Lent Reviews Week 3: The Keys of the Kingdom (1944)

     The Keys of the Kingdom was released on December 15th, 1944. An adaptation of the novel by A. J. Cronin it is directed by John M. Stahl from a script by Nunnally Johnson and Joseph L. Mankiewicz. It tells the story of a Scottish Catholic priest, Gregory Peck's Father Francis Chisholm, who is sent to China in the 1870's to evangelize. 

     Father Chisholm is a somewhat unorthodox priest. He is unusually (for his time) opened minded and tolerant of others beliefs. We first meet him as an aging priest who is being pushed to retire by his bishop. Some of his comments (“The Christian is a good man, but the Confucian usually has a better sense of humour.” "Not all atheists are godless.") have scandalized his parishioners in Tweedside. When the priest sent to assess the situation, Sir Cedric Hardwicke's Monsignor Sleeth, comes across the Francis' diary, it is revealed where many of these attitudes came from. 

      The film is told in flashback, with the Monsignor's reading of passages from the diary serving as a voice-over. We discover that Francis was born to a Catholic father and a Protestant mother, both of whom died when he was a child after his father was beaten by an anti-Catholic mob. This incident, and the influence of his protestant mother, left on young Francis a lifelong attitude of tolerance toward other beliefs. We also meet his lifelong friend Dr. Willie Tulloch (Thomas Mitchell), a militant atheist but also a decent and charitable man who eventually dies while trying to serve others.

     The prevailing quality that Father Chisholm displays is steadfastness in the face of continual trial and rejection. He struggles, in his early years of priesthood, to find acceptance on account of his unorthodox ways. Because of this his Bishop, Hamish MacNa'b (Edmund Gwenn), an old mentor from the seminary, decides to send him to China. Throughout the film he is guided by words MacNabb's words to him, "I think you'd make a good priest, Francis. And now you've discovered how frighteningly human we are. I can't help thinking you're in the church not by chance, but for a reason."

     When he first arrives in Paitan, China Chisholm finds the mission he is assigned to in ruins, while most of the parishioners, "rice Christians" who only attended Church to receive free rice, have moved on. Francis, tending an empty parish and scorned by the people of the village, soon becomes jaded but his faith is renewed when a young man named Joseph, one of the few really faithful converts, offers to help him rebuild and together they begin to get the mission back in order. Before long, Chisholm begins attending to the sick and injured of the village. 

     At one point he is called in to help the son of  a local official named Mr. Chia (Leonard Strong), who is suffering from an infection and may die if not cured. Chisholm is able to save the boy and his father, in gratitude, offers to convert to Christianity. The priest turns down the offer as the conversion would not be genuine. He sees no difference between doing this and giving the parishioners rice in exchange for their support. Chia decides, instead, to donate some his his land and provide laborers to help rebuild the mission. Again and again he finds success in the face of seeming defeat.

     When a war breaks out between the Emperor and a group of republican rebels, Chisholm's old friend Willie comes to visit him and together they create a hospital to serve the injured soldiers and civilians. Tragically, the church is destroyed during the bombardment and Willie is fatally injured. The imperial general then arrives at the mission, demanding that Father stop assisting the rebel wounded and that he turn over all the mission's food and funds, threatening to destroy the mission and kill everyone in it if he refuses to cooperate. Left with no better options, Fr. Chisholm goes to the commander of the reel forces with a plan to destroy the Imperial soldier's canon, a plan which ultimately pays off. Afterwards, standing amidst the ruins of the Church he worked so hard to build, he tells the Reverend Mother Maria-Veronica (Rose Stradner) ''No one can destroy my church... I shall build it again... As long as I live I shall build my church."

     The Reverend Mother is presented as something of a foil for Father Chisholm. When she first arrives at the mission, she treats him with cold disdain, refusing to have dinner with him, and insisting on complete autonomy when it comes to her and the sisters. In a letter to her mother she describes him as a "peasent priest", "dripping with good fellowship" and writes of her fear of the future, serving the "lowliest subjects of God's kingdom and dedicated to a belief in their equality (she shudders at this word) before God." We eventually find out that she resents Chisholm because of her aristocratic background. To her, serving in this poor, primitive country is a cross. Chisolm, who she regards as her social inferior, seems to take it so cheerfully and effortlessly that she can't help but resent him deeply. It's only when Chisholm's old friend Angus Mealey (Vincent Price), now a Monsignor, comes to visit the mission and treats him contemptuously ("You ought to impress the natives, make more of a show.") that she has a change of heart and begs his forgiveness. 

