The Cardinal

Plot synopsis:
A newly ordained Irish Catholic priest, Stephen Fermoyle (Tom Tryon) returns home to Boston in 1917. He discovers that his parents are upset about daughter Mona (Carol Lynley) having become engaged to marry a Jewish boy, Benny Rampell (John Saxon). Mona seeks Stephen's counsel as a priest.
Concerned about the young priest's ambition, the archbishop (John Huston) assigns Stephen to an out-of-the-way parish, where it is hoped he will learn humility. There he meets the humble pastor, Father Ned Halley (Burgess Meredith), observing the unpretentious way he lives his life and treats his parishioners. Father Halley is very sick with multiple sclerosis. Fermoyle learns humility from him and his housekeeper, Lalage (Jill Haworth).
Stephen and his Irish Catholic family will only permit Mona to marry her Jewish fiance, Benny, if he becomes a Catholic or agrees to raise any children as Catholic. Benny does not agree and leaves to serve in World War I. Mona runs away and becomes promiscuous. She becomes pregnant out of wedlock. Stephen, his brother and Benny find Mona in agony because her pelvis is too small for a large baby. She is taken to the hospital where the doctor tells Stephen that the head of the baby must be crushed to save Mona. Stephen will not allow the doctor to do this. According to Catholic doctrine, the baby may not be killed. Mona dies giving birth to the child Regina.
Stephen is transferred to Europe and made a monsignor, but is unsure how committed he is to a life in the clergy and travels to Vienna, Austria, taking a two-year sabbatical. There he meets and enters into a relationship with a young woman, Annemarie (Romy Schneider). Stephen does not violate his vows.
Stephen's vocation calls him back to Rome and the church. The Vatican returns him to the United States on a mission, to assist a black priest, Father Gillis (Ossie Davis) in the American South who is opposed by the Ku Klux Klan. After successfully handling that assignment, Stephen is sent back to Austria to persuade a cardinal there not to cooperate with the Nazis, with a threat of a world war looming over all. He and the cardinal ultimately must flee for their lives. After the success of the missions the Vatican sent him on, he was consecrated as a Bishop.
On the eve of World War II, a ceremony is held in which Stephen formally becomes a cardinal, pledging to dedicate the rest of his life to his work.

Tags: romantic

Review:
Based on an early 1950's bestseller, producer/director Otto Preminger's lush religious spectacle pits a Catholic priest from Boston against many of the controversies that dogged the Church during the first half of the 20th century.
As the young priest rises in rank to Monsignor, Bishop, and eventually Cardinal, he must tackle abortion, inter-faith marriage, racial discrimination, Nazism, and self-doubts about his own religious calling before the nearly three-hour film reaches the closing credits.
While Tom Tryon as the Cardinal, Stephen Fermoyle, does his best, a stronger actor with greater screen presence might have anchored the film and given it greater stability.
Perhaps a sequel is in order with Cardinal, or maybe Pope by now, Stephen Fermoyle faced with pedophile priests, gay marriage, and a Church that has lost many of its followers over the decades.
But, despite the diminished relevance, "The Cardinal" remains a comforting old fashioned view of the Roman Catholic Church during a period when the mass was said in Latin, the celibacy of a priest was unquestioned, fish was eaten on Fridays, the sacraments were taken seriously, and a poor son of Irish immigrants could rise from Boston curate to Cardinal without showing any more signs of aging than a light dusting of powder on his full head of thick hair..
The moral values truly reflect the era depicted; I only wish that a return to those values were possible today.If you like a good, dramatic story that develops characters you really get to know and care about, please see this film!.
TOM TRYON has the central role in Otto Preminger's majestic looking film version of THE CARDINAL, but he's one of those handsome actors with an impassive face whose emotions never come to the surface.
Huston is particularly commanding as the brusque Cardinal Glennon, who confronts Tryon with: "You're not afraid of me, are you?" when the young man speaks his mind.All of the technical aspects of the film are professional, giving the story more credibility than it deserves from a rather lumbering script.
Otto Preminger's blockbuster film, The Cardinal, is kind of like an ecclesiastical Winds of War with its priest/protagonist seemingly on the scene of a whole lot of history from before World War I until just before the outbreak of World War II.
The church of those times is vastly different than the Roman Catholic Church of today.Tom Tryon plays Stephen Fermoyle whose parents, Cameron Prudhomme and Dorothy Gish as did so many Irish married couples, determined that one of their kids would be a priest.
