Nasty Habits

This buried treasure may very well go down in history as the film with the highest concentration of great actresses. Set in an abbey in Philadelphia, this goof on the Watergate scandal stars Glenda Jackson as wily nun bent on becoming abbess at any cost and that includes performing a lot of dirty tricks. She's the Nixon figure and Geraldine Page & Anne Jackson are her Haldeman and Ehrlichman. They're priceless as they try one crackpot scheme after another to ensure the ruin of young upstart nun Susan Penhaligon. Sandy Dennis (looking very much like John Dean) nearly steals the film as a dim-witted nincompoop and Melina Mercouri is the Kissinger figure, a world traveling nun espousing sound advice from all over the place. Expertly paced by director Michael Lindsay-Hogg and featuring a very witty script by Robert Enders (from a book by Muriel Spark). The large cast also includes Anne Meara, Edith Evans, Jerry Stiller, Rip Torn and a very funny Eli Wallach.

It may not be perfect not for a long shot but, it is based on a Muriel Spark novel as a sort of parody for Watergate but instead of The White House in Washington Dc, we have an Abbey in Philadelphia. The pleasures that the film offers are mostly centered on a cast of extraordinary actresses from different parts of the world and from different schools of acting. Glenda Jackson plays the Nixonian Abbess and Glenda Jackson now in 2018 is making a phenomenal return to acting after 25 years of total commitment to her Country as a vociferous Member of Parliament. Last years he gave us a stage rendition of King Lear that by all accounts it was magnificent and at the moment she's on Broadway at 81 years of age in Edward Albee's Three Tall Women. I found her performance in Nasty Habits devoid of tricks or frills, spot on and a lot of fun to watch. Asif all this wasn't enough, Geraldine Page, Melina Mercouri, Sandy Dennis even Edith Evans. They alone make this movie compulsive viewing.