Saturday, April 09, 2011

Radio review – Lux – “Song of Bernadette” (1954) ***1/2

I’m not Catholic but I found this account of the miracle of Lourdes fascinating, mainly because it was so political. Bernadette is a young girl from a poor family in rural France who claims she sees a vision of a lady – then finds the Catholic Church coming out on her strongly. Anne Blyth steps in for Jennifer Jones and carries of the wistful vision stuff believably (no mean feat); Charles Bickford (who I found out was on trial for the murder of a person who killed his dog when he was nine), is terrific as a priest. Lots of great interrogation scenes, which gives the religious stuff extra power and verisimilitude.

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