--- title: "The Bells of St. Mary's" year: 1945 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-bells-of-st-marys" fi1m_score: 64 critics_score: 54 critics_reviews: 5 published: "2026-09-20T01:21:50.584169+00:00" updated: "2026-09-20T01:22:01.627043+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # The Bells of St. Mary's (1945) Directed by Leo McCarey · 2h 06m · MPA NR · Drama, Comedy **Fi1m score: 64** · Critics 54 (early) from 5 reviews *In a sentence:* Two hours of Ingrid Bergman praying for an office block, and you rather hope she gets it > Leo McCarey’s follow-up to *Going My Way* is soft, slow and twenty minutes too long, and Ingrid Bergman carries most of it alone. Worth an evening for her, a kitten and a nativity play; less so for Bing Crosby, who is never once wrong. ## Synopsis Father O’Malley (Bing Crosby) is sent to St. Mary’s, a Catholic parochial school in a run-down city parish, where the building is crumbling. The school is run by nuns under Sister Mary Benedict (Ingrid Bergman), a calm, stubborn woman who has decided that God will provide a new building and has picked out which one. It belongs to Horace P. Bogardus (Henry Travers), a businessman putting up an office block next door who would rather have the school’s land for a car park. O’Malley wants the sisters to face facts; Sister Benedict wants him to stop interfering. Between them arrive Patsy Gallagher (Joan Carroll), a teenager whose mother Mary (Martha Sleeper) cannot look after her, and Eddie Breen (Dick Tyler), a boy who will not fight back. ## Review Leo McCarey brings Father O’Malley back a year after [*Going My Way*](https://film.one/film/going-my-way) and posts him to St. Mary’s, a Catholic school with a condemned building, a shortage of money and a convent full of nuns who have already decided how things will turn out. Dudley Nichols’s script is a set of small troubles laid end to end: a rich man next door who wants the land, a girl whose mother cannot cope, a boy who gets hit and will not hit back. The film runs 126 minutes and would lose nothing but weight at 105. It is decent, and it is decent almost entirely because of Ingrid Bergman. She plays Sister Mary Benedict without a trace of the simper the part invites. Her nun is stubborn, competitive and quietly certain she is right, and Bergman lets us see her enjoying it. In O’Malley’s first address to the sisters, a kitten climbs into his straw hat while he talks, and Bergman and Ruth Donnelly, as Sister Michael, sit with their faces held still and their shoulders going. We laughed, properly, because nobody on screen is trying to be funny. Later she takes a boxing manual to the gym and teaches Eddie Breen to jab. Critics in 1945 found the scene in poor taste; we found it the best comedy in the film, because Bergman plays it dead straight, correcting the boy’s footwork like a woman who has read the book twice. Bing Crosby is the trouble. He is easy, he is amiable, he sings when the film needs a lift, and he is never for a moment in the wrong. Every disagreement with Sister Benedict is settled his way with a shrug, and the film agrees with him before he has finished speaking. A man who is always right is not a character, and Crosby drifts through the picture like a mild afternoon. George Barnes photographs her with the white of the wimple lifting light into her face. It is lovely and it is a cheat: the school is supposed to be falling down, and Barnes gives us clean bright classrooms with the sun coming through. Robert E. Dolan’s music leans on organ and children’s voices and knows when to stop. Harry Marker cuts as McCarey shoots, letting a scene run to its natural end and then a little past it. Edith Head is credited for costumes, and with both leads in a habit and a cassock her real work goes on Martha Sleeper’s Mary Gallagher, whose clothes tell you her situation before she speaks. The scene we did not expect to be moved by is the nativity play. McCarey puts the smallest children in front of a fixed camera and lets them tell the story in their own words, wandering off the point, correcting each other, forgetting they are being watched. We were moved, more than we thought a school Christmas show could manage, because McCarey refuses to cut away. Nothing in the film is directed harder than that stretch, and it consists of doing almost nothing. What surrounds it is thinner. Henry Travers’s Bogardus is a rich man with a bad heart and no interior. Joan Carroll does careful work as Patsy but her story is a sermon on patience with a girl attached. The Church here is a place where problems are solved by waiting kindly and singing a hymn, and by the second hour we found the kindness a little smothering. There is a turn late on that we will not describe; it changes the tone and does not earn the change. McCarey made *Make Way for Tomorrow* and [*The Awful Truth*](https://film.one/film/the-awful-truth), films that know what cruelty and comedy cost. This one knows only what comfort costs, which is about two hours. The reviews are split down the middle, and we can see both halves: the people who cannot stand Crosby’s priest are right about him, and the people who cannot resist Bergman are right about her. See it for her. If you are not the sort to be got at by a kitten in a hat, you may find yourself checking the clock, and we would not blame you. *Fi1m score 64, published 20 September 2026.