The Keys of the Kingdom (1944) on Netflix
Father Francis Chisholm, a Catholic priest, travels to China to build a mission in the village of Pai-tan. Flood waters destroyed the church there, and he meets hostility, isolation and poverty.
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Plot summary
Francis Chisholm grows up a Catholic in a Protestant Scottish village, where an anti-Catholic mob attacks his father and both his parents drown on the way home. His aunt raises him, and he trains for the priesthood at the seminary alongside his childhood friend Angus Mealey, though he still carries feelings for Nora from his hometown. Bishop McNabb sends him to lead a mission in China. He reaches the village of Pai-tan and finds the church destroyed by flood. Two catechists, Hossanah and Philomena Wang, chastise him, and he refuses converts who come only for free rice. A young Christian named Joseph offers to help him rebuild the church, and the two of them build the St. Andrews Christian Mission.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Keys of the Kingdom (1944)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Spencer Tracy, Orson Welles, Edward G. Robinson, Gene Kelly and Henry Fonda were all considered for the role of Father Chisholm before the part went to Gregory Peck.
- When Ingrid Bergman became available, Darryl F. Zanuck instead offered Rose Stradner a two-picture contract with the studio, feeling Bergman's box office appeal would compensate for the then-unknown Gregory Peck. Mankiewicz pleaded to keep Stradner in the role and Zanuck complied.
- Alfred Newman's theme "The Hill of the Brilliant Green Jade", written for the Chinese nobleman Mr. Chia, was reused in his Oscar-winning score for the 1955 film Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing and lifted by Richard Rodgers for "I Have Dreamed" in The King and I.
- Nunnally Johnson wrote the adaptation and was to supervise production, but left for William Goetz's International Company; Joseph L. Mankiewicz, newly contracted to Fox after leaving MGM, took over as producer and substantially rewrote Johnson's script.
- Ingrid Bergman was the studio's first choice for Mother Maria-Veronica, while Geraldine Fitzgerald and Mankiewicz's wife Rose Stradner both tested for the part, as the Catholic publication The Tidings reported in February 1944.
