The Bells of St. Mary's
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| The Bells of St. Mary's | |
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 original film poster |
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| Directed by | Leo McCarey |
| Produced by | Leo McCarey |
| Written by | Leo McCarey Dudley Nichols |
| Starring | Ingrid Bergman Bing Crosby |
| Music by | Robert Emmett Dolan |
| Cinematography | George Barnes |
| Distributed by | Rainbow Productions Release, RKO Radio Pictures |
| Release date(s) | 1945 |
| Running time | 126 min. |
| IMDb profile | |
The Bells of St. Mary's is a 1945 film which tells the story of a priest and a nun at a school who set out, despite their good-natured rivalry, to save the school from being shut down. It stars Bing Crosby, Ingrid Bergman, Henry Travers, William Gargan, Ruth Donnelly, Joan Carroll, Martha Sleeper, Rhys Williams, Richard Tyler and Una O'Connor.
The movie was written by Leo McCarey and Dudley Nichols, and directed by McCarey.
It won the Academy Award for Best Sound, Recording, and was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Bing Crosby), Best Actress in a Leading Role (Ingrid Bergman), Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture, Best Music, Song (for Jimmy Van Heusen (music) and Johnny Burke (lyrics) for "Aren't You Glad You're You") and Best Picture.
The character of Father Chuck O'Malley had been previously portrayed by Bing Crosby in the 1944 film Going My Way (for which Crosby had won the Academy Award for Best Actor).
The Bells of St. Mary's was remade for television in 1959, starring Claudette Colbert, Marc Connelly, Glenda Farrell, Nancy Marchand, Barbara Myers, Robert Preston and Charles Ruggles. It was directed by Tom Donovan.
The film has come to be commonly associated with the Christmas season, due most likely to the inclusion of a scene involving a holiday pageant at the school.
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[edit] Plot
The movie follows St. Mary's new pastor, Father Chuck O'Malley (Bing Crosby), who often finds himself at odds with Sister Benedict (Ingrid Bergman), the nun who oversees and teaches at the school. Their ups and downs play out in relation to two students: a boy (Dickie Tyler) who is being bullied (Sister Benedict teaches him how to box and defend himself), and a troubled girl (Joan Carroll) whose parents long ago separated (Father O'Malley attempts to reconcile the parents). The rundown school is in need of a new building — in fact, the school is fighting to stay open — and the nuns have their eyes on a modern new office building going up next door, hoping its owner, the crotchety Horace P. Bogardus (Henry Travers), will see the light and donate it as their new teaching facility. Meanwhile, Sister Benedict's deteriorating health leads to complications between her and O'Malley.
[edit] Radio adaptations
There were two radio adaptations of The Bells of St. Mary's on The Screen Guild Theater radio program. Both starred Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman. They were broadcast on August 26, 1946 and October 6, 1947.
[edit] Trivia
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- Going My Way was the prequel story-wise to "Bells of St. Mary's". Both films were nominated and won Best Picture at the Academy Awards in their respective years, the first story and sequel movies in hollywood history to be nominated and win Best Picture, preceding future franchizes such as The Lord of the Rings Trilogy to each be nominated.
- In the film It's a Wonderful Life, the cinema that George Bailey (James Stewart) runs past in the penultimate scene is showing The Bells of St. Mary's. The actor Henry Travers starred in both of these films in which he wore the same rumpled overcoat and crushed fedora.
- In The Godfather, Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) and Kay Adams (Diane Keaton) are at the cinema watching this film when Michael's father Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando), is gunned down. Later Kay asks Michael if he would like her better if she were a nun, than if she were Ingrid Bergman.
- This movie is shown in The Magdalene Sisters film.
[edit] References
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