The Runner Stumbles

The Runner Stumbles is a 1979 film directed and produced by Stanley Kramer, based on the Broadway play by Milan Stitt. The film was the last of Kramers long and distinguished career. It stars Dick Van Dyke, Kathleen Quinlan, Maureen Stapleton, Tammy Grimes, Beau Bridges, and Ray Bolger.

The original play and film are both inspired by the August 1907 murder of Sr. Mary Janina Mezek, a Polishborn nun of the Felician Sisters. In December 1918, Sister Janinas bones were reexhumed from a shallow grave underneath the parish church in Isadore, Michigan. The former parish priest, Father Andrew Bieniawski, was rumored to be having an affair with Sr. Janina and of being the father of her unborn child. However, he was found to have an ironclad alibi of fishing on Lake Michigan. This, and his frantic attempts to find Sr. Janina for years after her disappearance, caused Fr. Bieniawski to be ruled out as a suspect. While being held at the Leelanau County Jail, Fr. Bieniawskis elderly housekeeper, Stanislawa Lipczynska, confessed to having repeatedly bludgeoned Sr. Janina with a garden spade before burying her alive under the church. During her subsequent trial, numerous Isadore residents testified how Mrs. Lipczynska had referred to the Felician Sisters as priests wives and whores. Mrs. Lipczynska was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.The play received a wellreviewed remount by Retro Productions in 2011 which moved OffBroadway in 2012. ........

Source: Wikipedia