The Bells of St. Mary's is a 1945 film which tells the story of a priest and a nun at a school who set out, despite their good-natured rivalry, to save the school from being shut down. It stars Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman. The character of Father O'Malley had been previously portrayed by Crosby in the 1944 film Going My Way, for which Crosby had won the Academy Award for Best Actor.The movie was written by Leo McCarey and Dudley Nichols, and directed by McCarey. The film was produced by McCarey's production company, Rainbow Productions.
It won the Academy Award for Best Sound, Recording, and was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Bing Crosby), Best Actress in a Leading Role (Ingrid Bergman), Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture, Best Music, Song (for Jimmy Van Heusen (music) and Johnny Burke (lyrics) for "Aren't You Glad You're You") and Best Picture. Adjusted for inflation, it is considered the 44th highest grossing film of all time.
A television adaptation on videotape of The Bells of St. Mary's was shown in 1959, starring Claudette Colbert, Marc Connelly, Glenda Farrell, Nancy Marchand, Barbara Myers, Robert Preston and Charles Ruggles. It was directed by Tom Donovan.
The film has come to be commonly associated with the Christmas season, due most likely to the inclusion of a scene involving a Christmas pageant at the school.
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Father Chuck O'Malley, the unconventional priest from Going My Way, continues his work for the Catholic Church. This time he is assigned to St. Mary's, a run-down inner-city Catholic school on the verge of condemnation. Father O'Malley feels the school should be closed and the children sent to another school with modern facilities, but the sisters feel that God will provide for them. They put their hopes in Horace P. Bogardus, a businessman who has built a modern building next door to the school and whom they hope will donate it to them. Father O'Malley and the dedicated but stubborn Sister Mary Benedict have to work together to save the school, though their different views and methods often lead to good-natured disagreements.