As The Cardinal is history as how the church would write it for itself, a lot of things are passed over and answers we might come up with today would not be what Catholic folks especially would have thought back then.
He also shot the film in various locations around the world, Boston, Rome, Vienna and other places where the odyssey of Tom Tryon takes him.Fellow director John Huston got an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in his role as Cardinal Glennon of Boston, loosely based on Archbishop of Boston at the time, William O'Connell.
Preminger said that Huston was cooperative in every way and Huston said he resisted successfully the impulse to call his own shots on his performance remembering this was not his film.Carol Lynley playing both Tryon's sister and niece does well in a dual role and Patrick O'Neal and Murray Hamilton play a contrasting duo of Ku Klux Klansmen in Georgia.
I think viewers will also like a pair of fine Italian players Raf Vallone and Tullio Carminati who play a pair Cardinals, the former the friend and mentor of young Tryon and the latter the Papal Secretary of State based on Cardinal Merry del Val.My favorite moments in The Cardinal are with Burgess Meredith as the parish priest from a diocese in Northern Maine where Tryon is sent as a curate.
The Cardinal is a historically significant film because of what was happening in the Roman Catholic Church at the time it premiered -- the Second Vatican Council.
The Second Vatican Council didn't go as far as some of us would like, and the Church hasn't seen much reform since, but when I see the Cardinal today, I'm reminded how much more confining Church doctrine was before the Council did its work.By the way, in response to the comment that no one could have done all the things that the Cardinal was portrayed as doing in the film, my understanding is that the story is based on the life of Cardinal Spellman of New York.
I thought the film illustrated well certain contradictions within the church, notably of course with regards to "racism" and the "Nazis" in the World War II where its rôle seemed to have been ambiguous to say the least.I am one of those people who believed that the doctrines of religion have been fixed by God for eternity - you must either accept them as they are or reject them - no one said it would be easy, for this reason I believe that you can not and must not modify religious doctrine to suit the fashion at a given moment in time.
Tryon had a good, powerful and imposing physique but in some scenes he appears rather emotionless or should I say not emotional enough.The film is pretty long, there's an intermission which allows the spectator to take a breather,and I found the second part a bit more interesting and intense than the first.
Funny, though that that particular episode should have marked the commentator to such a point that it was the only detail of the film that he/she wrote about !Another extremely emotional scene is when Fermoyle journeys to Georgia USA at the request of a black priest whose church has been burned down by KKK extremists.
Tryon, however, is not only an excellent actor but a good writer as well with a number of books to his name just like Sterling Hayden, another almost forgotten actor of the period.This movie should be required viewing in Moral Theology as it provides guidance on how a serious practicing Catholic should act when faced with moral dilemmas.
A young Catholic priest named Stephen Fermoyle (Tom Tryon) from Boston confronts bigotry , Nazism, and his own personal conflicts as he rises to the office of cardinal .In Austria, he takes on the question of whether to remain with the priesthood or leave his promise so that he can be with a gorgeous woman (Romy Schneider) he wishes .
And in Austria, he finds himself personally involved in the dealings of the collaborationist Cardinal Innitzer (Josef Meinrad) with the Third Reich under command of governor Seyss-Inquart (Frey).Good film with thought-provoking issues and dealing with an Irish-American's rise from a simple priest to the college of Cardinals .
Furthermore , an outstanding support cast as Burgess Meredith , John Saxon , Carol Lynley , John Huston , Robert Morse , Cecil Kellaway and feature film of Russ Brown and equally for the late Maggie McNamara in her last character.
This epic point of view of a rise of an obstinate young priest from a backwoods clergyman until Cardinal was well directed by Otto Preminger , but emerge some flaws , being alternately compelling and uneven ..
Although Tom(Thomas) Tryon, Burgess Meredith and John Huston are excellent, there is very little thread to tie them together in this over long film.
Tom Tryon plays an idealistic Irish-American priest in pre-World War II Boston who works his way up to Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church.
Supporting cast (particularly Carol Lynley, John Huston, and Burgess Meredith) fares somewhat better, and the movie looks burnished and handsome, but it just isn't compelling; instead, it's overlong and under-nourished.
It stars Tom Tryon, Romy Schneider, Carol Lynley, Dorothy Gish, Ossie Davis, Burgess Meredith, John Huston, Cecil Kellaway and Maggie McNamara.
