Few filmmakers could evoke tears as skillfully as Leo McCarey. His 1937 drama about the elderly, "Make Way For Tomorrow" is so devastating I could not watch it a second time.
Now, I have been watching "The Bells Of St. Mary's" since I was a child, when a lot of what is actually in this film--and amazingly so--went over my head. Which, I am sure, is why my parents allowed me to watch it. The other day, it kept coming up on my You Tube account, as if daring me to watch it. So I did. The last ten minutes of the film are especially anxiety inducing, so let's start with that.
The Climactic Stairs--It is not the stairs that gets one weeping, but what happens here. This is where Ingrid Bergman, as the tubercular nun, Sister Mary Benedict, in pain and suffering, lugs a suitcase down the stairs, alone while the underscored choir on the soundtrack sings the title song. This is SO Catholic, darlings!!!!!!! Pain and suffering offered up to the Lord, and hearing gorgeous music in one's head, this is what it is all about. If you were raised Catholic, you will definitely "get it."
The Reformation Of The Prostitute Mother--It took me until I was in college to understand that Mary Gallagher, played by Martha Sleeper, was a prostitute. I was amazed they could get this into the film, though the word is never mentioned. Mary's back story is she ran away from home at 16--bad girl!!!---and married a young man named Joe Gallagher, who was a band musician. They had a little girl, whom they named Patsy. But Joe gets a travelling gig, and never returns, walking out on both she and the child, With no skills or education, she resorts to prostitution. If you watch all of Martha's scenes carefully, it is apparent, as is the scene where Joan Carroll, as Patsy, sees a man coming out of her mother's apartment, and hides in embarrassment, thinking he is one of her "customers," but not knowing it is her biological father, played by William Gargan. But the last scene, when the Gallaghers are reunited, and watch Patsy walk down the eighth grade graduation aisle-- Oh, my God! Get out the hankies and weep for the redemption of all thought to be unworthy Catholics. Which, by the way, is what Catholic anxiety is--the feeling that, short of being a saint, one is not good enough. Did this film trigger me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh, My God! The Great Joan Carroll--I knew Joan for this role years before I saw her as Agnes Smith in "Meet Me In St. Louis." Comparing the two films, one can see how much Joan is maturing in the 1945 film, from the year before. This was, unfortunately, her last acting role: she went on to work behind the camera in adulthood, dying at the age of 85 on November 10. 2016. Patsy Gallagher, the role she plays here, is a troubled girl. Her mother, Mary senses it, and has her placed in St. Mary's as a boarder, because she does not want her daughter to know the truth--that to support them both, she has become a prostitute. Patsy clearly does sense this, and combined with her lack of family stability, feeling unloved and unwanted, finds St. Mary's such a refuge from the world, she deliberately fails her final examinations, so she can remain longer at the school. She is found out, and graduates, and everyone cries for Patsy, now happy, who has seemingly triumphed over Catholic anxiety. It is SO Forties and Catholic, and, girls, wipe those tears!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ingrid Bergman and Bing Crosby--Both won Oscars in 1944--Bergman for "Gaslight," and Crosby for "Going My Way." The success of that film led to this one, intended as a sequel to "Going My Way," but which I think is the better film. When Ingrid writhes in bed with tuberculosis, one cries for her enduring Catholic suffering. She is an inspiration for us to look good when we are at our worst. Oh, my God, the moral lessons this film teaches--like forgiveness, hopeful redemption, and triumph over Catholic anxiety which one must go through to reach beyond. Bergman received the New York Film Critics Award as Best Actress, for this performance, helped also by her fine work in Alfred Hitchcock and David O. Selznick's "Spellbound." Bergman was loaned to "The Bells Of St. Mary's," by Selznick, who, as with Jennifer Jones in "The Song Of Bernadette," made sure this was duly noted on both films' opening credits!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Here is Bing Crosby singing the film's title song! Listen and weep, all ye Catholics!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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