Blu-ray Review – The Bells of St. Mary’s – Olive Signature

Posted on by skizzfan42@gmail.com

Director: Leo McCarey 

Screenplay: Dudley Nichols

Minutes: 126

Year: 1945

Score: 6.73

Release: Olive Signature

Leo McCarey has directed two of the funniest movies I have seen (The Awful Truth and Duck Soup) and one of the saddest films I have ever seen (Make Way for Tomorrow) so I am always a little gun-shy when I go into a film of his that I haven’t seen before. Now I can say that he has made of one of the most touching films I have seen, in The Bells of Saint Mary’s.

From OliveFilms.com:

Witty and heartwarming, The Bells of St. Mary’s features the unforgettable pairing of Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman, in a timeless classic from Leo McCarey. Reprising his Academy Award winning role in Going My Way, Crosby stars as Father O’Malley – a priest on a mission to help revitalize the financially-strapped parochial school St. Mary’s. O’Malley’s assignment, to determine if St. Mary’s should be abandoned due to its decline, soon has him butting heads with the school’s headstrong manager, Sister Benedict (Bergman). But their squabbles are rendered inconsequential with the arrival of Horace P. Bogardus (Henry Travers), a skin-flint businessman set on seeing St. Mary’s condemned to make way for a parking lot. With tremendous warmth, this tale of a devoted pair fighting against the odds has been delighting audiences for generations.

Nominated for eight Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Actress, The Bells of St. Mary’s features memorable supporting performances by Una O’Connor, Joan Carroll, William Gargan, Rhys Williams, and Dickie Tyler. Written for the screen by Dudley Nichols (Bringing Up Baby) from a story by McCarey, the film’s impressive technical credits include costume design by Edith Head, cinematography by George Barnes, and art direction by William Flannery.

I never like to say that I have gaps in my viewing history because I have usually spent the time doing what I wanted to do anyways and time is a finite resource, so when I can get to something, I do get to something. This is one of the benefits of living in a golden age of home video. A time when third-party, boutique, companies vie to older films that they feel need to be made available. There are groups of people out there who constantly refresh websites when they expect announcements will be made. I know that there will always be a new blog post or article about the death of home video, but there tends to be a nearly as frequent pattern of streaming services dropping different content or services and people bemoaning the lack of availability of that content that they want to watch.

While many of modern boutique labels tend to focus on genre films there are a few that zero in on a more classic library. Over the last three and a half years Olive’s Signatures line had done just that and with the release of The Bells of St. Mary’s they continue to stay on mission. With Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman in tow this is a dip into the fine waters of Classic Hollywood.

As a viewer, my interests don’t typically have me seeking out Classic Hollywood films. I already know that I will probably enjoy them when I see them because of the system that made Hollywood successful. Much like pop music, by the time these movies made it to audiences the studios knew when they had a hit on their hand, so they knew where to spend their time and resources. This is a very general, and probably naive, statement, but that has been my experience. The Bells of St Mary’s is a film I knew about and figured I would watch eventually, so there was no rush.

There are also no regrets. The picture is true to my expectations. Once again, as is expected, the formula works. Ingrid is perfect in her role as Sister Superior, she is just as charming as ever but manages to quell any sexuality to maintain the illusion of a pious nun. Bing Crosby’s conservative appearance fits his role perfectly as well. The overall story is a touch farfetched and parts of the script crumble under the weight of modern society, but it is an, overall, great example of a Hollywood film.

I only noticed one flaw in the restoration, and I have no doubt that it is a failing of the filmstock and not the process. This is about five seconds of exterior night shots that doesn’t fit the rest of the film. It is in the first 5 minutes of the film so I was a bit concerned that this would be the look of the whole picture.

The gentlefolks at Olive Films once again has seen fit to provide some interesting special features, but, for my money, it is the new scan that takes the cake.

Special Features:

  • Mastered from new 4K restoration
  • Audio commentary by Bing Crosby biographer Gary Giddins
  • “Faith and Film” – Sr. Rose Pacatte on The Bells of St. Mary’s
  • “Human Nature” – Steve Massa on The Bells of St. Mary’s and Leo McCarey
  • “Before Sequel-itis” – Prof. Emily Carman on the film in the context of Hollywood production history
  • Screen Guild Theater radio adaptations
  • Essay by cultural critic Abbey Bender

Director: 7 – Cinematography: 6 – Edit: 6 – Parity: 2 – Main performance: 10 – Else performance: 6 – Score: 6 – Sound: 5 – Story: 8 – Script: 3 – Effects: 5 – Design: 9 – Costumes: 9 – Keeps interest: 9 – Lasting: 10