Sister Act

Sister Act is a 1992 American comedy film released by Touchstone Pictures. Directed by Emile Ardolino, it features musical arrangements by Marc Shaiman and stars Whoopi Goldberg as a Reno lounge singer who has been put under protective custody in a San Francisco convent of Poor Clares and has to pretend to be a nun when a mob boss puts her on his hit list. Also in the cast are Maggie Smith, Kathy Najimy, Wendy Makkena, Mary Wickes, and Harvey Keitel.

The film was followed by a 1993 sequel, Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit. It also inspired the musical Sister Act that premiered at the Pasadena Playhouse in Pasadena, California in 2006, and opened at the West End's London Palladium with previews from May 7, 2009. The musical then opened on Broadway at the Broadway Theatre in April 2011, with previews beginning March 24, 2011.

Sister Act was one of the most financially successful comedies of the early 1990s, and was rated #83 on Bravo's The 100 Funniest Movies list.

Plot

The film opens in 1968 at St. Anne's Academy, a California Roman Catholic school, where a young girl named Deloris Wilson is scolded by Sister Immaculata (Lois de Banzie) for wisecracking and disobedience. The setting then changes to the present day, where Deloris Van Cartier is a lounge singer in a 1960s-themed act called The Ronelles (a parody of The Ronettes), who sing at The Moonlite Lounge of the Nevada Club in Reno, Nevada, run by her boyfriend, the mobster Vince LaRocca. After Deloris walks in on Vince having his chauffeur Ernie executed for betrayal, Vince orders his two henchmen Joey and Willy to kill her as well. Deloris flees Vince's casino to the local police station where Lieutenant Eddie Souther suggests she testify against Vince if he can be arrested and tried, but for now, she should go into witness protection until the time comes.

Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit

Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit is a 1993 American comedy film loosely based on the life of Crenshaw High School choir instructor Iris Stevenson, and starring Whoopi Goldberg. Directed by Bill Duke, and released by Touchstone Pictures, it is the sequel to the successful 1992 film Sister Act. Most of the original cast reprise their roles in the sequel, including Maggie Smith, Kathy Najimy, Wendy Makkena, and Mary Wickes.

Plot

Sisters Mary Patrick, (Kathy Najimy), Mary Robert (Wendy Makkena), and Mary Lazarus (Mary Wickes) attend the final performance of Deloris van Cartier (Whoopi Goldberg) at a Las Vegas theater, depicting her escapades at the nuns' convent in the previous film. Afterwards, the Sisters ask Deloris for her assistance once again. Reuniting with Reverend Mother, (Maggie Smith) Deloris learns the nuns now work as teachers at St. Francis Academy in San Francisco, a school Deloris herself had attended, which is facing closure if the administrator Mr. Crisp (James Coburn) convinces the local diocese to agree. Deloris agrees to help teach the music class, once again taking on her persona as Sister Mary Clarence. She meets the monks who also work at the school, including principal Father Maurice (Barnard Hughes), math teacher Father Ignatius (Michael Jeter), grouchy Latin teacher Father Thomas (Brad Sullivan), and the cook Father Wolfgang (Thomas Gottschalk).

Whoopi Goldberg

Caryn Elaine Johnson (born November 13, 1955), better known by her stage name Whoopi Goldberg (/ˈhwʊpi/), is an American actress, comedian, and television host. She has been nominated for 13 Emmy Awards for her work in television, and is one of the few entertainers who has won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award. She was the second black woman in the history of the Academy Awards to win an acting Oscar.

Her breakthrough role was playing Celie, a mistreated black woman in the Deep South in the period drama film The Color Purple (1985), for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Goldberg played Oda Mae Brown, an eccentric psychic helping a slain man (Patrick Swayze) save his lover (Demi Moore), in the romantic fantasy film Ghost (1990), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She was co-producer of the television game show Hollywood Squares from 1998 to 2002. She has been the moderator of the daytime television talk show The View since 2007.

Sister

A sister is the female offspring of one's parent.

Overview

The term sister comes from Old Norse systir which itself derives from Proto-Germanic *swestēr, both of whom have the same meaning, i.e. sister. Some studies have found that sisters display more traits indicating jealousy around their siblings than their male counterparts, brothers. In some cultures, sisters are afforded a role of being under the protection by male siblings, especially older brothers from issues ranging from bullies or sexual advances by womanizers.

Studies

Various studies have shown that an older sister is likely to give a varied gender role to their younger siblings as well as being more likely to develop a close bond with their younger siblings. Older sisters are more likely to play with their younger siblings. Younger siblings display a more needy behavior when in close proximity to their older sister and are more likely to be tolerant of an older sisters bad behavior. Boys with only an older sister are more likely to display stereotypically male behavior, and such masculine boys increased their masculine behavior with the more sisters they have. The reverse is true for young boys with several sisters, as they tend to be feminine, however they outgrow this by the time they approach pubescence. Boys with older sisters were less likely to be delinquent or have Emotional and behavioral disorders. A younger sister is less likely to be scolded by older siblings than a younger brother. The most common recreational activity between older brother/younger sister pairs was art drawing. Some studies also found a correlation between having an older sister and constructive discussions about safe sexual practises.

Oh Happy Day

"Oh Happy Day" is a 1967 gospel music arrangement of an 18th-century hymn. Recorded by the Edwin Hawkins Singers, it became an international hit in 1969, reaching No. 4 in the US, No. 1 in France and Germany and No. 2 in both the UK singles chart and Irish Singles Chart. It has since become a gospel music standard.

The recording is notable for the muted piano, drum and bass backing and the dominant use of the left-hand stereo channel which features the performance of lead singer, Dorothy Morrison.

Origins

Edwin Hawkins’ gospel style arrangement of the hymn "Oh, Happy Day" has a long pedigree: It began as a hymn written in the mid-18th century ("O happy day, that fixed my choice") by English clergyman Philip Doddridge (based on Acts 8:35) set to an earlier melody (1704) by J. A. Freylinghausen. By the mid-19th century it had been given a new melody by Edward F. Rimbault, who also added a chorus, and was commonly used for baptismal or confirmation ceremonies in the UK and USA. The 20th century saw its adaptation from 3/4 to 4/4 time and this new arrangement by Hawkins, which contains only the repeated Rimbault refrain, with all of the original verses being omitted.