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Post by kijii on Dec 16, 2017 16:50:06 GMT
I am not a religious person, but I often find some great movies (flying just below the radar) about ministers (and/or their families).
There is just something I like about the heart of these movies. I think the first such movie I remember seeing in a theater was A Man Called Peter (1955). The book upon which this was based was popular then.
Of course there were a couple of Oscar winners, Going My Way (1944) and its sequel, The Bells of St. Mary's (1945).
But there are a few more of heart-winners in this category that I just viewed this year for the first time this year. I would recommend them to anyone:
Stars in My Crown (1950) with a nice story and a nice cast--even Miss Kitty from Gun Smoke (Amanda Blake) appears in this movie.
One Foot in Heaven (1941) which will be airing on TCM on December 23rd. This stars Fredric March, Martha Scott, and Beulah Bondi. It has all of the qualities of a family minister that is sent from place to place, the family's sacrifices, and the minister's dream of one day building his own church so that his family could be settled.
While on this subject, consider Of Human Hearts (1938) in which Bondi was nominated for an Oscar as the wife of Walter Huston and the mother of Jimmy Stewart. This one goes back to the American Civil War period.
Does anyone else like these movies and can you think of others in this category?
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Post by mikef6 on Dec 16, 2017 17:19:53 GMT
I saw “Of Human Hearts” on TV back in the early sixties, during my school days. The scene where Rev Walter Huston eats a frog that has been accidently cooked up in a meal just to not embarrass an old lady has stayed with me through all these years.
Another memorable minister (although the movie is not “about” him) is Karl Malden from Disney’s “Pollyanna” (1960) as the town’s fire and brimstone preacher (“DEATH COMES UNEXPECTEDLY!”) who learns that the “glad” verses in the Bible – passages about giving thanks, having joy, receiving mercy – far outnumber the wrath of God verses. A lesser actor than Malden would not have been able to handle the scene where he collapses to the ground when Pollyanna (Hayley Mills) mentions this fact to him.
Richard Burton is great as a defrocked minister in the film of Tennessee Williams’ “The Night Of The Iguana” (1964). His in-pulpit meltdown in the pre-credit scene is one of my favorite Burton moments.
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Post by mattgarth on Dec 16, 2017 17:53:23 GMT
Two gun-toting Ministers out west:
Glenn Ford in HEAVEN WITH A GUN
Joel McCrea in STARS IN MY CROWN
Mickey Rooney is a gentler Minister in THE TWINKLE IN GOD'S EYE
Mel Gibson gives up the cloth in SIGNS
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Post by neurosturgeon on Dec 16, 2017 18:39:21 GMT
Kijii -
I like your choices. "A Man Called Peter" and "One Foot in Heaven" portray the real people who make up the clergy. They are portrayed as real people facing the real problems of the changing world during their lives. I am not a fan of many organized religions, but I do enjoy seeing stories of those whose faith gives them a road to being kind.
One film I would like to mention is "The Cardinal." It is a a very good film. I often think of the character played by Burgess Meredith, who was thought of as a failure as a priest, but to me seemed like a remarkable example of one giving his life to God.
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Post by mattgarth on Dec 16, 2017 18:55:43 GMT
Kijii - I like your choices. "A Man Called Peter" and "One Foot in Heaven" portray the real people who make up the clergy. They are portrayed as real people facing the real problems of the changing world during their lives. I am not a fan of many organized religions, but I do enjoy seeing stories of those whose faith gives them a road to being kind. One film I would like to mention is "The Cardinal." It is a a very good film. I often think of the character played by Burgess Meredith, who was thought of as a failure as a priest, but to me seemed like a remarkable example of one giving his life to God. Meredith should have been Oscar nominated instead of or in addition to John Huston in THE CARDINAL (Tryon deserved a lead nom as well). Burgess returned to the cloth two decades later as a priest being pushed out of the way again in TRUE CONFESSIONS. |
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Post by koskiewicz on Dec 16, 2017 19:00:33 GMT
"Brother Orchid" with Edward GT Robinson
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Post by BATouttaheck on Dec 16, 2017 19:06:36 GMT
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Post by teleadm on Dec 16, 2017 19:13:45 GMT
 Montgomery Clift in Hitchcock's I Confess 1953 Not sure what counts as a Minister.  Gunnar Björnstrand as a very troubled priest in Bergman's Nattvardsgästerna aka Winter Light 1963  The funny side of religion, Fernandel as Don Camillo, with his adversary the communist city mayor played by Gino Cervi. |
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Post by manfromplanetx on Dec 16, 2017 19:25:04 GMT
Profound classic ... Journal d'un curé de campagne , Diary of a Country Priest (1951) Robert Bresson Closely based on the novel of the same name by Georges Bernanos, It tells the story of a young, a sickly priest, who has been assigned to his first parish, a quiet rural village in northern France. Claude Laydu.stars as the troubled priest in a remarkable debut performance...  |
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Post by teleadm on Dec 16, 2017 19:26:53 GMT
 Aldo Fabrizi in Rosselini's Rome Open City 1945, a very touching portrait of a man struggling with life outside the church, but there is a few funny scenes too.  Max von Sydow on Hawaii (1966) |
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Post by BATouttaheck on Dec 16, 2017 19:31:20 GMT
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Post by manfromplanetx on Dec 16, 2017 19:34:53 GMT
Also adapted from Georges Bernanos, based on his 1926 novel of the same name, Sous le soleil de Satan , Under the Sun of Satan (1987) from Maurice Pialat A film is about mysticism and divine grace, The compelling drama tells the story of a devout priest who becomes involved with a murderess , Gérard Depardieu is outstanding as the conflicted priest...  |
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Post by bravomailer on Dec 16, 2017 19:41:21 GMT
The Apostle (highly recommended)
Night of the Hunter?
