The North Avenue Irregulars (G)
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This came out in 1979, and I first saw it sometime in the 80s on The Wonderful World of Disney. I'm reviewing it after watching it for probably only the second time, in 2024. I guess it's vaguely based on a true story, but I don't expect it's close enough to reality to file it in my "based on a true story" category of reviews. And though it's rated G, I don't quite feel like calling it a "family film", either. So I'm just going with "comedy".

Reverend Michael Hill (Edward Herrmann) and his two children, Carmel and Dean, move to the fictional town of New Campton. Hill wants to get his parishioners more active in the church, and assigns an old woman named Rose Rafferty to take charge of the church's sinking fund. Her husband, Delaney, bets all the money in the fund on a horse race, and loses. After that, Hill talks about organized crime on a TV broadcast, which gets the attention of a pair of agents of the Treasury Department, Marv Fogleman and Tom Voories. They approach Hill and ask him to get some of the men in his church to take part in an undercover operation to put a stop to the illegal gambling, but no men agree to help. Instead, Hill gets five women to do it: Mrs. Rafferty, Cleo, Vickie, Jane, and Claire (Cloris Leachman). Delaney also gets involved, because his wife can't drive. The church secretary, Anne Woods, wants nothing to do with the operation, and eventually quits her job and reports Hill to the Presbyterian governing council. Aside from Hill's efforts to stop crime, he recruits a garage band called Strawberry Shortcake to liven up the church's choir.

I don't want to spoil any more of the plot, except to say that Anne eventually changes her mind and helps the other women track the guy who delivers gambling money to the mob's "bank". And of course, there is a happy ending. The movie is a bit nostalgic to me, because I've always remembered at least a few details. So it was nice to see it again. The whole thing is absolutely ridiculous, but reasonably amusing. Not a great movie, but I think it's fairly fun.