By David Stanczak
Recently, at the Normal Theater, I watched (for the umpteenth time) “Bells of St. Mary’s”.
I don’t know whether it was because I hadn’t watched it in several years or whether it was the theater setting instead of a tv screen, but this time I noticed little things that I didn’t remember from earlier viewings. Most of them were tiny gestures or facial expressions, which not only confirmed what a character said, but said a lot more than the words, for example, the rectory housekeeper at Father O’Malley’s arrival. What she said, and didn’t say, suggested that Father O’Malley was walking into a mess. But her facial gestures as she left the room let the audience know just how impossible a mess it really was. Such little details clearly defined situations. I marveled at two scenes involving animals. In one, a cat gets into and under Father O’Malley’s skimmer on the mantel behind him as he is speaking to the assembled nuns. I could only wonder how many takes that scene required. In the other, a dog follows Horace P. Bogardus into church and sits in a pew behind him. Several times, the dog audibly yawns. I have only rarely seen a dog yawn, and never repeatedly.
The movie, at various times seemed either hopelessly outdated or prescient. The Mother Superior, Sister Mary Benedict (Ingrid Bergman), must be sent to a warmer and dryer climate free of children and other stresses to cure her tuberculosis. But the doctor, in an obviously pre-HIPPA movie, unbelievably doesn’t tell her of the diagnosis (she is his patient after all); instead, he not only tells O’Malley, he urges O’Malley not to tell her about the TB. This non-disclosure, of course, requires O’Malley to throw himself under the bus by letting her think he got her transferred, not only away from St. Mary’s, but away from kids completely. It also seemed prescient in one respect. Sister Mary Benedict must hold one student back from graduating because she flunked the final exam. Father O’Malley urges Sister to give the girl points for writing her name and spelling it right. When she asks O’Malley if he wants to get rid of grades all together, he says maybe. That’s where education is headed.
The movie was made in and portrays a simpler time, and it is an unabashed feel-good, at times tear-jerking, movie. It’s worth seeing this time of year whether you’ve seen it or not. If I can do so without violating any intellectual property rights, I’ll give it a thumbs-up.
David Stanczak, a WJBC commentator since 1995, came to Bloomington in 1971. He served as the City of Bloomington’s first full-time legal counsel for over 18 years, before entering private practice. He is currently employed by the Snyder Companies and continues to reside in Bloomington with his family.
The opinions expressed within WJBC’s Voices are solely those of the Voices’ author, and are not necessarily those of WJBC or Cumulus Media, Inc.
