Themes: Members of the Clergy, Sibling Relationships
Main Cast: Tom Tryon, Carol Lynley, Dorothy Gish, Romy Schneider, John Huston, Maggie McNamara, Raf Vallone
Release Year: 1963
Country: US
Run Time: 180 minutes
Plot
Tom Tryon plays the title role in this Otto Preminger version of the Henry Morton Robinson novel. In his matriculation from Monsignor to the College of Cardinals, Stephen Fermoyle (Tom Tryon) must undergo several grueling life experiences: standing up to bigots in Georgia, defying Nazis in Austria, and so on. The film boasts cameo appearances by Dorothy Gish, Cecil Kellaway, John Saxon, John Huston, Robert Morse, Burgess Meredith, Raf Vallone, Ossie Davis. Incidentally, Tryon eventually quit acting and became a popular novelist. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Cameron Prud'Homme - Din; John Saxon - Benny Rampell; Cecil Kellaway - Monsignor Monaghan; Loring Smith - Cornelius J. Deegan; Jose Duvall - Ramon Gongaro; Peter MacLean - Father Callahan; Robert Morse - Bobby and His Adora-Belles; Pat Henning - Hercule Menton; Burgess Meredith - Father Ned Halley; Jill Haworth - Lalage Menton; Russ Brown - Dr. Heller; Ossie Davis - Father Gillis; Donald Hayne - Father Eberling; Chill Wills - Monsignor Whittle; Arthur Hunnicutt - Sheriff Dubrow; Doro Merande - Woman Picket; Patrick O'Neal - Cecil Turner; Murray Hamilton - Lafe; Peter Weck - Kurt von Hartman; Tullio Carminatti - Cardinal Giacobbi; Vilma Degischer - Sister Wilhelmina; Rudolph Foster - Drunk Man at the Ball; Matthias Fuchs - Father Neidermoser; Billie Hayes - Frank; Joseph Meinrad - Cardinal Innitzer; Wolfgang Preiss - S.S. Major; Dino DiLuca - Italian Monsignor; Eric Frey - Seyss-Inquart
Credit
Buddy Schwab - Choreography, Donald Brooks - Costume Designer, Otto Preminger - Director, Louis Loeffler - Editor, Jerome Moross - Composer (Music Score), Lyle Wheeler - Production Designer, Leon Shamroy - Cinematographer, Otto Preminger - Producer, Robert Dozier - Screenwriter, Elfi von Dassanowsky - Voice Director, Henry Morton Robinson - Book Author
Robinson's original 1950 novel was based on the life of Cardinal Francis Spellman, who was then archbishop of New York. The Vatican's liaison officer for the film was Joseph Ratzinger, later to become Pope Benedict XVI.
The film shows the life of a fictional Irish American, Roman Catholicpriest, Stephen Fermoyle, played by Tom Tryon, from his ordination in 1917 to his appointment as a cardinal on the eve of World War II. Fermoyle goes through one crisis after another, first in his own family and then as he climbs up the ladder of the church hierarchy back in his Boston parish and later in Rome within the Vatican. The film touches on various social issues such as interfaith marriage, sex outside of marriage, abortion, racial bigotry, the rise of fascism, and war.
