The Bells of St. Mary's

"The Bells of St. Mary's" premiered in December of 1945 and starred Bing Crosby as Father O'Malley and Ingrid Bergman as Sister Benedict, two teachers trying to save their run-down parochial school from the wrecking ball.  Father O'Malley is new to the school and believes in liberal theories of teaching; Sister Benedict, on the other hand, has been instructing at the school for years and believes in firm discipline. One early scene involves the priest introducing himself to the sisters and as he speaks, he's puzzled at why everyone is laughing; a kitten has jumped into his hat sitting on the piano behind him.

Another funny scene involves Sister Benedict, in her habit, training student Eddie in the art of "pugilism", after he was tripped by the school bully.  Father Benedict helps a weaker student named Patsy with her essay, and after some prodding, discovers that her mother and father are estranged; the priest relocates Patsy's dad and brings the couple back together again.

The cutest scene of "The Bells of St. Mary's" occurs at Christmas time.  The Grade 1 class prepares a pageant in which they sing Happy Birthday to baby Jesus, played by the younger sibling of one of the students.  Rather than remaining in the manger, "toddler" Jesus keeps jumping out.

In the meantime, their neighbour, Mr. Bogardus, has built an office building next door and dreams of St. Mary's being torn down so he can build a parking lot.  However, Sister Benedict has been praying that Mr. Bogardus will donate the building to the parish to use as their new school.  The crotchety businessman goes to the doctor who diagnoses him with a bad heart.  What is the prescription?  Give with your heart and it will be full (and healthy).

"The Bells of St. Mary's" received eight Academy Award nominations and became a staple in American cinematography.



Photo courtesy http://cf1.imgobj.com.

Bells of St. Mary's Minutae

Here are ten facts you may not know about the movie "The Bells of St. Mary's", starring Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman.

1.  A priest acted as an off screen adviser during production of the movie, based at a Catholic convent and school.  As a prank, Ingrid Bergman and Bing Crosby share a passionate kiss during the closing scene; the priest roars his disapproval of the kiss, only to find out it wasn't in the script.

2.  "Varvindar Friska", or "Spring Breezes", is a traditional Swedish folk song sung by Ingrid Bergman in the film.

3.  "The Bells of St. Mary's", which earned 3,715,000 at the box office, was RKO's most profitable film ever produced.

4.  Ingrid's Bergman's character, Sister Mary Benedict, purchases Gene Tunney's boxing manual at the sports store to train one of her students who is being harassed by a playground bully.  While Gene Tunney was a true boxer, he never wrote a book called The Art of Boxing.

5.  "The Bells of St. Mary's" served as a sequel to "Going My Way", also starring Bing Crosby as a priest.

6.  Leo McCarey, the movie's director, was inspired to write the script by his aunt, Sister Mary Benedict, who helped build Immaculate Heart Convent in Hollywood.  As Sister Mary in the movie suffered from tuberculosis, real life Sister Mary suffered from typhoid fever, which led to her death.

7.  "The Bells of St. Mary's" is considered a Christmas movie in large part because of the Christian theme and the Christmas play staged by the schoolchildren in which they sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus, complete with a real baby in a basket.

8.  The Pledge of Allegiance did not contain the words "under God" at the time of filming; hence the children did not recite that version.

9.  Many of the theatrical posters for "Bells of St. Mary's" contained shots of Bergman and Crosby in non-clerical garb.

10.  At the 1945 Academy Awards, Leo McCarey won Best Director for "Going my Way" and Bing Crosby won Best Actor.  When Ingrid Bergman went onstage to receive her best actress award for "Gaslight", she said:  "I'm glad I won because tomorrow morning, I start shooting the sequel to "Going My Way", with Bing Crosby and Leo McCarey, and I was afraid that if I didn't have an Oscar, they wouldn't speak to me."

For more information, visit my post "The Bells of St. Mary's" at
http://alinefromlinda.blogspot.ca/2011/12/bells-of-st-marys.html.