Review of The Bells of St. Mary's (1945) by Robert B — 08 Dec 2008

My favorite Christmas movie... even better than "A Christmas Story" because it loses none of its charm when watched out of season. I've seen grown men tear up when the kindergartners rehearse their Christmas play and still laugh every time I see Ingrid Bergman teaching the boy how to box to beat up the bully.

And--be honest--you find watching the cat play on the mantle to be absolutely adorable! In movies such as this, there is a mature, subtle wit and inimitably delicate elan not seen before or since. The Depression Era MGM productions were too grandiose in structure and outright belligerent in their contrivance of a "feel good movie"; contemporary "pick-me-ups" only exist as "for kids" movies and flaunt their characteristic lack of sophistication with nauseating punchlines and grimmace-inducing caricatures that make their parents sitting next to them slouch further and further down their chair and contemplate their next grocery list as they count down the seconds until the film has expired.

It is sappy and deliberately nostalgic, to be sure, but not as an ends in itself, nor only to present an unattainable ideal. Enjoy it because, if you look hard enough, you will find priests, nuns, parishoners that resemble these archetypes to which we must aspire.

It was precisely this quality that seemed to make it a perfect counterpoint to Martin Scorsese's tale of Michael Corleone in the Godfather, for this is the film that he had just seen with his girl before Vito is assassinated.

With the tandem of Ingmar Bergman and Leo McCarey in charge of direction, editing, and production, this film is a masterpiece of cinematographic understatement. Every camera angle complements the impeccable (no pun intended for you etymologists!) chemistry between Bing and Ingrid to allow each scene to elicit precisely the desired emotional response from the audience.