Change of Habit (1969)

Directed by

William A. Graham

Genre

drama film, musical film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 33m

Rated

G

Rating

5.4 of 10 from 29 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

Three nuns preparing to take their final vows are sent to work in a clinic in a tough inner city neighborhood. They dress as regular people and help a young doctor. The doctor falls in love with one of them.

earnestdatedmildly tenseromanticsentimentalgentlemusicalurban

What happens

Change of Habit is a 1969 American crime drama musical film directed by William A. Graham, and starring Elvis Presley and Mary Tyler Moore. Written by James Lee, S.S. Schweitzer, and Eric Bercovici, based on a story by John Joseph and Richard Morris, the film is about three Catholic nuns, preparing for their final vows, who are sent to a rough inner city neighborhood dressed as lay missionaries to work at a clinic run by John Carpenter, a young doctor. Their lives become complicated by the realities they face in the inner city, and by Carpenter who falls in love with Sister Michelle Gallagher, one of the nuns. The film was produced by Joe Connelly for NBC Productions and distributed by Universal Pictures. Filmed on location in the Los Angeles area and at Universal Studios during March and April 1969, Change of Habit was released in the United States on November 10, 1969. It spent four weeks on the Variety Box Office Survey and peaked at #17 among the year's highest-grossing films. Change of Habit was Elvis Presley's 31st and final film acting role and stars as a professional man for the only time in his career. There was interest in this film being a major Academy Awards contender, but Presley's manager Colonel Tom Parker knew the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' bias against Presley ensured it was not considered. He famously said "Don't go buying no tuxedoes." Change of Habit is considered to be among Presley's best films and it has been praised for how it dealt with inner city problems in ways that had never been seen in a Hollywood film. It was also the first Hollywood film to deal with autism. Presley's remaining film appearances were in concert documentaries, although he was working on the film The New Gladiators at the time of his death. This film was Mary Tyler Moore's fourth and final film under her Universal Pictures contract; she did not appear in another theatrical movie until Ordinary People in 1980. Moore and Edward Asner, who also appears in the film playing police officer Lt. Moretti, went on to star in The Mary Tyler Moore Show, which premiered in September of the following year. In this film, however, Moore and Asner shared no scenes together. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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