Les clés du royaume

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.

The trailer for "The Keys of the Kingdom" compares the 1944 film to the prior classics "Goodbye Mr. Chips" and "How Green Was My Valley," and the comparisons are apt. Like the two earlier films, "The Keys of the Kingdom" is the narrated story of a man's life with present-day scenes as bookends. All three films follow ordinary men who leave indelible legacies, but fail to grasp the worth of their own accomplishments. While Mr. Chips is an English teacher and young Huw Morgan is a Welsh miner's son, Father Francis Chisholm is a Scottish missionary priest in China.

In this well written adaptation of the A. J. Cronin novel by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and Nunnally Johnson, Gregory Peck underplays the role of Francis Chisholm effectively and with the solid dignity that distinguished Peck's long career. In only his second screen role, Peck is a Christ-like figure who accepts people as they are, which puts him at odds with the dogmatic bureaucrats that run his church. Vincent Price is colorful as Angus Mealy, an ambitious fellow priest who puts personal advancement above godliness, and Thomas Mitchell is equally fine as Willie Tulloch, a doctor who puts his service to humanity above religion. Besides Price and Mitchell, the film has a rich cast of such other outstanding character players as Edmund Gwen, Anne Revere, Cedric Hardwick, Sara Allgood, Benson Fong, and Roddy McDowall. Each of these fine performers makes even the smallest role memorable. While Rose Stradner is fine as the Reverend Mother, the film treads a delicate line with its subtle hint at a love story between her and Father Chisholm. Perhaps there was an underlying attraction between the two that went beyond mere friendship, but, if so, that was daring territory to explore during the 1940's.

While "Keys of the Kingdom" runs more than two hours, the engrossing story should hold the attention of viewers who loved "How Green Was My Valley" and "Goodbye Mr. Chips." The film provides an emotional payoff that equals those in the earlier films, and damp eyes and a sniffle or two will likely affect even the hardest hearts. While at times sentimental in the best sense of the word, "The Keys of the Kingdom" also has an important message of acceptance that is particularly relevant today. Father Chisholm does not criticize "heathens" or "atheists," but rather respects their points of view and loves them for their good deeds regardless of their philosophies. When one of Chisholm's non-believer friends lays dying, the priest does not pressure him to convert on his deathbed, and the dying man thanks his friend for his respect and for allowing him to die as he had lived. The film certainly makes a strong point when the kindest, most generous works were those done by the non-believers, the doctor and Mr. Chia, the Chinese landowner, while the most selfish individual was the self-serving social-climbing priest played by Vincent Price. Peck's acceptance of and offer of friendship to the Protestant missionaries was yet another example of the man's Christianity, which placed him at odds with his own church and did more to illustrate Christ's message than the bureaucratic church hierarchy that would not even send money to fund the mission and told him to convert people of means. Although there are a few slow stretches and the finished film is not the classic that its creators intended, "The Keys of the Kingdom" is rewarding and a showcase for a young Gregory Peck, who was poised at the dawn of his stardom.

What a wonderful story of a man, despite much adversity, contributes himself to the Chinese community he loves so much. It is amazing how Peck makes it so effortless (even in his only second film)in portraying a young man to one in his twilight years. He personifies morality and quiet integrity in this film, reminiscent to the role that he would play nearly twenty years later in TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD.

The supporting cast which performs more than ably is led by Cedric Hardwicke playing a monsignor who was initially critical of the Peck character but emerges having respect for him after reading his memoirs (which form the narration for the film. Others include Thomas Mitchell as the irreverent self-proclaimed atheist who does much to provide the witty humour for the film, Edmund Gwenn as Peck's plucky mentor at the seminary who uses the term "ecclesiastical mechanic" to describe priests who are inflexible and bureaucratic, and Rose Stradner as the Mother Superior who falls in love with Peck (you only get a hint of this).

One of the highlights is the film's efforts in portraying the Chinese in a sensitive manner in terms of the customs shown and dialects used. This is very unlike films of its era which tended to portray Asians in a more stereotypical fashion.

I didn´t expect much of this film, as it is not much mentioned nowadays. Although it is a very simple movie, it evocates eternal values, such as honor, friendship and respect for other people's own values, that truly makes you feel very well after seeing it. It shows, also, how every religion should be guided and thought to someone, and not how it is usually done.

Only a movie from the 40's, like this one, dated like it is, to remind us some values that we are forced to forget everyday in this "global" world of merges, fusions, profits and unemployment. It is a lesson of humanity, decency and of how a man can stick to his opinions and really make the difference.

This is an interesting story about a priest Father Francis Chisholm(Gregory Peck), who went to China to establish a parish. He never wanted to get money easily, for him was much more important to get more people really devoted to catholicism than to get funds from any people, and for this he made all efforts serving even as a doctor in the community. Another important aspect shown although not deep, was the difference among the priests. Some are humble like the hero of the film but others are arrogant and look more for the wealth of the church instead of looking for the wealth of poor people. Catholicism have lost many areas because of the lack of sacrifice of many of its priests otherwise it would reign nearly everywhere in the world. Priests like Father Chisholm would have been the salvation.