Change of Habit (1969) on Netflix
G19691h 33mCrimeDramaMusicRomance
Dr. John Carpenter runs a clinic in a poor city neighborhood. Three women join him as helpers, nuns in street clothes, and he does not know. He falls for Sister Michelle Gallagher.
- Netflix1.8/5
- IMDb6.0/102,981 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes10%
Trailer
Plot summary
Three nuns who have not yet made their final vows are sent to a poor city neighborhood to work as lay missionaries, dressed as ordinary women. Their order fears that residents would avoid nuns wearing the full habit. The three reach a clinic run by Dr. John Carpenter, who has no idea who they are. Father Gibbons, the parish priest, objects to them. At the clinic they look after Amanda, a non-verbal autistic girl, and Julio Hernandez, a teenager with a severe stutter. Loiterers harass the women. John falls in love with Sister Michelle Gallagher, and she has feelings for him but is unwilling to leave her order.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Change of Habit (1969)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Elvis Presley was asked by Barbra Streisand to star in her remake of A Star Is Born, but his manager Colonel Tom Parker wanted Presley to get top billing and a $1,000,000 salary before agreeing, so no deal was reached.
- Change of Habit was Elvis Presley's 31st and final film acting role, and the only time in his career he played a professional man.
- Elvis Presley's manager Colonel Tom Parker knew the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' bias against Presley would keep Change of Habit out of Academy Awards contention, and said not to go buying any tuxedoes.
- In Change of Habit, the young autistic character Amanda, played by Lorena Kirk, is believed to be the first portrayal of autism by name in a film.
- The rage reduction therapy scene in Change of Habit, a treatment now considered pseudoscientific, was supervised by Robert Zaslow, known as the father of rage reduction therapy.
- Change of Habit was Mary Tyler Moore's fourth and final film under her Universal Pictures contract; she made no other theatrical film until Ordinary People in 1980.
- The song 'Rubberneckin'', recorded at American, was used in Change of Habit and then issued as the b-side of the RCA single 'Don't Cry Daddy' to tie in with the film's premiere.
