Films with priests Pat O Brian etc

[Mad Dog]

Angels With Dirty Faces was one such film starring Pat O Brien and James
Cagney, but my mind is a little blurred, there was The Bells of St Mary's
with Bing Crosby but was O Brien in that one as well. There was another
with Montgomery Clift but I cannot remember who else was in it and the rest
of them I cannot remember. Anybody know anything about films of this genre
I have not seen them since I was a boy and would like to find the titles.

[Frank R.A.J. Maloney]

Post by Mad Dog
Angels With Dirty Faces was one such film starring Pat O Brien and
James Cagney, but my mind is a little blurred, there was The Bells of
St Mary's with Bing Crosby but was O Brien in that one as well. There was
another with Montgomery Clift but I cannot remember who
else was in it and the rest of them I cannot remember. Anybody know
anything about films of this genre I have not seen them since I was a
boy and would like to find the titles.

O'Brien played a priest in _The Fighting 69th_ (1940) about a unit of
Irish-Americans fighting in WW I.

There was also _Fighting Father Dunne_ (1948), a biopic about a small-scale
Fr. Flannigan-type.

And then there's _The Fireball_ (1950) where he runs the orphanage that
Mickey Rooney runs away from.

But no, he was not in _Bells of St. Mary_ (or _Going My Way_, for that
matter).

Clift played a priest in _I Confess_ (1953).

[Mad Dog]

Frank R.A.J. Maloney wrote:
|| Mad Dog wrote:
||| Angels With Dirty Faces was one such film starring Pat O Brien and
||| James Cagney, but my mind is a little blurred, there was The Bells
||| of
||| St Mary's with Bing Crosby but was O Brien in that one as well.
||| There was another with Montgomery Clift but I cannot remember who
||| else was in it and the rest of them I cannot remember. Anybody know
||| anything about films of this genre I have not seen them since I was
||| a boy and would like to find the titles.
||
|| O'Brien played a priest in _The Fighting 69th_ (1940) about a unit of
|| Irish-Americans fighting in WW I.
||
|| There was also _Fighting Father Dunne_ (1948), a biopic about a
|| small-scale Fr. Flannigan-type.
||
|| And then there's _The Fireball_ (1950) where he runs the orphanage
|| that Mickey Rooney runs away from.
||
|| But no, he was not in _Bells of St. Mary_ (or _Going My Way_, for
|| that matter).
||
|| Clift played a priest in _I Confess_ (1953).
||
|| --
|| Frank in Seattle
|| ____
||
|| Frank Richard Aloysius Jude Maloney
|| "Millennium hand and shrimp."

Many thanks that's a big help.

[George Peatty]

Post by Frank R.A.J. Maloney
O'Brien played a priest in _The Fighting 69th_ (1940) about a unit of
Irish-Americans fighting in WW I.
There was also _Fighting Father Dunne_ (1948), a biopic about a small-scale
Fr. Flannigan-type.
And then there's _The Fireball_ (1950) where he runs the orphanage that
Mickey Rooney runs away from.
But no, he was not in _Bells of St. Mary_ (or _Going My Way_, for that
matter).
Clift played a priest in _I Confess_ (1953).

The OP was likely thinking of Barry Fitzgerald, another Irishman playing an
Irish priest, in Going My Way ..

[Frank R.A.J. Maloney]

George Peatty wrote:

[deletions]

Post by George Peatty
The OP was likely thinking of Barry Fitzgerald, another Irishman
playing an Irish priest, in Going My Way ..

Possibly, although Fitzgerald was a real Irishman not a mere Irish-American
(like my poor self).

Actually, even though Fitzgerald is a lot of fun in _Going My Way_ (except
if you were actor in a scene with the old scene stealer, I expect), my
favorite priest in that film is Frank McHugh, with his rather worldly,
breezy, no-more-holy-than-anyone-else, golfing-playing attitude.

But before Fitzgerald got stereotyped as a cute stage Irishman, he put in
some real acting. He played the Orator in O'Casey's /Juno and the Paycock/
at Dublin's Abbey Theatre and recreated the role for Hitchcock in 1930. Who
here has seen the film? It's a great play, which I saw at the Seattle Rep
long time passing.

He was also in another O'Casey-based film, _The Plough and the Stars_
(1936), an early John Ford film, unfortunately out of print now.

Fitzgerald and his brother Arthur Shields, of course, were in Ford's _The
Quiet Man_ (1952). In between he showed his acting chops in films like _And
Then There Were None_ and _None But the Lonely Heart_.

Among his cute roles, one of my favorites is in _The Stork Club_, where
Betty Hutton takes him in, thinking he's down and out when in fact he's her
secret sugar daddy.

[Joan in GB-W]

Spencer Tracey as Father Flanagan in Boys Town.

[Frank R.A.J. Maloney]

Post by Joan in GB-W
Spencer Tracey as Father Flanagan in Boys Town.

Spencer Tracy also played a priest in _The Devil at 4 O'Clock_ (1961), _Men
of Boys Town_ (1941), and _San Francisco_ (1936).

[W. Lydecker]

Leave us not forget Frankie S. in some not too believable flick. You
don't *have* to be a Harp.
How there was never a Father Stanley? It woulda been boffo in Chi
and Buffalo.

[rosanne]

Gregory Peck in "The Keys of the Kingdom" and "The Scarlet and the
Black".

Rpsamme

[Frank R.A.J. Maloney]

Post by rosanne
Gregory Peck in "The Keys of the Kingdom" and "The Scarlet and the
Black".

Anthony Quinn in _Shoes of the Fisherman_ (1968 the first Pope from the
Soviet Union. That one is rife with well-known actors playing various
clerics: John Gielgud as the old Pope, Leo McKern and Vittorio De Sica as
cardinals, Oskar Werner as a priest.

Laurence Olivier, who was in _Shoes of the Fisherman_, played a priest in
_The Power and the Glory_ (1961); Julie Harris was his mistress.

Gielgud also played the Pope in _Elizabeth_ (1998). (And the voice of God in
the TV production _David_ the year before, although I'm not counting that,
just mentioning it because it amuses me.) But more relevantly is his
Cardinal Wolsey in _A Man for All Seasons_ (1998). He also did a cardinal in
_Galileo_ (1975).

De Sico turned in a priestly performance in a 1973 Hallmark Hall of Fame
episode, "The Small Miracle." Also a papal one in _Austerlitz_ (1960).

All this talk of hierarchs reminds of Rex Harrison as Pope Julius II driving
Heston's Michelangelo up the wall -- literally -- in _The Agony and the
Ecstasy_ (1965).

And then there's that soapy miniseries from 1983, "The Thorn Birds", with
horrible Richard Chamberlain as the priest and Christopher Plummer as an
archbishop.

[FoggyTown]

Post by rosanne
Gregory Peck in "The Keys of the Kingdom" and "The Scarlet and the
Black".
Rpsamme

Tom Tryon in "The Cardinal".
Max von Sydow and Jason Miller in "The Exorcist"
Rod Steiger in "The Amityville Horror" and "End Of Days"
Richard Burton in "Exorcist II" and "Becket"
Oliver Reed in "The Devils"
etc
FoggyTown

[George Peatty]

Post by FoggyTown
Richard Burton in "Exorcist II" and "Becket"

I thought Burton was a fine Thomas á Becket ..