"The Cardinal," Otto Preminger Directed

I first saw this movie many years ago on television. I believe it was in the late 1960s, although the film was only released in 1963. The film was directed by Otto Preminger, often considered one of the greatest directors of all time, although his personality was highly volatile, and he was known for being "difficult." Preminger did often get results, as several of the stars he directed received Academy Award nominations for their performances in the films he directed, including this film, "The Cardinal, as John Huston, better known for his own movie directing, than for acting, received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Otto Preminger will certainly be known to you, if you've seen the movie, "Stalag 17, as he played the role of the German prison camp commandant. Never fear, Preminger was no Nazi, as he was Jewish, and he came to the United States in the 1930s, after Hitler had taken power in Germany. Earlier he lived primarily in Vienna. Preminger took on controversial subjects in some of his films, and he battled the television industry to keep his films intact, and not be cut to pieces to fit into time slots and for commercials.

The movie, based on the book of the same title by Henry Morton Robinson, which itself was loosely based on the life of Francis Cardinal Spellman, is about the rise of a young Catholic priest from Boston, Stephen Fermoyle, played by Tom Tryon, beginning in the era around World War One, and his eventual rise to the position of cardinal a couple of decades later. The movie begins with the preliminary ceremony for his appointment as cardinal, and as the necessary documents are read in Latin, Fermoyle stands and looks back on his life, and it is in this way that the film is presented. Remember he understood Latin and yet he drifted off to other matters. How about the people in attendance, likely many, who didn't understand Latin? Where do you think their minds were? *

Stephen's life reflects the stresses and strains in Catholicism, the religious doctrine, and the way every day Catholics really live their lives. Stephen's sister, Mona, played by Carol Lynley, wants to marry, but her boyfriend, Benny Rampell, played by John Saxon, is Jewish and Stephen wants the young man to convert, or at least to agree that any children will be brought up as Catholics. At first the young man agrees to being able to be persuaded, but when he and his parents are made to feel uneasy about not being Catholic and Irish, he decides not to convert. Mona goes to her brother for advice, which turns out to be the Catholic religious answer, to give up the boyfriend. Mona leaves home and, months later, she is found, in labor, and taken to a hospital, where the doctor tells Stephen that the baby will have to die to save his sister, but Stephen cannot give his consent and go against Catholic doctrine, so his sister dies, but the baby lives. This is a staggering blow to the young priest, as this is now religious belief actually having to be put into practice.

Cardinal Glennon, played by John Huston, sees Stephen as ambitious and in need of some humility, so he sends him to a very poor parish to assist and learn from Father Ned, played by Burgess Meredith. Father Ned lives a very simple life, and he is beloved by his parishioners, but the priest is seriously ill, something Stephen finally takes to Glennon, who goes off to visit his long time friend Father Ned. When the dying priest asks that he appoint Stephen as his successor, Cardinal Glennon thanks him for the suggestion, giving Father Ned the impression that's what will happen, but outside of the room, the cardinal tells Stephen he has other plans for him to become his secretary, not become the parish priest.

The pope dies (1922) and Stephen travels with Cardinal Glennon to Rome, where Glennon convinces the new pope to give Stephen a position in the Vatican, but Stephen, badly troubled by his priesthood so far, does not want the position, causing Glennon to give Stephen a leave of absence of two years for the priest to see what he wants to do. Stephen goes to Vienna (he speaks German) to teach English. He meets a young woman, Annemarie, played by Romy Schneider, and the two fall for each other, but he tells her he is a priest, and eventually, Stephen decides to stay with the priesthood.

Stephen returns to Rome, where he takes a position in the Vatican. In 1934 a black American priest from Georgia, Father Gillis, played by Ossie Davis, comes to Rome to seek help, as the only Catholic school in his area will not admit black Catholic students, and further, his church in Georgia has been burned down by the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). Stephen takes the priest to see Cardinal Giacobbi, a highly conservative close associate of the pope, but instead of helping him, Giacobbi essentially scolds Father Gillis when the priest tells him members of his congregation protested the discrimination of the school by holding a protest with signs, an act said by Giacobbi to be a method that is "inflammatory." This brings a statement from another cardinal present, played by Raf Vallone, "I'm not sure we can afford to use methods that tend to be glacial," but Giacobbi is generally unsympathetic, although Stephen tries to get the cardinal to understand the racism in the United States. The priest leaves with no help for the Catholic school racial discrimination. Stephen goes to Georgia to see what he can do and to gather information he can take back to the Vatican. He is met with hostility and both he and Father Gillis are severely beaten (even with a whip) by a group of the KKK. Standing on principle about racial justice in the American South can be very dangerous.** (Note: When this film was released in 1963, racial tensions in the U.S. were climbing.)

