Nasty Habits

The appeal of this adaptation of Muriel Spark's novel The Abbess of Crewe rests precariously upon one slim idea: resetting Watergate in a nunnery. Once the initial idea has been planted - Glenda Jackson out to get elected abbess at all costs - the audience is made to look awfully hard for laughs. The 'political' gags, like Mercouri's Kissinger-type roving nun, are often abysmal (only Sandy Dennis' impersonation of John Dean deserves to escape criticism); and with increasing desperation, the humour depends on the nuns' monotonous displays of venal ways (smoking, swearing, boozing, even shacking up with the Jesuits down the road). It's all terribly predictable and tame.