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Well, not every Catholic girl's school would be the mother house of the order (as St. Francis was), but it's not unusual such a school would produce graduates who wanted to become nuns.

Mary's decision to join the convent was even more unexpected in the book; the film, I think, provided more evidence of her growing interest in the cloistered life.

Yeah. Actually I know people who have done that before.

This shows up also in Brides of Christ (Australia miniseries 1991), http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101053/, although in the end Brigid backs out on her decision.

Also, this shows up in Antonia White's novel Frost in May, http://www.librarything.com/work/18709, the first in her "Frost in May Quartet," which was made into a BBC miniseries in 1982, which I've never seen and which unfortunately seems never to have been released in video.

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http://www.librarything.com/profile/CurrerBell

Was common in the context of the time. Everyone looks for a place to "fit." Mary, in the film, as an orphan, really had more of a context to look for a place to fit. By the mid-sixties, things had changed, but in previous generastions, for women who wanted something out of the mold, there were not many options. In the 40s and 50s for exmaple, the number of women PhDs in the US were disproporionaltely Catholic nuns. Look at the largest system of schools, unvieristies, and health care ever created by women: nuns. Those in leadership positions were true trialblazers.