Finally, Hitler's influence is expanding in Europe, and heavily Catholic Austria has become a part of Germany. Stephen is sent to close the papal nuncio in Vienna (Austria is no longer a separate country), and to take a message to the head of the Catholic Church in Austria, Cardinal Innitzer, played by Josef Meinrad, to tone down his public support of Hitler and the Nazis. The cardinal seems detached from the reality of the situation, believing himself to have been non political in statements supporting Austria joining Germany. He curries favor with leading Nazis, but reality strikes when Hitler goes back on earlier promises about Catholicism in his native land. Then Nazi thugs vandalize Catholic properties. Stephen has to flee. Just as in Georgia, the same is true in Vienna, when you oppose hate and evil, be prepared for great difficulties, even possible death.

The film ends with Stephen addressing the people assembled, including his mother and other family members who traveled to Rome for the ceremonies of Stephen's becoming a cardinal.

* Originally the language of Christianity was Aramaic, a Semitic language of the Middle East akin to Hebrew (the language of the Old Testament) and Arabic. Then Christianity began to spread in the eastern Mediterranean area, a region where Greek was heavily used, making Greek a common part of early Christianity. As the religion became more popular further west in the Mediterranean and in the Roman Empire, Latin, the language of the Romans, began to be used more and more, until it became the acknowledged language by many in Christianity, with writings and masses often being in Latin. This didn't just happen one day, but rather it took place over a period from about 300, 400 and 500 AD. The interesting thing is, and it shows how religion can get out of step with, and fear, change, Latin itself was changing dramatically during these times and beyond, as it, or more specifically its dialects, were morphing into separate languages: Italian (right in what had become the center of Christianity and Latin... Rome), Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, Romansh, French and others too, but it took time for these languages to fully emerge as distinct entities. Meanwhile, Latin was the language of Christianity, with writings and religious services conducted in Latin up until the 1960s, even though most parishioners did not understand much, if not most, of what was said. Of course, there were those little things called "the Great Schism" and "the Reformation," that caused a major split in Christianity, and in the use of other languages as part of segments of Christianity, and since the 1960s, although better late than never, Roman Catholicism has permitted the use of national and local languages, although a small percentage of Latin masses have continued. Perhaps there will be a movement to, "make Latin great again."

** While the details in the movie are vague, some white men have been arrested and charged in the church arson in Georgia. Father Gillis is scheduled to testify, but many of the white residents of the town are in an uproar, prompting the priest's superior, Monsignor Whittle, played by Chill Wills, to order Gillis not to testify and to drop the complaint. Stephen challenges the monsignor, who disparagingly uses the term "Yankee," in reference to Stephen, but then finds out that Stephen is from the Vatican. When Stephen returns to Rome and Cardinal Giacobbi, who feels Stephen has gotten the Church into controversy (heaven forbid! ... hey, what a pun!), Stephen explains there was a conviction in the case, and while not for arson, but for disorderly conduct, it was the first time in Georgia that white men had been convicted for anything based upon the testimony of a black witness (the film uses the term, "Negro," long seen by American white society, and even by many people of black society, as the proper term for black people, especially in those times, mid 1930s in the film, but also still in the early 1960s, when the film was made and released). While it's firmly implied in the movie that Giacobbi is against Stephen being named a bishop, and that he will use the incident in Georgia to try to influence the pope in that direction, the pope makes Stephen a bishop; so a bit of hope for some change comes from the ordeal, both legally and religiously.             

Photo is from the 2005 Warner Home Video DVD.

WORD HISTORY:
Cardinal-The ultimate origin of this word are unknown, but it goes back to Latin "cardo," which meant, "hinge of a door," and from this developed the notion of, "important, prime," from the idea of "a matter or a person upon which others are dependent, upon which things turn or hinge," and this gave Latin the adjective "cardinalis." The Christian church initially applied the noun form to a clergyman of a church; thus, "the prime person, or person of importance for that church." Later, Christians elevated the meaning to a bishop who became, "a prince of the Church," as an elector of the pope. English borrowed the noun from Latin circa 1100, and it borrowed the adjective from French, a Latin-based language, in the 1200s. The use as the name for a particular red and reddish brown bird began in the second half of the 1600s, from the comparison of the red attire for the religious cardinals.