The Fugitive (1947)
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Post by manfromplanetx on Dec 16, 2017 20:09:06 GMT
Song of Surrender (1049) Mitchell Leisen Claude Rains plays Elisha Hunt Puritanical Minister of a small New England town, he is an educated man & also the curator of the local civil war museum. Abby, (Wanda Hendrix) is his young wife, an uneducated local girl with no worldly experience. One fateful day handsome New Yorker Bruce Eldridge (MacDonald Carey) passing through visists the museum, meeting Elisha and his pretty young wife Abby... The large-scale English Puritan emigration to New England ended around 1641, an estimated 21.000 arriving to settle in the new land... A standout cast an excellent little known film... I love the films of Mitchell Leisen... 
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Post by kijii on Dec 16, 2017 22:47:36 GMT
Kijii - I like your choices. "A Man Called Peter" and "One Foot in Heaven" portray the real people who make up the clergy. They are portrayed as real people facing the real problems of the changing world during their lives. I am not a fan of many organized religions, but I do enjoy seeing stories of those whose faith gives them a road to being kind. One film I would like to mention is "The Cardinal." It is a a very good film. I often think of the character played by Burgess Meredith, who was thought of as a failure as a priest, but to me seemed like a remarkable example of one giving his life to God. I agree with everything you said. And, yes that Burgess Meredith in The Cardinal character was good!! (I saw The Cardinal as I was trying to complete my Preminger movies.) Another movie that was fascinating for me to watch was The Nun's Story (I saw that as I was trying to finish my Fred Zinneman feature films). What was interesting to me in that movie was the process (and desire) to want to become a nun!!! As I watched Hepburn in The Nun's Story, I felt like a stranger in a strange land, because it was more than just a movie with a nun in it (like The Sound of Music or The Singing Nun or Come to the Stable). It was about how (or why) one even wants to be a nun and what one actually does afterwards. |
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Post by petrolino on Dec 17, 2017 2:09:37 GMT
Cruel, pessimistic and deeply disturbing, Mark Robson's seminal " religioso" noir 'Edge Of Doom' (1950) ...
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Post by petrolino on Dec 17, 2017 3:24:36 GMT
A chilling campaign of murder is waged in Fred Walton's bleak mystery thriller 'The Rosary Murders' (1987) ... |
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Post by marshamae on Dec 17, 2017 5:51:37 GMT
Keys of the Kingdom is a pretty good film about tge life of faith . It's an even better novel by AJ Cronyn, about the struggles of a humble priest as a missionary in China. It says a lot of funny and true things about religion vrs love of God and the nature of mission work.
Fanny and Alexander revisits some of the ideas in Winters light, the pastor who is incapable of love, cold pale and alone. F&A contrasts the cold pastor with a loving flawed family with terrible boundaries, and a magical family of Jews. The pastor comes off a distant third.
The Quiet man features three men of the cloth, the head priest, a sensible man of power and authority, his curate, a little ineffectual but he may grow into his calling, and the C of E minister , a good and kindly man who is accepted for himself, if a little contemptuously. The priest is clearly and firmly in the saddle, but there is tolerance and acceptance among tge three, and they all have a role to play in Sean Thornton's story.
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Post by kijii on Dec 17, 2017 6:36:56 GMT
Yes Marsha, I like this movie a lot too although I often get it mixed up with Inn of the Sixth Happiness. They are both about missionaries in China. I always have to stop and think. The first one has Gregory Peck and the second once has Ingrid Bergman.
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Post by bravomailer on Dec 17, 2017 15:27:18 GMT
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