Charles Boyer

William Demarest

Lyle Bettger

Barbara Rush

Leo G. Carroll

Walter Hampden

Wesley Addy

Taylor Holmes

H.B. Warner

George Zucco

John McGuire

Clifford Brooke

Dorothy Adams

Molly Lamont

Queenie Smith

Jacqueline deWit

Douglas Sirk

Emmet Lavery

Robert De Grasse

Hans Sommer

Francis D. Lyon

Florence Caylor

Joe Popkin

Jerry Young

Ralph Slosser

Richard Staub

William R. Fox

Don L. Cash

Clem Widrig

Winston Jones

Hal McAlpin

Fred Applegate

Rudolf S. Joseph

Drama

The First Legion

United Artists

Sedif Pictures

United States of America

CinemaSerf

"Dr. Morrell" (Lyle Bettger) is adamant that the ageing "Fr. Sierra" (H.B. Warner) will never walk again, until - well, he does. Is this a miracle? There are those amongst this priestly, Jesuit, brotherhood who are all too eager to have it declared one, but "Fr. Arnoux" (Charles Boyer) is a tad more sceptical. His concerns aren't exactly assuaged when the wheelchair-bound young "Terri" (Barbara Rush) hopes that this is but a precursor to her own healing. "Arnoux" is also determined to stop the disillusioned "Fr. Fulton" (Wesley Addy) from abandoning his faith, but with all these shenanigans going on, he perhaps isn't so certain of his own - a fact that hasn't escaped the sagely "Father Rector" (Leo G. Carroll) who has quite a few plates to juggle, or the visiting and rather jolly "Monsignor Carey" (William Demarest). It's quite easy to dismiss this as a dose of Christian hokum, but it's actually quite a bit more of a subtle look at hope and how ready people are to believe in just anything when it is absent. That's well exemplified here by a personable effort from Rush and also from both Boyer and Addy, too. We sense all along that the doctor knows a great deal more than he's letting on, and that also helps create a sense of the perplexing that does raise a few questions about the power of prayer (or not). The photography also adds a bit of richness to the drama, intimate but never intrusive, and complemented by a gently effective score from Hans Sommer that gives this an extra humanity. I haven't a religious bone in my body, and the first half hour did make me wonder what moralising I was to expect, but by the end it proved a more thought-provoking look at belief, instead.

English