The Bells of St. Mary's is a sequel to the 1944 movie Going My Way in which Crosby also starred, although with Barry Fitzgerald rather than Ingrid Bergman. Crosby is reprising his role as Father "Chuck" O'Malley, a priest who is a "fixer" for the Catholic church. He is sent to parishes which are in some sort of trouble, to try to deal with whatever the problem is. In Going My Way, St Dominic's- a church in a very poor parish- is in financial difficulty, unable to make its mortgage payments. O'Malley is sent by his bishop to try to come up with some sort of solution to the money problems. At the end of that movie, O'Malley tells Father Fitzgibbon that he has been reassigned although he doesn't say to where. In The Bells of St Mary's, he arrives at St Mary's, a Catholic school whose building is old and crumbling. They cannot afford to build a new school, and O'Malley has instructions to decide if it can be saved, or if St. Mary's must be closed and the children sent out of their parish to a newer school. Ingrid Bergman stars as Sister Mary Benedict, who is the director of the school; she and Father O'Malley have somewhat different views on how to educate children and frequently butt heads over a variety of issues.
I hadn't seen The Bells of St. Mary's for quite some time; I've viewed Going My Way more often because it's my favourite of the two films. Consequently, I'd forgotten how much I enjoy Bells, which is a really good film on its own merits, not just as a sequel to Going My Way. The story is fine, and it has some truly funny scenes, including one moment which comes and goes so quickly that it's easy to miss; I don't recall having caught it when I watched the film previously. Father O'Malley is sitting in on one of Sister Benedict's classes while she is getting some of the children to read their responses to an essay she assigned for homework. She calls on one of the boys, and when she says his name- Luther- O'Malley comments, "How did he get in here?" Hee hee... just a little bit of Reformation humour there.
In conclusion, The Bells of St. Mary's is a fine movie with great performances and some genuinely funny and moving scenes. If it doesn't have quite the magical charm of Going My Way, well, few movies do, and this one is certainly worth watching. Oh- and the Christmas scene is super cute.