The Bells of St. Mary's (1945) (2025)

Popular reviews

• Review by EvilMonkeyToes ★★★ 2

  This is the fifth film from my 2024 The 12 Days of Christmas Films list.

  Let me get this out of the way: It's not a Christmas movie. One scene in a movie, for me, that is not absolutely essential to the plot that involves Christmas does not make a film a Christmas movie. Harry Potter is not a Christmas movie, Mean Girls is not a Christmas movie, Gremlins is not a Christmas movie--I could go on and on, but I will spare you.

  I actually had to look up why some people consider this a Christmas movie--praying and nuns are not enough. It turns out that there are two things: the scene in which the school children and doing…

• Review by Zegan ★★★★ 2

  Ingrid Bergman being a nun, that's what makes this so fun

• Review by AD917 ★★★½ 2

  One year after singing his way to an Oscar for Going My Way, Bing Crosby returns as the priest with a voice like butter in The Bells of St. Mary’s. But truth be told, Crosby should really be considered a supporting player here. This is Ingrid Bergman’s film!

  Much like its predecessor, this sequel has a gentle subversive streak in it that leans more toward humanism than any particular religious dogma. This time around, though, it’s Crosby’s Father O’Malley who’s become the patriarchal figure who might need to adjust his outlook.

  Assigned to oversee a catholic school run by nuns, O’Malley first attempts a hands-on approach, asserting his own views on how best to educate the students. However, he comes…

• Review by reed 🎄 ★★★

  it could’ve benefitted from a lot of editing because it does not need to be over two hours but it’s two hours of Ingrid Bergman so can I really complain? This was a whole lot less religious than I was expecting and for that I’m thankful! Sweet ending!

• Review by UltimateMovieRankings ★★★½

  Never heard of The Bells of St. Mary's? Well it was a huge box office smash in the 1940s...earning about $422 million in adjusted for inflation box office dollars (about what Hunger Games 2 earned last year)....it got 8 Oscar nominations....and was the sequel to the Best Picture Oscar winner in 1944....Going My Way....ok enough history.

  In this one Bing Crosby is the new Father of St. Mary's....Ingrid Bergman is the head nun of St. Mary's.....they respect each other but knock heads when it comes to running St. Mary's. Bing gets to sing 5 songs in the movie....Bergman gets the more dramatic role.....lots of child actors running around. The main plot of the story is the fact that St. Mary's…

• Review by Taylor Leverage ★★

  Small child: "Sister, a boy on the playground beat me up!"
  Ingrid Bergman: "Lemme teach you how to whoop his ass lol."

  Don't think that Hollywood studios getting repetitive is anything new - Bing Crosby literally played this exact same character just a year before in an otherwise unrelated film, Going My Way, which was also a Best Picture nominee and a huge hit. So this is essentially a franchise about a Catholic priest getting shuffled from diocese to diocese, but in the '40s that was a lot more of a positive thing, apparently.

  While the film is pretty harmless, it's essentially a good-natured variety show that has some nice little episodes about life lessons and charity, while always trying…

• Review by Michael's Cinema Paradiso ★★★★

  Afterthoughts: If seeing Ingrid Bergman dressed as a nun teaching a kid how to box is not reason enough to see this film, then I don’t know what is. Sooo good! I’m such a sucker for Bergman’s laugh too, she’s so adorable.

  And Bing Crosby’s voice and face is just the best. Such warmth.

  I admit I didn’t have high hopes for this at all, and watched it purely for Ingrid Bergman, who I will watch anything for. But, I absolutely loved it. It just made me feel nothing but happiness, and that is something I don’t come across often in the types of films I’m more drawn to.

• Review by bauti gorla ★★★½

  igual que la otra, la primera hora es muy buena y ya el resto ahí queda, aburre, pero son películas muy lindas, con finales bien esperanzadores, el de going my way me llego más, pero este tmb esta bueno.

• Review by Kevin Chan ★★★★★ 7

  Fr. O’Malley: Say, Doctor, not to change the subject much, butBogardus has a bad heart doesn’t he?
  Dr. McKay: Yes.
  Fr. O’Malley: What are you giving him for it, pills?
  Dr. McKay: Why, have you got a better prescription?
  Fr. O’Malley: Well, I.. I knew a fella once. He had a very bad heart. In fact, they only gave him six months to live. But he spent that six months doing so much good, do you know he lived to be 90?
  Dr. McKay: That so? You mean doing good for others is good for a bad heart?
  Fr. O’Malley: You spend your life doing for others, don’t you Doctor?
  Dr. McKay: Yes… yes.
  Fr. O’Malley: How’s your heart?
  Dr.…

• Review by Ken B ★★★½

  Christmas 2022

  Bing Crosby, Ingrid Bergman and Henry Travers star in this lovely story about a priest who is sent to a run down school. Nice stuff happens, mainly. There's something reassuring and comfortable about classics like this. It doesn't break the mould but it's a very pleasant seasonal film. Now I haven't seen the previous movie, Going My Way. This is mainly because I just found out about it. Perhaps I'll seek it out, it has musical notes on the artwork. Bing does exercise his vocal chords occasionally in this one though so that's good enough for now.

• Review by Jaime Rebanal 🇵🇸 ★★★½

  As the first sequel to have been nominated for the Oscar for Best Picture, it's easy enough for me to say that I already preferred this to Going My Way, but I think that's also in part due to the fact that The Bells of St. Mary's feels far more refined on the whole. Bing Crosby's performance is considerably better, from the fact that he seems far more playful as he's portraying Father O'Malley, but the way this film builds itself upon the relationship between him and Ingrid Bergman's Sister Mary Benedict makes it worthwhile.

  I'm not entirely sure the episodic nature of The Bells of St. Mary's works as well as it should, at times it also makes the film feel very overlong (at two hours, you really start to feel its length), but it's hard enough for me to hate a film like this when it's clearly got its heart in the right place.

• Review by PUNQ ★★★½

  This film has warmth. For the most part gentle with human kindness elevated up high, while it swerves into thinking something bad is about to happen, only to underhand you something worse. Got to respect what they did here. And you can't deny the appeal of Bing Crosby & Ingrid Bergman joining forces. Perhaps not top-tier, but this definitely feels like classic Hollywood. And I mean that in the absolute positive sense.