The Bells of St. Mary's (1945) | A set of 16mm reels

Released in December 1945, The Bells of St. Mary’s is a classic comedy-drama remembered for its wholesome message and the compelling performances of its leads, two of the foremost stars of Hollywood’s Golden Era, Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman. The film was a commercial success, earning an impressive assortment of nominations and wins across the 1946 awards season, including an Oscar nomination for Best Picture, an Oscar win for Best Sound Recording (Stephen Dunn), and a Golden Globe win for Best Actress (Bergman). It also proved to be one of Crosby’s most celebrated performances, reflected especially by his becoming the first actor in history to be twice nominated for an Oscar for playing the same character: the charming and musical priest Father Charles O’Malley, which he originated the year prior in Going My Way.

In The Bells of St. Mary’s, Father O’Malley is transferred to New York to supervise a parochial school headed by Bergman’s character, the kindhearted, devoted Sister Mary Benedict. A friendly rivalry develops between the two as they work to save the struggling, dilapidating school from Horace Bogardus, an avaricious businessman threatening to have it condemned so he can turn it into a parking lot. Ultimately, Father O’Malley inspires Bogardus to donate his newly-constructed building—the former site of the school’s playground—to St. Mary’s, a selfless act that saves the school’s fate and greatly pleases Sister Benedict.

Produced in an era of Hollywood governed by the Hays Code—a set of strict guidelines that regulated and sanitized the content of major studio-produced films, ensuring they were moral, decent, and inoffensive to viewers—The Bells of St. Mary’s offered a heartwarming, Code-compliant motion picture emblematic of the values of its time. 

An enduring classic, especially during the holiday season, Bells was the highest-grossing film of 1945 in the United States and, adjusting for inflation, it is among the top-60 highest-grossing films of all time. Beyond box office results, the film’s influence is felt in later decades of cinema history, quite notably in The Godfather (1972), where we see Michael Corleone and girlfriend Kay attend a screening of The Bells of St. Mary’s at Radio City Music Hall.

Praised by ordinary viewers and film critics alike, The Bells of St. Mary’s remains an unforgettable notch in Crosby’s silver screen belt.