* ### Reviews we read (5) - **Slant Magazine**, Bill Weber (80/100, inferred): The critic finds the charms of the superstar leads and utopian approach to social problem-solving hard to resist. The film is infused with personal passion from director Leo McCarey, highlighted by strong performances from Ingrid Bergman and Bing Crosby. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/the-bells-of-st-marys/) - **Variety**, Variety Staff (70/100, inferred): Warmly sentimental with a simple story leavened by laughs, it duplicates the wholesome appeal of 'Going My Way' through McCarey's direction and the natural ease of Crosby and Bergman's performances. [Read](https://variety.com/1944/film/reviews/the-bells-of-st-mary-s-1200414458/) - **Radio Times**, Tony Sloman (3/5): The critic finds the pairing of Crosby and Bergman popular but notes Crosby's priest character now seems insufferable, suggesting the film was made mainly for money, while praising Bergman's appearance. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-svazoc/the-bells-of-st-marys/) - **The New Yorker**, John McCarten (30/100, inferred): McCarey treats the Catholic Church as a settlement house of good works and jollity rather than religion proper; the duplication of 'Going My Way' succeeds only for the dim-witted, with the nun-boxing scene in particularly bad taste. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1945/12/08/1945-12-08-087-tny-cards-000018301) - **The New York Times**, Bosley Crowther (30/100, inferred): The film offers humor and sentiment in its story of Father O'Malley aiding a parochial school but copies the pattern of 'Going My Way' too closely, resulting in a less charming and more artificial picture, especially in the idealized nun character. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1945/12/07/archives/the-screen.html) ## Details - **Director:** Leo McCarey - **Director:** Leo McCarey - **Screenplay:** Dudley Nichols - **Story:** Leo McCarey - **Cinematography:** George Barnes - **Editor:** Harry Marker - **Music:** Robert E. Dolan - **Costume design:** Edith Head - **Producer:** Leo McCarey - **Cast:** Bing Crosby as Father O'Malley; Ingrid Bergman as Sister Mary Benedict; Henry Travers as Horace P. Bogardus; William Gargan as Joe Gallagher; Ruth Donnelly as Sister Michael; Joan Carroll as Patsy Gallagher; Martha Sleeper as Mary Gallagher; Rhys Williams as Dr. McKay - **Runtime:** 2h 06m - **Certificate (MPA):** NR - **Release (the US):** 27 December 1945 - **Genres:** Drama, Comedy - **Budget:** $1 million - **Box office:** $21 million ## Where to watch in the US - The Roku Channel: free, hd - Tubi: free, hd - Amazon Prime Video: rent $1.99, sd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $7.99, sd *Checked 2026-09-20.* Also available in: AU, BG, CA, CZ, DE, DK, EC, GB, HU, LT, MX, NO, NZ, PA, RO, RS, SE, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Academy Awards 1946: Best Actor (nominated); Best Actress (nominated); Best Director (nominated); Best Film Editing (nominated); Best Original Dramatic or Comedy Score (nominated); Best Picture (nominated); Best Sound (won) ## If you liked this - *Going My Way* (1944), Fi1m 74: The first O’Malley film, with Barry Fitzgerald giving Crosby somebody to disagree with — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/going-my-way.md) - *Black Narcissus* (1947), Fi1m 88: Nuns in the Himalayas, in Technicolor, with none of the comfort and all of the doubt — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/black-narcissus.md) - *Make Way for Tomorrow* (1937): McCarey at his hardest and best; an old couple nobody wants, told without a hymn - *The Nun's Story* (1959), Fi1m 84: Audrey Hepburn takes the veil and finds obedience harder than the recruiting posters said — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-nuns-story.md) - *Of Gods and Men* (2010), Fi1m 84: French monks in Algeria decide whether to stay; the faith here has consequences — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/of-gods-and-men.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/the-bells-of-st-marys