Thunder on the Hill

pirateneckbeard3.0

"Never burn a paper never throwaway a string" So this has a lot of turmoil going on in this covenant with housing stormed out citizens and housing the sick with the hospital crew(and some with dubious bedside manner) away from the nearest town. In this story we have a nun contending with a lot of difficult patrons (the nurse maybe being the worst) but we also get her involved with a murderer and as shocking as lightening it's a woman who is condemned to death with only a reprieve due to weather but in this storm stirs intrigue and a questionable conviction so leave it to our lead Sister Mary Bonaventure(Claudette Colbert) sanctimoniously to lead a hiding discourse to find out the each different stepping stone that leads to a slippery moss covered narrative in which she quickly exceeds her precious steps. All in all it is a little soft at the beginning but I have to say it ramps up by the end and has me equally chuckling and charmed. So is it worth it? Well it looks good with it's dark cathedral setting but it does get pretty heavy handed at times but I admired it dancing around on the actual guilty culprit so if you are into a religious noir this is more than serviceable even if it lays it on heavy but honestly that shouldn't be surprising coming from Douglas Sirk. "There were bells on a hillBut I never heard them ringingNo, I never heard them at all'Til there was you"

Penny_S5.0

Nunvember 2025film 15Ok this is a Nun-noir, & no one can convince me otherwise! As a fashionably late entry for Nunvember (in Nuncember), I’m also counting it as a bonus for Noirvember!Also the film is great, way better than I could have hoped. Claudette Colbert is Sister Mary, a headstrong Nun on a mission from God to help convicted murderess Valerie Carns (played by Ann Blyth), who she believes has been wrongfully accused. The plot has much more depth, but that’s the gist. The film looks amazing, all the things - sets, cinematography, costumes… plus the story is well written, & I kind of guessed maybe whodunit but not completely & definitely not the reasons why. I 5-stars enjoyed this… it’s underrated on Letterboxd for sure!!!

Jack Often4.0

Nuns, a murder mystery and Douglas Sirk; beloved ingredients whipped together. I couldn't help eating it up with a spoon despite its many obvious flaws. The whole production is not as moody as it should be. The dialogue is much too rushed and the shooting is too TV-like, (with the exception of the beautiful trip across the lake.) It needs more grotesque villagers, muddy filth, dark shadows and contrast. Claudette Colbert's nun is too wholesome, she should have been more abrasive and haughty. As it stands it doesn't make any sense that everyone is so openly rude to her and fed up with her bullshit. Colbert made the same miscalculation in her later years in The Two Mrs. Grenvilles; maybe she was just not willing to be unlikable even when it was called for. (Though I don't know that Joan Fontaine, who was originally slated for the part before bowing out due to an unexpected pregnancy, would have done things much differently.) Also, the murderer's identity is obvious within the first half hour of the film. The only suspense lies in how things will play out.But putting all that aside, I love the story, it's my kind of ham and cheese. Give me a convent full of nuns solving a mystery any day of the week. And I love how unhinged Ann Blyth is from the second she appears on the screen, tossing her bowl of onion soup into the fireplace and telling all the nuns to fuck off. I loved seeing Norah Muldoon (Connie Gilchrist) in a big meaty part. I loved her collection of newspapers and string, and the adorable device of searching for the right edition of the paper by when she had done her fruit canning. Additionally, Anne Crawford, Gladys Cooper and Phyllis Stanley were all a treat. Sirk could direct the hell out of female character parts, wringing maximum angst out of every interaction, and he certainly did so here despite Colbert's reluctance to play along. So while I can recognize that this isn't Magnificent Obsession or even Shockproof, for me it was a little slice of heaven.