Religion: Celluloid Revival

After a decade of worldly dalliance, Hollywood has once more hit the sawdust trail. Between The Sign of the Cross (1932) and The Song of Bernadette (TIME, Feb. 7), only One Foot in Heaven (1941) and a handful of politely portrayed priests and parsons so much as nodded at God in the passing cinema. But with the story of the little visionary of Lourdes, something started. It gathers momentum, this week, with Going My Way, a warm, gentle comedy-drama about life in a Roman Catholic rectory. And it is likely to get bigger and bigger as long, at least, as the war lasts. Five major studios, at present, are planning from one to four religious pictures each, some of them with royal budgets. Already finished, in production or scheduled therefor are:

¶ The Robe (RKO), from Lloyd Douglas’ bestseller, will be filmed in Technicolor at a cost of $3½ to 4 million, will run 3½ to 4 hours, and will be directed by Hit-Guarantor Mervyn LeRoy (Random Harvest, Madame Curie). ¶ The Miracle (Warner), based on Max Reinhardt’s hyperpituitary Gothic superspectacle, is budget-estimated by Producer Wolfgang (son of Max) Reinhardt at $3,000,000. Biggest casting problem: an actress adequate for the double role of nun and Madonna. The film will be in Technicolor, and will run the better part of four hours.

¶ The Keys of the Kingdom (20th Century-Fox), A. J. Cronin’s best-selling novel, will use Gary-Cooperish Stage Actor Gregory Peck as the Scottish missionary to China. Father Arthur O’Hara, a genuine missionary, will furnish technical advice. For release this summer.

¶ The Church of the Good Thief (M.G.M.) will be a biography of Father Ambrose Hyland of the Clinton Prison at Dannemora, N.Y., whose inmates built a church for themselves within the jail walls (TIME, Sept. 8, 1941).

¶ The Hoodlum Saint (M.G.M.) will be based on the life of the late Dempster MacMurphy who, feeling that Repentant Thief St. Dismas never got full credit for his virtue (despite Christ’s explicit “Today thou shalt be with me in Paradise”). acted as a one-man press bureau for the Saint. Father Edward Dowling, close friend of MacMurphy and editor of Queen’s Work, is collaborating on the script with Writer Casey Robinson.

¶ Till We Meet Again (Paramount) takes place in an Occupied-French convent and deals with the struggle between the Mother Superior (Lucile Watson), who is secretly evacuating British airmen, and a novice (Barbara Britton) who helps the last Englishman (Ray Milland) escape, at her own life’s cost, only after seeing the Mother machine-gunned.

¶ Between Two Worlds (Warner), ready for release, is the second screen version of Sutton Vane’s morality play (Outward Bound) about death and judgment.

¶ The Rosary (M.G.M.) by Lloyd Douglas again, opens with a dead Marine captain who wears a rosary, flashbacks to Italy to tell each bead of the rosary’s, and hero’s, history. Prospective budget: $2,000,000.

¶ The Sign of the Cross, Cecil De Mille’s 1932 religiopus, is being recut and updated with a new prologue for release in early summer. It deals with the persecution of the Christians under Nero, the burning of Rome. The prologue: a U.S. bomber is on its way to Rome; the rest of the film, in flashback, offers historical vindication.

¶ Quo Vadis (M.G.M.), hoary, gory grandfather of Christian superspectacles, is being considered for a fifth cineversion. One difficulty: Orson Welles, who is wanted for Nero, wants to play Imperator to the entire production.

¶ Still just a gleam in the eye of Cecil (De Mille-of-de-Gods) De Mille, lush old cinelaureate of religious films, (Feet of Clay, The Ten Commandments, The King of Kings, The Crusades’) is a religious chef-d’oeuvre for which, to date, he has little to go on except some chats with Msgr. Fulton J. Sheen, and a title: Queen of Queens.

Cause & Effect. The reasons for this sudden violent resurgence of religious films are relatively clear. As man is involved in anguish and death, he turns to the sources of his spiritual strength, which are variously revered, vilified, exploited, for the sake of old stabilities, or new, or for mere profit. For Hollywood’s revivalism, whatever its effects, the profit motive has the advantage of being undebatable. Whenever Hollywood has invested in religion, the dividends have been handsome. In the era of Billy Sunday and Aimee MacPherson The Miracle Man (1919), The Ten Commandments (1923), Ben-Hur (1926), The King of Kings (1927) and The Sign of the Cross (1932) were notably solid box office hits. The King of Kings is still dusted off for the parish-house circuit every Lent. Even during the Lukewarm Decade One Foot in Heaven and Boys Town did substantial business. Bernadette was a smash from the word go; Going My Way looks about as surefire as hits come. As long as the generally sharpened appetite for religion lasts, such grosses and such production may be expected. And as long as such grosses last they are a rough yardstick—as good a one, perhaps, as church-attendance—of the degree to which a people is awakened, and aware of its need.