Director Domenico Paolella's first foray into the genre, The Nuns of St. Archangel, turns out to be a highly successful effort garnering Italy's Silver Mask award for star Anne Heywood (The Nun of Monza (1969)).

While the film holds true to all the staples of the newly emerging nunsploitation genre -- naughty nuns, sex, nudity, lesbianism, torture and (of course) the Inquisition -- it seems that Paolella is too shy to fully exploit them. The sex scenes could have been more intense, more graphic, the nudity could have been more gratuitous. Even the lesbian scenes were tame and the torture of the Inquisition, while effective, aren't on par with similar scenes from other movies in the genre.

What The Nuns of St. Archangel does have going for it is a very strong story. The movie is serves as a vehicle to criticize the pre-Reformation Church. It reveals how political entanglements, greed for land, and corruption undermined the authority and integrity of the Church.

In the movie the death of the Mother Superior at the convent of St. Archangel creates a void that leads to a power struggle among aristocrats. The position is highly conveted because it comes with the privilege of appointing the rights holder for mining precious gold in the New World. Mother Lavinia (Maria Cumani Quasimodo) temporarily assumes the post as the eldest and highest ranking nun in the convent, but she must fight to keep the position as Mother Giulia (Heywood) and Mother Carmela (Claudia Gravy) petition for the post.

Heywood finds a powerful backer in the aristocrat Don Carlos who knows the Church's weakness -- land! He offers a generous land donation in return for Giulia's appointment. Her rivals are quickly dispatched. Mother Giulia poisons Mother Lavinia. Her "illness" knocks her out of the runing. Mother Carmela's nightly rendevous with her lover, Pietro Lanciani, are exposed, eliminating her from the competition as well.

Her position all but assured, Mother Giulia learns the price of her newfound power. Her backer, Don Carlos wants her niece, a novitiate -- Sister Isabella for his own lustful designs. Once appointed, Giulia delivers Isabella to Don Carlos who tries to rape her, but Isabella has been planning for this. She threatens to reveal his shady dealings and ruin everything. In exchange for her silence, she has Don Carlos use his influence to release her from her vows.

The other nuns don't get off so easily. Mother Giulia's lesbian lover, Sister Chiara (Martine Brochard who also appeared in Prigione di Donne and returns for Paolella's followup to The Nuns of St. Archangel, Story of a Cloistered Nun), feels scorned by Mother Giulia. It seems the Mother Superior has her eye on a new lover, the young novitiate Sister Agnese. Chiara vies for her affection by sending an anonymous letter to the Bishop.

The vicar demands an inquisition. The trial results in a trial in which the nuns are tortured and sentenced to imprisionment. For Mother Giulia, Church officials are faced with a difficult choice. If they admit that appointing her was a mistake, they can spare her life and give her a prison sentence. However, they would have to return the land holdings that bought her that appointment. If they keep the land holdings, she remains Mother Superior, but Church law demands a death sentence for someone of that position.

The Church chooses death and Mother Giulia is forced to drink poison. She protests the hypocrisy of her sentence, "You accuse me of being corrupt and cruel, but am I any more corrupt or cruel than all of you?"

The story is strong enough to hold the interest of any movie goer, not just fans of naughty nun sinema. In fact, nunsploitation fans may be disappointed by the scarcity of gratuitous nudity, sex and torture. The lesbian scenes seem especially tame. The most we see are a few kisses. In the sexiest scene, Mother Giullia undresses Sister Chiara and lovingly caresses and kisses her bare legs. Unfortunately, the scene ends abruptly.

Mother Carmela's nightly romps with Pietro provide the film with its only other source of titilation. In the X-Rated Kult DVD version available from HK Flix, the scene where Sister Chiara wraps a belt of thorns about her nude body is cut (but it's included in the special features as a deleted scene).

The critical and box office success of The Nuns of St. Archangel led Domenico Paolella to hastily get to work on a followup naughty nun film -- Story of a Cloistered Nun. Anne Heywood refused to return as the star, perhaps tired of naughty nun roles or maybe she was afraid of becoming typecast. Paolella's second choice was noneother than Joan Collins. No stranger to naughty nun sinema, having previously starred in The Sea Wife (1956), Collins turned down the role. (She would later play a non-nun role in 1975's I Don't Want to be Born. Eileen Atkins would don the habit for that film.) Paolella would finally go with Catherine Spaak as his lead.

While there is much more (and better quality) nudity in Story of a Cloistered Nun, the story gets even more convoluted with more confusing political twists and turns. Despite this, both films are strong enteries into the nunsploitation genre. The Nuns of St. Archangel is definitely worth having for the appearance of Anne Heywood alone.