Trivia for
The Song of Bernadette (1943)

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• The film played continuously at a special theater in Lourdes dedicated to it exclusively.
  
  
• Using an actress to play "the lady" was controversial enough, and further controversy fulminated when Loretta Young was passed over in favour of sultry Linda Darnell. At that time, Darnell had an almost pornographic reputation. Franz Werfel, the author of the book on which the film was based, threatened to remove his name from the project. To make matters worse, Darnell was pregnant. Nothing would change Darryl F. Zanuck's mind, and Werfel was told that an unknown actress was chosen. Wearing a little more drapery than the simple dress and veil described by the historical Bernadette, Darnell played the role in bright light.
  
  
• Jennifer Jones had made other films before this, but only under her real name, Phyllis Isley. In an effort to make the public believe that she was "discovered" for this film, her screen credit reads "and introducing Jennifer Jones as Bernadette."
  
  

• The movie's original score was partly composed by famous composer Igor Stravinsky but was subsequently rejected in favor of Alfred Newman's score. The second movement of Stravinsky's Symphony in Three Movements evolved out of the original unused score.
  
  
• This was Jennifer Jones' comeback film, her first under her new screen name after previously acting as Phyllis Isley. She had taken several years off to get married and have children, later getting divorced.
  
  
• When David O. Selznick heard of the production, he exerted his influence to ensure his then-girlfriend Jennifer Jones got the part. She did, and she won an Oscar for it.
  
  
• Henry King himself directed the screen tests, instructing his actresses to look beyond the camera at a shining light. Jennifer Jones was the immediate front runner, as - according to King - she didn't just look, she saw.
  
  
• Father Peyramale actually died in 1877, two years before Bernadette's death, and thus was not present at her deathbed.
  
  
• Anne Baxter, Teresa Wright and Gene Tierney were all tested for the lead role. Another actress in the running was Linda Darnell, who ultimately landed the role of the Virgin Mary.
  
  
• Franz Werfel's book was published in 1942. 20th Century-Fox wasted no time in snapping up the rights. It was the studio's most ambitious and, at $2 million, its most expensive production of 1943.
  
  

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