The Bells of St. Mary's

A film set in an American Catholic school. Father O'Malley arrives at a new post. He has been assigned to St Mary's. The school is run by nuns. Sister Benedict is at their head. The two do not get on at once. He is easy. He sings, plays with the children, and bends the rules. She is strict. Discipline, lessons, order. From there the film is a story of friction. They differ on everything and both stay respectful. The building is decayed. The city may close it. A businessman is putting up a new building on the next lot. The nuns pray for it to be given to the school. The father goes to talk to him. There is a pupil's line. Patsy is having trouble with her mother and is failing at school. There is a matter of a fight as well. A boy is beaten regularly and Sister Benedict teaches him to box. That scene is among the film's best known. What the narrative is interested in is not religion but method: its idea is that two people doing the same work go entirely opposite ways and that both of them are right. A medical matter emerges at the end. Sister Benedict is ill and the father hides it from her. The narrative does not question that decision and the final scene rests on it. The film was among the highest-grossing productions of its period. It is a sequel to a film from the year before and the same character returns. Bing Crosby sings in it. Ingrid Bergman was nominated for the best actress Oscar. Bing Crosby, Ingrid Bergman, Henry Travers and William Gargan are in the cast. Leo McCarey directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes 1940s Hollywood and warm films with little conflict. Who it is not for: anyone looking for tension; there is no real antagonist and every problem is resolved sweetly.