There are Catholic films being made today – notably by the indefatigable Leonardo Defilippis – but mostly straight-to-video hagiography. In the Forties, however, Catholic movies hit the big screen and the Big Time and marked a turning point in American culture. Catholics were no longer simply marginalized immigrants; they became mainstream American icons. No two films prove the point more surely than Leo McCarey’s Going My Way (1944) and its sequel The Bells of St. Mary’s (1945), which received ten and eight Academy Award nominations respectively, made Bing Crosby (as Father O’Malley) the nation’s top box-office star, and gave the luminous Ingrid Bergman (in Bells) her third consecutive Best Actress nomination. Although the sequel is probably more watched today, Going My Way was more honored at the time: McCarey and Crosby won Oscars and GMW was the top-grossing picture of the year. Bells topped the box office too, but GMW is by far the more poignant film – bittersweet really – in its depiction of the joys and sorrows of the priesthood. If the movie’s final scene doesn’t move you, better check for a heartbeat.
The most Catholic of all major-studio movies, though, was Henry King’s 1943 adaptation of the Franz Werfel novel, The Song of Bernadette. It received a dozen Oscar nominations, winning four, including one to Jennifer Jones for her portrayal of Saint Bernadette Soubrious, who met Our Lady at Lourdes in 1858. The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima (1952) tried to replicate Bernadette’s lightning but, in my opinion, failed. (Decent Max Steiner score though.)
And let’s not forget that at about this time, Bishop Sheen’s “Life Is Worth Living” TV series sat atop the Nielsen Ratings.
It wasn’t long after Fatima and The Quiet Man, however, that the golden age of Catholic cinema pretty much turned leaden. To be sure, there were fine Catholic films made later on in the Fifties, Sixties, and after, but, as in the Silent Era, they were Catholic mostly in that some of their characters happen to be. You can’t say The Exorcist (1973) doesn’t portray Catholics – and well – but is it a Catholic movie?
And since then it’s been all gangsters and guilt.
We’ll never know the extent to which Catholic directors such as Ford and McCarey, actors such as Tracy, Crosby, and O’Brien, and the great Catholic films of the Thirties, Forties, and Fifties shoved anti-Catholicism to the shadowy corners of American culture, much as the films of Sidney Poitier would do to racism in the Sixties.
Here’s my list of the Ten Best American Catholic Movies – annotated with notable clerical roles. (I’ve indicated the year of the film’s release, its director – with a C, if that director is Catholic. Just three are.) I encourage readers to tell The Catholic Thing about their favorites. I discourage choosing films that simply appeal to Catholics (Ben Hur, for instance, or other historical epics) but that aren’t actually about American Catholics.
10-The Cardinal (1963, Otto Preminger) Tom Tryon as Father Fermoyle.
9-Come to the Stable (1949, Henry Koster) Loretta Young as Sister Margaret.
8-Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957, John Huston) Deborah Kerr as Sister Angela.
7-The Nun’s Story (1959, Fred Zinneman) Audrey Hepburn as Sister Luke.
6-Gran Torino (2008, Clint Eastwood) Christopher Carley as Father Janovich.
5-I Confess (1953, Alfred Hitchcock, C) Montgomery Clift as Father Logan.
4-The Fighting 69th (1940, William Keighley) Pat O’Brien as Father Duffy.
3-Lilies of the Field (1963, Ralph Nelson) Lilia Skala as Mother Maria.
2-The Quiet Man (1952, John Ford, C) Ward Bond as Father Lonergan.
1-Going My Way (1944, Leo McCarey, C) Barry Fitzgerald as Father Fitzgibbon.
Brad Miner, a former literary editor of National Review, is senior editor of The Catholic Thing.
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