Music is by Jerome Moross and cinematography by Leon Shamroy.Film follows the life of Irish Catholic priest Stephen Fermoyle (Tryon) from his ordination to his appointment as a cardinal.
His journey over time will see him tackle crisis' within his own family, a struggle with his faith, racism and fascism.Preminger's epic vision is evident, the visuals often superlative and attention to detail is rather magnificent, yet The Cardinal is too bloated and too episodic for its own good.
OK, maybe it is a bit literate at times, desperately reaching out for some poetic worth, and Preminger has camera fluidity in abundance, but the script is too often flaccid, even corny, and there's just not enough pulse raising performances around Tryon to make the near three hour experience worth itIf cut by an hour, with a better leading man and with a script writer willing to really get gritty with the source, then The Cardinal may have been a far better movie.
The subject of faith, entering the priesthood, sacrifice to God, dealing with abortion, sex, racism, and church leaders and their dealings with politics are issues that haven't gone away, and Preminger handles them quite well without resorting to melodrama and sledgehammer points.The Cardinal moves along at a beautiful pace, and it feels like a grand novel, leisurely, but enthralling.
Not in the story (Visconti's film was about the unification of Italy as seen through the eyes of an aristocratic family), but in the production design (which is sumptuous in both The Leopard and The Cardinal), framing, cinematography, and beautiful performances.Tom Tryon, a relative unknown here, is quite good as The Cardinal.
A life devoted for God. The Cardinal l'd watched in 1984 on TV,a overlong movie...in that time l didn't have any idea how meaning of the pictures itself...today after a long time l've the opportunity to re-watch this Otto Preminger's unknown movie and After almost three hours long l finally recognized this picture is really amazing...telling a story about a young priest in Boston until a high position in Catholic Church,the movie is showing in flashback since the beginning,all the facts one's most remarkable to me is about the Father Ned Halley played by Burgess Meredith who died in poverty...another was when he has to help a nigro priest in Georgia and has to confront the segregationist system in this town....the story through the time have many faces until the final....once more Otto Preminger proves as one's best directors for all times!!Underrated movie!!Resume:First watch: 1984 / How many: 2 / Source: TV-DVD / Rating: 8.5.
I'd say Tom Tryon fit into that category.Directed by Otto Preminger, "The Cardinal," starring Tom Tryon in the eponymous role, is a long, somewhat dated film, given what we know about the behavior of some priests today.
Here's a guy not sure he can continue being a priest because of celibacy, and little did he know that about 50% aren't and are priests anyway.Other actors in the film include John Huston, Burgess Meredith, Bill Hayes, John Saxon, Dorothy Gish, and Maggie McNamara.Tryon plays Stephen Fermoyle, a man from Boston at the turn of the century whose family has always assumed he would go into the priesthood.
Although this film does present a rather idealized story about the rise of a humble priest from a lowly parish cleric to the rank of Cardinal, the issues through which the main character navigates and maneuvers are still as relevant today as in 1963.
The story is not about someone who is already a Cardinal, but rather the steps taken by a no-name cleric and his rise to the highest echelons of the Roman Church.The story begins when Bishop Stephen Fermoyle (Thomas Tyron in his most remembered performance) receives a formal letter from the Vatican in Rome.
Such formal letters are read allowed in great ceremony where we learn he has been appointed a Cardinal by the Holy See. As the letter is being read, Fermoyle begins to remember in his own mind the religious and secular journey he has taken to arrive at this moment, a dream for many priests in the Roman Catholic.
Father Fermoyle, now in service to Bishop-Cardinal Glennon (John Huston in an Academy-Award nominated performance) tells the bishop he may not be able to continue as a priest.
This film seems to convincingly portray the inner workings of the Church in its central story of the rise of a newly ordained priest to the rank of cardinal.
The film is a historical dramatization that begins in Rome with Tom Tryon's ordainment as a priest just as World War 1 is about to begin and comes to an end as Tryon, now a bishop, is in immediate post-Anschluss Austria as the Nazis lead violent anti-Catholic riots.
It isn't entirely successful however, the film is lengthy and does feel overlong and stodgy in places, Tom Tryon's lead performance is rather stiff and when I saw The Cardinal, the sound seemed muffled.However it is a well made movie, with beautiful locations and photography, and the music score is highly emotional.
