The Assistant Pastor of St. Luke's Parish wrote a review of The Bells of St. Mary's for the October 14, 1945 PYC Monthly. This is interesting, since the film's release was in December, 1945. Father Tomiak had not yet seen the film himself, and was evidently looking forward to it.
It helps, in making sense of this review, to realize that "the writer" is Fr. Tomiak referencing himself; "Fr. Early" is a colleague who viewed a pre-release screening and wrote up a review of it; "Father O'Malley" is the Bing Crosby character.
The anecdote about stealing an Oscar is Early relating a secondhand story; the anecdote about Manny the projection operator is Early relating a first-hand story.
It helps, in making sense of this review, to realize that "the writer" is Fr. Tomiak referencing himself; "Fr. Early" is a colleague who viewed a pre-release screening and wrote up a review of it; "Father O'Malley" is the Bing Crosby character.
The anecdote about stealing an Oscar is Early relating a secondhand story; the anecdote about Manny the projection operator is Early relating a first-hand story.
I invite readers to send up their own remarks on this famous, indeed iconic, American movie. Here are mine:
1. With no intent to detract or distract from the salient points in the Tomiak/Early review, I have to state for the planetary record that I found it revolting the way the screenwriters dragged out the guilting process whereby Sister Benedict guilted and schmoozed an American businessman into donating an entire building to her project. They made the camera linger on his reluctance to part with any of his wealth. That is a smear. Americans, including the wealthiest, are generous people - and often they are quietly generous, anonymous donors.
2. It's hilarious - most of the time - to read accounts of American moviegoers coming to think of Ingrid Bergman as Sister Benedict. Apparently they did this by the million, idolizing her as Sister Benedict. But Ingrid Bergman was in fact an actress, and never claimed to be anyone else, only to portray someone else. So all these starry-eyed Americans turned on her viciously when she came home pregnant from her European sojourn with the film director. And we still do confuse (conflate? confound?) actors with their characters, in some cases very seriously. I think of this movie as sort of the landmark case, if you will, of this phenomenon.
Julie
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| This is Ingrid Bergman. Trust me. |
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