The Bells of St. Mary's - 5 stars out of 10

The Bells of St. Mary's - 5 stars out of 10

"The Bells of St. Mary's" is a classic but it didn't really grab my attention.  It is a good movie but by today's standards, I don't think that it was worthy of 8 Oscar nominations, especially Best Picture.  Ingrid Bergman was wonderful as Sister Benedict and absolutely earned her nomination.  But I didn't see much in Bing Crosby (especially since he had already won an Oscar for that role in a previous film).  The characters were well-written and the story was interesting, but moments like that awkward Christmas pageant detract from the quality of the film.  It was very interesting to see Henry Travers (Clarence from "It's A Wonderful Life") playing a bad guy, although I was glad that he still have a few of those lovable dimwitted moments.  The fighting lesson was heartwarming and the ending is unexpected (in a great way).  "The Bells of St. Mary's" isn't a bad film but it is just sort of average.