Otto Preminger crafted an impressive film here, taking his time to tell the story (all 3 hours of it), but alas making a film that will be of most interest to Catholics.There are many interesting characters portrayed in this film, and some in rather interesting ways.
Despite the Catholic trappings it's a film about ethics as much as religion - in fact that's the point, as a young priest with scholarly leanings has to put his faith into practice dealing with real-life issues.
Otto Preminger's solemn, stately retelling of the rise of Stephen Fermoyle to Cardinal is an interesting albeit lengthy film that has not received its due over the decades since its release in 1963.
The many trials and tribulations of Fermoyle's ascension in the Catholic church hierarchy to the College of Cardinals is dramatized by Tom Tryon in the title role.
John Huston and Raf Vallone are excellent in their roles of Cardinals and Romy Schneider is good as the woman who loves Fermoyle and wants to sway him forever from the pull of the priesthood.
Movie follows the career of Stephen Fermoyle (Tom Tryon) from priest to cardinal.
Otto Preminger's beautiful film depicts the rise of a Boston priest to the heights of the Cathlic Church..
In this stirring film based on a novel about the rise of a young priest to eminence in the church, author and sometime actor Tom Tryon essays the often torn spiritual soul of father Steven Fermoyle, who often has to weigh his personal demons and doubts as he deals with church absolutes.
At the Vatican in 1917 Rome, stately American Tom Tryon (as Stephen "Steve" Fermoyle) is ordained a Catholic priest.
Unfortunately, the movie is a bore.***** The Cardinal (12/12/63) Otto Preminger ~ Tom Tryon, Romy Schneider, Carol Lynley, John Huston.
Eventually I too left the church.Will this re watching make me go back,only God knows.Otto Preminger put together a film based on a novel by Henry Morton Robinson thats challenging,hard and sometimes painful to watch,but in the end,its true to what being a catholic is all about in the modern world.you might even say it foresaw "liberation theology"but in a different way.
Tom Tryon ,in by far his greatest performance plays Stephen Fermoyle,who at the films end does become a Cardinal.We open with him before the ceremony and his reflecting back over the years as he left his education at the Vatican with his teacher played by Ral Vallone,now we know why HE played a Pope in Godfather 3,and the steps he took as a irish catholic priest from boston to the Vatican and the many conflicting tests to his faith that he conquered while winning some,and losing other battles along the way.First he's knocked down a bit by a Bishop who sees some of himself in the priest and wants the young priest to be saved from ambition and false pride,played by John Houston,so he sends him to a broken down local parish run by a good humble priest,played by Burgess Meredith,where he proves himself to be unselfish.
***SPOILERS*** Otto Perminger's three hour extravaganza on the inner workings of the Catholic Church is a bit heavy handed but still worth watching in his star Tom Tryon, as Father Stephen Fermoyle, unique performance in it.Father Stephen's faith is badly shaken when his sister Mona, Carol Lynley, who's both pregnant out of wedlock and on the brink of death.
This, according to the movie, was the first time in the south that a white man was convicted on only the strength of a black man, or black mens, testimony!Back at the Vatican Father Stephen's boundless courage and convictions for his fellow man has him rise to the point where he's appointed as a Cardinal to the Catholic Church.
A warning that was sadly ignored, by the world powers at the times, and that resulted in the biggest and most destructive conflict, WWII, in human history.P.S Actor Tom Tryon who-as Father Stephen Fermoyle- was told by his superior in the film Cardnal Glennow, John Huston, that he needed to be thought a lesson in humility.
From the opening scene of the tolling bell above Vatican Square followed by the gradual buildup of Jerome Moross's sumptuous score, you sense this film has size.It came out in 1963 when we were used to big, double length movies, often with an intermission to give our bladders a break.It wasn't until I read Foster Hirsch's "Otto Preminger: The Man Who Would Be King" that I realised what a fraught production "The Cardinal" was.Tom Tryon starred as Father Fermoyle, an ambitious American priest who rises through the ranks of the Roman Catholic Church in the first half of the 20th Century.
There is a scene in the film where he is bound and whipped by the Klu Klux Klan - it's symbolic of what Preminger did to the actor during the making of the film.Tryon's performance was considered wooden, even by a sympathetic co-star such as Carol Lynley who played Fermoyle's sister, Mona.
A long, at times lumbering, epic directed by Otto Preminger, THE CARDINAL tells the story of a man's rise through the ranks of the catholic church.