Video/DVD Review: The Bells of St. Mary's
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What Parents Should Know
Parents need to know that nostalgic guardians will enjoy
sharing this one with their children. But parents should be on
hand to field a few delicate questions, such as whether it's
ever okay to lie to protect someone, and vague allusions to a
single mother's fall from respectability. This is a great film
for the whole family to curl up to on a rainy day. Teens who
are fans of old classics or light musicals will be happy to
have this one in their collection.
Families can talk about whether it's okay to lie to protect
someone, or whether it's every okay to pester an old man into
donating to a worthy cause.
In this moving classic, run-down, overcrowded St. Mary's has a new pastor, Father Chuck O'Malley (Bing Crosby), whose views on how to run a parochial school give Sister Benedict (Ingrid Bergman) a thing or two to think about. The two of them put their differing methods to the same task: saving the school. That salvation comes in the improbable shape of Horace P. Bogardus, a building owner who needs but a few suggestive nudges to awaken the joy of giving in his ailing heart.
THE BELLS OF ST. MARY'S isn't so much about a pair of Catholic do-gooders trying to save their beloved parochial school as it's about the rapport between Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman. That rapport, which alone is enough to overcome the tired plot, got the two stars Oscar nominations for their performances.
This time around Crosby plays Father O'Malley a bit softer, more quietly subversive, than he did in Going My Way. Why, 40 minutes of movie time pass before he sidles up to a piano and starts crooning. The repentant way he glances heavenward after telling a fib is priceless. That Bergman can look angelic even while coaching a boy on how to box is a testament not only to her screen presence, but to the talents of George Barnes, whose black-and-white camera work also did wonders for her in Hitchcock's Spellbound that same year. You believe she's a sister superior just by the way he makes light fall across her.
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