      The final act of the film deals with Father's departure from Paitan, having been transferred back to Scotland. He bids a tearful farewell to all the friends he has made in China and sets off bravely to his new assignment where (as we know from the beginning of the film) he will once more meet with resistance. Monsignor Sleeth, having read his story, realizes that Fr. Chisholm is a good and holy priest, and assures him that he will bring a favorable report to the Bishop. 

      A. J. Cronin, on whose novel the film was based, was himself a Scottish Catholic who had a Catholic father and a Protestant mother. Though I have not read the novel I know that it is dedicated to a friend of Cronin's who was a missionary in China and it is likely that the author drew inspiration from his friend's experience there for his book. I also understand that the film softens Chisholm’s unorthodox views which, in the novel, are much closer to heresy. The only really problematic scene in the film is Dr. Tulloch's death scene, where he tells Chisholm, "I've never loved you as much as I do now, because  you haven't tried to bully me into heaven." In any case, it is somewhat apparent that the story is a little truncated here. There are a few characters, in particular Francis' childhood sweetheart Nora and her daughter, who Francis says, "means a great deal to me" though she is never seen on screen, as well as Anna, the little orphan girl who he adopts when her grandmother becomes ill, all feel rather underdeveloped and I suspect, were probably more fleshed out in the book. 

      Outside of these few quibbles, I think this is a splendid adaptation, set firmly in the classical Hollywood tradition. The script is full of wit and Fr. Chisholm, in particular, has many quotable lines that reveal the characters humanity. After healing Mr. Chia's son and being coolly dismissed by his servant (Philip Ahn), he prays, "Dear Lord, let me have patience and forbearance where now I have anger. Give me humility, Lord; after all, it was only thy merciful goodness and thy divine providence that saved the boy... but they *are* ungrateful and You know it!" Arthur C. Miller (The Song of Bernadette) provides some vivid cinematography, filled with atmospheric lighting, which helps lend the otherwise set bound film with a sense of atmosphere. Alfred Newman, as always, provides a moving score, interweaving Scottish and Chinese timbre to complement the film's international setting.

     Gregory Peck is magnificent as the Scottish priest, his performance anticipating his later role as Hugh O'Flaherty in The Scarlet and the Black. Both men possess an witty sense of humor and, at times, clash with their superiors, though O'Flaherty is certainly more orthodox then Chisholm. Peck is backed up by a fine cast of Hollywood regulars. Roddy McDowall plays Francis as a child and Dennis Hoey (probably best known for playing Lestrade in the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes films) plays his father. Benson Fong, another actor from detective movies, having played Charlie Chan's son in a number of pictures, is Joseph, Francis' most faithful friend and ally. Thomas Mitchell is Chisholm's hard-drinking but kind hearted atheist doctor friend while Vincent Price is his arrogant, worldly fellow priest and later superior. Sir Cedric Hardwicke provides a dry, stentorious narration as Monsignor Sleeth while James Gleason appears in a brief role as a protestant minister who arrives in Paitan near of the end of Chisholm's stay there. Leonard Strong, an American actor who usually played Asians, is eminently respectible Mr. Chia, who eventually experiences a true conversion. Edmund Gwenn, best known for playing Kris Kringle in Miracle on 34th Street (1947), is delightful as Father (later Bishop) MacNabb, bringing his unique warmth and vivacity to the role. Finally, Rose Stradner, wife of writer/producer Joseph L. Mankiewicz, puts in a worthy performance in her final role as Reverend Mother Maria-Veronica.

     The Keys of the Kingdom is an underrated Catholic film from Hollywood's golden age and tells a compelling story of a deeply devoted but profoundly human priest.

Score: 9/10

Next week we will look at the two-part French film Joan the Maid (1994).