The Keys of the Kingdom (1944)

Director:

John M. Stahl

Writers:

Joseph L. Mankiewicz (screenplay) and
Nunnally Johnson (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

15 December 1944 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A young priest, Father Chisholm is sent to China to establish a Catholic parish among the non-Christian Chinese...

Plot Keywords:

Priest | Catholic | China | Fishing | 1890s

Awards:

Nominated for 4 Oscars.

Cast

Gregory Peck	...	Father Francis Chisholm
Thomas Mitchell	...	Willie Tulloch
Vincent Price	...	Angus Mealey
Rose Stradner	...	Reverend Mother Maria-Veronica (as Rosa Stradner)
Roddy McDowall	...	Francis Chisholm, as a boy
Edmund Gwenn	...	Father Hamish MacNabb
Cedric Hardwicke	...	Monsignor at Tweedside (as Sir Cedric Hardwicke)
Peggy Ann Garner	...	Nora, as a girl
Jane Ball	...	Nora, as an adult
James Gleason	...	Rev. Dr. Wilbur Fiske
Anne Revere	...	Agnes Fiske
Ruth Nelson	...	Mrs. Chisholm, Francis' mother
Benson Fong	...	Joseph
Leonard Strong	...	Mr. Chia
Philip Ahn	...	Mr. Pao, envoy for Mr. Chia

Runtime:

137 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Mandarin | Cantonese

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Canada:PG (video rating) | Argentina:13 | Finland:S | Spain:T | USA:Approved (certificate #10003) | Sweden:Btl

Filming Locations:

20th Century Fox Studios - 10201 Pico Blvd., Century City, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Quotes:

[first lines]
Title card: On a September evening in 1938, Father Francis Chisholm returned to his little church near Tweedside, Scotland.
Father Francis Chisholm: Good afternoon, Monsignor.
Monsignor: Good afternoon, Father.

Movie Connections:

Featured in A Conversation with Gregory Peck (1999)

A Singularly Rewarding Life

In his second film Gregory Peck got the first of his Best Actor nominations for playing the pious and devote Father Francis Chisholm in The Keys of the Kingdom.

When we meet Peck he's an elderly priest who's got a visitor in Monsignor Cedric Hardwicke who has come to the Scottish town where he's from and now is a pastor. Hardwicke's there to investigate complaints about him. Peck puts him up for the night in his own room where he keeps a journal that he has faithfully recorded his life. On an impulse, Hardwicke decides it might be good bedtime reading.

When we first meet Peck, elderly and infirm that he is, he looks like he could be the model for Alec Guinness's muddled old reverend in Kind Hearts and Coronets. But as Hardwicke reads Peck's words and we go back over his life, it's been a pious and rewarding one as a missionary in China.

The film is a flashback narrative of his life as a missionary. And the film is held together by the sincere and deeply felt performance of Gregory Peck as Father Chisholm. Peck has some terribly unorthodox ideas as a priest. For one thing he's not preaching that his own denomination has the corner on a good afterlife. Late in the film, some Protestant missionaries come, James Gleason and Anne Revere, and he becomes great friends with both. He's even friends with a self styled atheist in Thomas Mitchell who is an atheist, a medical doctor and a good man indeed. Mitchell's deathbed scene with Peck is quite touching and avoids a lot of the clichés associated with such scenes.

Another thing is Peck and the sisters led by Rose Stradner who later come to help live as simply and modestly as the Chinese around them. They gain some converts, but even more importantly they gain the respect of those around them. This is contrasted when Peck's childhood friend Vincent Price who has become a bishop and takes the phrase Prince of the Church quite literally.

The casting in the film is first rate and 20th Century Fox did a good job in recreating the feel and atmosphere of China which at that point was engaged in expelling the Japanese from their soil. The Keys of the Kingdom got several Oscar nominations including Peck's, but came up short on the statues.

I enjoyed the film a whole lot and I don't think one has to be a firm believer in any Christian denomination to enjoy it. Peck's Father Francis Chisholm may have led an obscure life, but his faith sustains him through all and he leads by sheer example. It's something that a lot of religious leaders fall short of, but not in this case.

Peck's life will surely gain him possession of The Keys of the Kingdom and we could all use a lot more Father Chisholms in this world.