THE MIRACLE OF THE BELLS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 20, Issue 498, 7 January 1949, Page 16

THE MIRACLE OF THE BELLS

(RKO-Radio) [DESPITE Alida Valli (as the actress who plays Joan of Arc), Fred MacMurray (as her press-agent), and Frank Sinatra (as the poor parish priest), The Miracle of the Bells should come near to winning an Academy Award as one of the worst films of 1948. Not that the picture is wholly boring, or that the actors all act badly, but it seems as if the producer, director, script-writers, cameraman, and others concerned with making it got together and said, "This film’s bound to make a lot of money, so let’s sit back and relax and have a bit of a holiday while we’re working on it." The Miracle of the Bells seeks to cash in on the success of two earlier religious pictures, The Song of Bernadette and Going My Way and is rather like a cheap combination of both. It is based on an American best-selling novel by Russell Janney. Briefly, Valli (an unknown actress) dies after making a film of Joan of Arc in which she gives a brilliant performance. Fred MacMurray, who had been secretly in love with her, takes her back to her home town to bury her, and there has the idea of ringing all the church bells for three days and three nights as a publicity stunt, to ensure that the dead girl won’t be forgotten. Frank Sinatra, as the priest who assists at this event and the later "miracle" (two holy statues in the church apparently turn to look at the body) only proves that he can’t act

as well as he can croon. MacMurray never seems to come alive in his role, and Valli is the best of the three. The camera work is crude and harsh, the settings are stagey, and the dialogue (by Ben Hecht and Quentin Reynolds) contains such gems of sentimental nonsense as the Hollywood producer’s remark to the foreign-born actress who walks out on him: "I’m sorry you don't like me, but that’s all right. And I’m sorry you don’t like America-that’s not all right. I can’t work with anyone who

won’t work for America."

P.J.

W.