Main Cast: Bing Crosby, Ingrid Bergman, Henry Travers, Ruth Donnelly, William Gargan, Rhys Williams
Release Year: 1945
Country: US
Run Time: 126 minutes
MPAA Rating: NR
Plot
In this follow-up to director Leo McCarey's Going My Way (1944), Bing Crosby repeats his Oscar-winning characterization of happy-go-lucky priest Father O'Malley. The good father is sent to help out financially strapped St. Mary's Academy, a parochial school presided over by lovely nun Sister Benedict (Ingrid Bergman). The film is constructed in anecdotal fashion: Nun and priest gently quarrel over teaching methods; they help patch up the tottering marriage of William Gargan and Martha Sleeper; Sister Benedict plays baseball and teaches a student how to box; Father O'Malley softens the heart of the man who holds the mortgage (Henry Travers) by convincing the poor fellow that he's only got a few months to live; and the kids of St. Mary's put on a much-revised stage version of the Nativity, complete with a chorus of "Happy Birthday" on the occasion of the Virgin Birth. A huge hit at the box office, Bells of St. Mary's was nominated for nine Academy Awards. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
After making the popular and lovable Going My Way with Bing Crosby as a priest, director Leo McCarey got letters suggesting that he make a movie humanizing the ladies of the cloth as well. So he decided to make a sequel, with Crosby's counterpoint this time a nun. The film was The Bells of St. Mary's, and the sister was Ingrid Bergman, at the peak of her popularity. The dynamic between Bergman and Crosby was light and sweet, and McCarey -- one of the originals of movie comedy -- keeps everything fresh, fun, and sentimental. While Going My Way had won seven Oscars the year before, The Bells of St Mary's won just one (for best sound) despite eight nominations. Bergman, lovely as always, had deservedly won her Oscar the year before in Gaslight. In just five short years, she would be a pariah in Hollywood, following her notorious affair with Italian director Roberto Rossellini. Following a string of quality movies and high output, McCarey's career would taper off after St. Mary's. He directed only five movies in the next seventeen years, most notably An Affair to Remember in 1957 (which was actually a scene for scene remake of his own Love Affair). Crosby made at least four dozen movies in the next three decades, but he rarely, if at all, achieved the sort of popularity that he had playing Father O'Malley. ~ Brendon Hanley, All Movie Guide
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 and Ingrid Bergman. The character of Father O'Malley had been previously portrayed by Crosby in the 1944 film Going My Way, for which Crosby had won the Academy Award for Best Actor.
The film was written by Leo McCarey and Dudley Nichols, and directed by McCarey. The film was produced by McCarey's production company, Rainbow Productions.
The film has come to be commonly associated with the Christmas season, due most likely to the inclusion of a scene involving a Christmas pageant at the school, and the fact that the film was released in December of 1945.
Father Chuck O'Malley, the unconventional priest from Going My Way, continues his work for the Catholic Church. This time he is assigned to St. Mary's, a run-down inner-city Catholic school on the verge of condemnation. O'Malley feels the school should be closed and the children sent to another school with modern facilities, but the sisters feel that God will provide for them. They put their hopes in Horace P. Bogardus, a businessman who has built a modern building next door to the school and which they hope he will donate to them. Father O'Malley and the dedicated but stubborn Sister Mary Benedict have to work together to save the school, though their different views and methods often lead to good-natured disagreements. Towards the end, however, Sister Benedict contracts tuberculosis, and is transferred out without being told this is because she has TB. She assumes the transfer is because of her disagreements with O'Malley. In the end, O'Malley informs her that indeed, she does have TB, and that just her illness (not O'Malley making complaints to her superiors) is sending her away from the school. She leaves willingly and happily.
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.
