary Grant that adds complexity to his best roles. Somehow, in this one, that sinister side proves a little creepy when he’s playing an angel. You’re not quite sure which side he’s on. Is he a devil in disguise? This list of my favorite Hollywood religious movies also seems to be a list of my favorite Gladys Cooper roles. In this film, she plays a fabulously wealthy, guilt-ridden widow who wants to build a cathedral to honor her late husband. Nobody does tight-lipped, bitter intensity better than the divine Gladys. And nobody is better than Gladys Cooper when she ultimately sees the light as she does in this film and “The Song of Bernadette.”    

Well, that’s my top ten, folks.  But there are many more marvelous movies in which Hollywood takes on spirituality with outrageous aplomb. Let’s see, there’s “The Story of Ruth”, “The Ten Commandments”, “The Robe,” ‘Salome” and well, you haven’t lived till you’ve seen Lana Turner as a Pagan High Priestess in “The Prodigal.” Oooh, I wish it was on right now. 

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Charles Busch’s new comedy THE DIVINE SISTER will play a limited premiere showcase engagement at Theater for the New City’s Cino Theater (155 First Avenue). The developmental production, directed by Busch’s longtime collaborator Carl Andress (The Third Story; Die, Mommie, Die!) will play a limited engagement of 24 performances from Saturday, February 6 through Sunday, March 7. 

THE DIVINE SISTER is an outrageous comic homage to nearly every Hollywood film involving nuns. Evoking such films as The Song of Bernadette, The Bells of St. Mary’s, The Singing Nun and Agnes of God, THE DIVINE SISTER tells the story of St. Veronica’s indomitable Mother Superior (author Charles Busch) who is determined to build a new school for her Pittsburgh convent. Along the way, she has to deal with a young postulant who is experiencing “visions,” sexual hysteria among her nuns, a sensitive schoolboy in need of mentoring, a mysterious nun visiting from the Mother House in Berlin, and a former suitor intent on luring her away from her vows.  

 This madcap trip through Hollywood religiosity evokes the wildly comic but affectionately observed theatrical style of the creator of Die, Mommie, Die! and Psycho Beach Party. 

 Tickets for THE DIVINE SISTER are on sale via OvationTix.com or by calling 212-352-3101. Tickets are $25.00.  

For more information on THE DIVINE SISTER, join the Facebook fan group: The Divine Sister Onstage.