{"id":28909,"date":"2012-12-04T11:02:17","date_gmt":"2012-12-04T18:02:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=28909"},"modified":"2021-01-09T16:08:26","modified_gmt":"2021-01-09T23:08:26","slug":"bells-of-st-marys-the-1945","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=28909","title":{"rendered":"Bells of St. Mary&#8217;s, The (1945)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;It looks like St. Mary&#8217;s is in a bad way.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Bells-of-St-Marys-Poster-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Bells-of-St-Marys-Poster-1-195x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"195\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-62541\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Bells-of-St-Marys-Poster-1-195x300.jpg 195w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Bells-of-St-Marys-Poster-1-83x128.jpg 83w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Bells-of-St-Marys-Poster-1-176x270.jpg 176w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Bells-of-St-Marys-Poster-1.jpg 492w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 195px) 100vw, 195px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nWhen sent to help manage the inner city school of St. Mary&#8217;s, Father O&#8217;Malley (Bing Crosby) clashes on certain issues with the school&#8217;s director, Sister Benedict (Ingrid Bergman). However, they both want the best for their students, and work hard to convince a stingy local businessman (Henry Travers) to donate his new building to the school.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Bing Crosby Films<\/li>\n<li>Ingrid Bergman Films<\/li>\n<li>Leo McCarey Films<\/li>\n<li>Nuns<\/li>\n<li>Priests and Ministers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Response to Peary\u2019s Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nPeary argues that while this &#8220;sentimental sequel&#8221; to Leo McCarey&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=12180\"><em>Going My Way<\/em> (1944)<\/a> &#8220;doesn&#8217;t reach the glorious heights of the original&#8221;, it &#8220;improves with repeated viewings and certainly deserves its status as a Christmas perennial.&#8221; He concedes that &#8220;the story is a bit flimsy, the con-man tactics of Crosby and Bergman are a bit disturbing, and there are a couple of ludicrous plot twists&#8230; that were designed solely to manipulate viewers into shedding tears&#8221; &#8212; but he posits that &#8220;the picture is ultimately heartwarming&#8221;, and that &#8220;the pairing of Crosby and Bergman works like a charm&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p>The fact that this dated, overly sentimental film still remains of interest at all rests solely on the capable shoulders of Bergman, who, &#8220;more beautiful than ever &#8212; whether teaching a young boy to box or just reacting to good news from Crosby or Travers &#8212; is simply magnificent&#8221;. Her performance is head-and-shoulders above the material she&#8217;s given to work with, which unfortunately simply involves more of the cloying do-gooder vignettes evidenced in <em>Going My Way<\/em>. Here, Crosby and Bergman are committed (in different ways) to helping the teenage daughter (Joan Carroll) of a &#8220;single mother&#8221; (Martha Sleeper) whose musician-husband (William Gargan) walked out on them years earlier; will Crosby locate said &#8220;missing father&#8221;, and help facilitate an unrealistically happy reunion? What do <em>you<\/em> think? Meanwhile, the entire subplot revolving around Travers&#8217; sudden change of heart simply defies belief. Regardless, film fanatics may want to check this one out once, simply for Bergman. She&#8217;s marvelous. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Ingrid Bergman as Sister Benedict<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Bells-of-St-Marys-Boxing-1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Bells-of-St-Marys-Boxing-1-1024x576.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-62542\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Bells-of-St-Marys-Boxing-1-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Bells-of-St-Marys-Boxing-1-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Bells-of-St-Marys-Boxing-1-128x72.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Bells-of-St-Marys-Boxing-1-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Bells-of-St-Marys-Boxing-1-1536x864.png 1536w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Bells-of-St-Marys-Boxing-1-480x270.png 480w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Bells-of-St-Marys-Boxing-1.png 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo, though it&#8217;s worth a look for Bergman&#8217;s performance. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0037536\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.combustiblecelluloid.com\/classic\/bellsmarys.shtml\">Combustible Celluloid Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tcm.com\/tcmdb\/title\/24072\/the-bells-of-st-marys#articles-reviews?articleId=12793\">TCM Article<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;It looks like St. Mary&#8217;s is in a bad way.&#8221; Synopsis: When sent to help manage the inner city school of St. Mary&#8217;s, Father O&#8217;Malley (Bing Crosby) clashes on certain issues with the school&#8217;s director, Sister Benedict (Ingrid Bergman). However, they both want the best for their students, and work hard to convince a stingy local businessman (Henry Travers) to donate his new building to the school. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Bing Crosby Films Ingrid Bergman Films Leo McCarey&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=28909\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-responses-to-peary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28909"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62545,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28909\/revisions\/62545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}