‘Sister Act’

Graced with a clever script, a cast that will make you smile until you ache, and a snappy sense of pace, this summer ’92 hit is the funniest by-the-numbers comedy in who knows how long. The engine that drives “Sister Act” from start to finish is Whoopi Goldberg, irascible mistress of the double take. She’s the lead singer in the most marginal of Reno lounges, the frustrated lover of a Reno gangster (an amusing Harvey Keitel) and feeling fed up when she accidentally witnesses a major crime. Where to hide Whoopi until she can testify? A small cloistered community of Carmelite sisters in San Francisco, of course (Showtime Wednesday at noon and 8 p.m.).